05/05/2023
Métis Leaders: Thelma Chalifoux
Introduction
• Thelma Julia Chalifoux was a Métis activist, senator, entrepreneur, newscaster, producer, radio host, freelance writer, and lecturer.
• An ardent and tireless advocate for social justice and women’s and Indigenous rights, she was a driving force in the Métis community.
• Chalifoux was a trailblazer who achieved many firsts over her lifetime, including first female construction estimator in Alberta; first Indigenous woman to serve on the University of Alberta Senate; first Métis woman to broadcast on private radio; first Métis woman to be appointed to the Senate of Canada; and first Métis woman to win an Aboriginal Achievement Award, to name a few.
• Dedicated to giving a voice to disadvantaged Métis women, she was involved in a number of women’s groups, including the Aboriginal Women’s Business Development Corporation, and the Métis Women’s Council.
• Keenly concerned about the protection of Métis culture, history, and language, she was instrumental in having Cree taught at northern schools and founded the Michif Cultural and Métis Resource Institute (now Michif Cultural Connections).
• A go-getter who was fiercely independent, opinionated, and vocal about her beliefs – and who had an infectious sense of humour – Chalifoux channelled the strength she gained from facing her own personal challenges and injustices toward helping others and fighting against discrimination.
• Chalifoux’s efforts contributed to the betterment of the Métis community and included assisting in the creation of many facilities and programs for Indigenous people in the areas of communications, housing, education, su***de prevention, prisons, domestic abuse, and alcoholism.
Métis Leaders: Thelma Chalifoux
Chronology of Life and Career
• Chalifoux was born on February 8, 1929, in Calgary, Alberta, to Paul and Helene Villeneuve.
• Her father’s family was Métis, with ancestry rooted in the early Métis communities of St. Albert and Lac Ste. Anne.
• Growing up during the Great Depression, Chalifoux learned the value of hard work early on in life.
• Always looking to help others, as a teenager during the Second World War, she volunteered in soup kitchens, joined the military reserve force, and worked in a Salvation Army canteen.
• She married Robert Coulter, whom she had met at the age of 18, before he enlisted to serve in the Korean war. He returned with what was likely post-traumatic stress disorder and became very violent and abusive.
• Chalifoux left him a year-and-a-half later, and she and her four children moved in with her parents. in 1958, she went to social services looking for help, and the children were “scooped” – a practice, at the time, whereby Indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in foster care or put up for adoption.
• The four Chalifoux children were sent to Lacombe Home, outside Calgary, and later transferred to numerous foster homes.
• A pregnant single mother at the time, Chalifoux finished her high school education at Western Canada High in Calgary and worked two jobs as a waitress while struggling to regain their custody – which she achieved, after a long battle, by 1965. She later gave birth to three more children.
• While working to support her family, Chalifoux went back to school to study sociology at Lethbridge Junior College (now Lethbridge College) and construction estimating at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, becoming the first female construction estimator in Alberta.
Métis Leaders: Thelma Chalifoux
• In the 1960s, she moved to Edmonton to look for work and, while visiting the Métis Association of Alberta (now the Métis Nation of Alberta, or MNA) to get her membership card updated, was offered a job as a fieldworker.
• Her job took her from the cities of south and central Alberta to the northern bush country of Slave Lake, where she lived for the next 12 years. In her role, she fought for the increase of affordable shelter and, food and higher welfare grants and subsidies for Métis families and was later instrumental in establishing the Association’s land and welfare departments.
• In 1972, she co-founded the Slave Lake Native Friendship Centre, which assisted women struggling with alcoholism and abuse. She also ran a food bank, storing supplies in her basement for those fleeing from domestic violence.
• From 1973 to 1975, Chalifoux worked for the federal government youth program, the Company of Young Canadians, where she helped advance development initiatives in northern communities and advocated for improved housing conditions.
• A land claims negotiator from 1979 to 1982 (and again from 1996 to 1998), Chalifoux was involved in constitutional talks in the early 1980s as part of a Métis delegation that went to Ottawa and helped to get the Indigenous nations – Inuit, First Nations and Métis – recognized as separate and distinct.
• Chalifoux was instrumental in having the Cree language taught in northern schools and promoted Métis culture and history as the first full-time Métis woman staff announcer, producer, and host of a weekly show on CKYL Radio Peace River – making her the first Métis woman to broadcast on private radio. She also co-produced the current-affairs radio series Our Native Heritage.
• She served as a member of the Métis Women's Council, the Senate of the University of Alberta, and appeal panels for Alberta Family & Social Service; was vice-president of the Aboriginal Women’s Business Development Corporation, co-chair of the Metis Nation of Alberta, chair of the Métis National Senate Commission, co-chair of the Alberta Métis Senate; devoted several years to the Alberta Native Communications
Métis Leaders: Thelma Chalifoux
Society; and ran two of her own operations – an education and economic development consulting firm, and a craft and floral design business.
• In 1997, she was an Elder of the Indigenous Sport Council (Alberta) and the North American Indigenous Games.
• Later that year, on November 26, 1997, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien appointed Chalifoux as a senator, making her the first Indigenous woman and fourth Métis person to serve in the Canadian Senate.
• During her time as a senator, she chaired the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples and was a member of various other standing committees, including those on agriculture and forestry, human rights, fisheries and oceans, illegal drugs, and legal and constitutional affairs.
• She retired from the senate on February 8, 2004, at the mandatory retirement age of 75, and returned to Alberta.
• There, she continued as a voice for Métis people, founding the Michif Cultural and Resource Institute (now Michif Cultural Connections) in St. Albert, a museum and resource centre dedicated to preserving and promoting Métis culture in the northern region of Alberta.
• Chalifoux served as an Elder at the Nechi Institute: Centre of Indigenous Learning in Alberta and as Métis elder-in-residence at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.
• She fought for the creation of St. Albert’s Meadowview Centre for Women’s Health and Wellness, which opened in 2011 and is dedicated to helping women recover from drug addiction.
• Chalifoux died at the age of 88 on September 22, 2017, after a period of failing health.
Awards and Accolades
• 1994: Becomes the first Métis woman to receive the National Aboriginal Achievement Award (now the Indspire Award).
• 2000: The Senator Thelma Chalifoux Award is introduced, presented annually by the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology for demonstrating ongoing commitment to Indigenous student success.
Métis Leaders: Thelma Chalifoux
• 2002: Is named a Distinguished Friend of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.
• 2004: Is awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Toronto for her advocacy work.
• 2014: Receives the Métis National Council Lifetime Achievement Award.
• 2018: Thelma Chalifoux Hall, a first-year residence at the University of Alberta, opens.
My dear brother Clifford and sister Debbie whom we all loved and will always remember
