Profiles of Alberta Women
Thelma Chalifoux
Personal life
On February 9, 1929 Thelma Chalifoux (née Villeneuve) was born in Calgary to Métis Paul Michel Villeneuve and Helene Margarite Ingerson, an American. Born at the start of the Great Depression, Thelma’s early life was marked by austerity as her family and many others across Canada dealt with economic hardships. During those years Thelma’s parents taught her the value of hard work, family, and community, instilling in her principles that would inform the work she did for the rest of her life.1 In particular, her father emphasized a pride and commitment to her Métis heritage, which traced back to Alberta’s Métis communities in St. Albert and Lac Ste. Anne.
From a young age, Thelma worked to contribute to her family and community. During the Second World War she volunteered in soup kitchens. She also joined a military reserve force, and gave her time to work in a Salvation Army canteen. After some time attending Western Canada High in Calgary, at sixteen Thelma dropped out of school to take a job at a dry-cleaning centre, leaving school with a grade nine education.2
At eighteen Thelma married Robert Coulter, a military man whose frequent absences on deployment left her to raise a growing family largely on her own. Eventually, after Robert returned from the Korean War, the relationship turned abusive, and Thelma took the children and separated from him. As a single mother with four children, Thelma sought assistance from social services. However, it was around this time that the widespread, coordinated government removal of Indigenous children from families that became known as the Sixties Scoop was starting to take place. In 1958, instead of getting assistance for herself and her family Thelma had her children taken from her by the Canadian government.3
Although at the time she had only a ninth-grade education, Thelma resolved to satisfy the government requirements to reclaim her children. She returned to finish her high school education, and secured employment. In the 1950s she studied sociology at Lethbridge Community College, and subsequently enrolled at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) to take construction estimating. However, despite her hard work it was not until 1965 that the government returned the children they had taken.
Activism and employment
After graduating, Thelma turned her attention to the situation of Alberta’s Métis population, bringing her learning as well as her experiences as a single mother and child of the Depression to bear, with the goal of improving the lots of Alberta’s Indigenous communities. She involved herself in a variety of organizations including Indian Rights for Indian Women (IRIW) and the Voice of Alberta Native Women’s Society (VANWS). Additionally, in 1961 she became a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta.
In the late 1960s she moved to Edmonton in search of work, getting involved with the Métis Association of Alberta (MAA) there. With the MAA she soon found a job as a fieldworker, traveling across south and central Alberta offering support for local communities.4 While with the MAA Thelma worked to expand the organization, taking responsibility for setting up their welfare and land departments, with which she was able to apply her knowledge in issues pertaining to land claims. Eventually, the MAA sent her north to Slave Lake, where she would spend the next twelve years working to support local Indigenous communities.
“… when you go into your communities and you see the devastating positions that our families are in, if you don’t do something, you’re failing, not only your family, you’re failing yourself. We’ve all been brought into this world to serve our people…so how do you not? How does…it’s hard to explain…how do you turn your back? You don’t! …Because if you turn your back on the needs of your people you’re turning your back on your family and your spirit dies. We, as Aboriginal people, and I’ve noticed this through my whole life…we, as Aboriginal people have such a strong spiritual being within us, that unless we listen to our spirit we don’t survive. And so, it’s really, really important that we take and listen to our spirit…very, very important.”
Corinne George, “If I Didn’t Do Something, My Spirit Would Die…’: Grassroots Activism of Aboriginal Women in Calgary and Edmonton, 1951-1985,” master’s thesis, University of Calgary, 2007.
In Slave Lake Thelma worked for the betterment of local vulnerable communities through a variety of initiatives. She was one of the founders of the Slave Lake Native Friendship Centre, the first of its kind in the area, and ran a safe house for victims of domestic violence, also the first in the area. She also worked with the field staff of the Company of Young Canadians from 1973-1975, assisting in community development through advocacy for better housing for rural and Indigenous populations.
Thelma also contributed to the northern communities through education initiatives. She was instrumental in getting the Cree language taught in northern schools, and further contributed to curriculum by producing a Métis culture and history video and curriculum guide for grades four to six, a project she undertook through the Métis Nation of Alberta.5 She also got involved in broadcasting, becoming the first Métis woman broadcast on private radio when she worked as staff announcer, producer, and host of Smoke Signals from the Peace, a weekly show with CKYL Radio Peace River.6 Even after she returned to Edmonton, Thelma continued to work to provide opportunity to the vulnerable populations of Slave Lake, owning a thrift shop in the town where Indigenous women were able to sell their handicrafts.
Back in Edmonton Thelma continued her involvement with a wide variety of groups, with a particular focus on the Métis community, women, and single mothers. In 1985 she became the president of the Métis Women’s Council (MWC), pushing back against narratives that framed Métis women and single mothers as helpless individuals trapped on welfare.7 With the MWC she fought such narratives through public speaking and proposed practical solutions such as cross-cultural training for social workers. Also in the mid-1980s, Thelma worked to support Indigenous seniors, heading up a research team on seniors housing that led to the creation of the Stan Daniels Manor, a facility in Edmonton that housed over fifty Indigenous seniors. Thelma was also a volunteer with Catholic Social Services, and had her leadership with the organization recognized in 1999 with the Bill Irwin Award.8
Over this period, Thelma also held a variety of other positions, including a seat in the 1970s as the first Métis woman on the University of Alberta Senate, Indigenous land claims negotiator (1979-1982, 1996-1998), panel member for Alberta Family and Social Services (1989-1998), co-chair of the Alberta Métis Senate, vice-president of the Aboriginal Women’s Business Development Corporation, and consultant and senator for the Métis Nation of Alberta Association (1990-1995). Over her lifetime Thelma served a number of organizations as elder, including the Indigenous Sport Council for Alberta and the North American Indigenous Games in 1997, the Nechi Institute, and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), where she taught an online Aboriginal Culture course as Elder-in-Residence.
In the 1990s Thelma took her considerable knowledge in community organizing and founded her own consulting company in St. Albert: Chalifoux and Associates. The company provided a range of services focused on education and economic development, including developing and applying cross-cultural training courses focused on Métis culture, workshops, and other training services for community and volunteer organizations.
Senate of Canada
Nationally, Thelma is most known for being the first Métis woman to serve in the Senate of Canada. She was appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien on November 26, 1997 and served until 2004. As a Senator, Thelma continued her focus on Métis and women’s issues, while also expanding her scope to include genetically modified foods, federal government relations with drug companies, and environmental legislation.
On the Senate she served as Chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, where among other things she appointed a task force to explore the issue of Indigenous youth gangs in Edmonton. The task force focused on engaging with the community, discussing the issue with Indigenous leaders, groups, youths, and Elders in Edmonton. Thelma also served on standing committees addressing issues including fisheries and oceans, constitutional affairs, agriculture and forestry, human rights, and illegal drugs.
Among the results of her services was the Gathering Strength report of 1997, an action plan to which she contributed that addressed renewing Canada’s relationship with its Indigenous peoples, published through the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.9 Additionally, in 2001 she championed the proposed Louis Riel Act, which attempted to revoke Riel’s conviction of high treason and bring acknowledgement to the contributions Riel and Métis people made to Confederation.
“[On receiving the National Aboriginal Achievement Award] The struggle has been a challenge, but my blessings have been many. This award is the icing on the cake, but my heart sings when someone comes to me and says that because of what I did their lives are better.”
“Senator Thelma Chalifoux: Public Service (1994),” Indspire, accessed on August 8, 2020.
After her time as a Senator, Thelma continued to contribute to many initiatives in support of women and Canada’s Métis people. After she retired in 2004, Thelma founded the Michif Cultural Institute, now known as Michif Cultural Connections, in St. Albert. The Institute works to “preserve, promote, protect and celebrate Alberta’s rich Métis history” through classes, workshops, and events around Métis culture and traditions, and maintains a museum of Métis artifacts.10 Thelma also pushed for the creation of St. Albert’s Meadowview Centre for Women’s Health and Wellness, a recovery centre that opened in 2011. She died on September 22, 2017 surrounded by her many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Born into a Métis family at a time of austerity, Thelma Chalifoux’s life is marked by a concern for and recognition of the hardships that many Canadians face. Her experiences with domestic violence, and subsequent systemic racism inflicted on her as a single, Indigenous mother during the Sixties Scoop, informed her lifetime of service, and refusal to turn her back on those in need. In education, community development, broadcasting, social work, politics, and other fields she stood up for those at risk, and served her community as a tireless advocate.
Read more about Thelma Chalifoux
Footnotes
1 Corinne George, “’If I Didn’t Do Something, My Spirit Would Die…’: Grassroots Activism of Aboriginal Women in Calgary and Edmonton, 1951-1985,’” master’s thesis (University of Calgary, 2007), 65.
2 “Chalifoux Remembered as Métis Advocate,” St. Albert Gazette, (St. Albert, AB), Sept. 27, 2017.
3Julia Skelly, “Thelma Chalifoux,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, December 10, 2020, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/thelma-chalifoux.
4“Thelma Chalifoux, Former Senator and Métis Activist, Dies in Alberta at 88,” The Canadian Press, Sept. 25, 2017, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/thelma-chalifoux-senator-m%C3%A9tis-dies-1.4305620.
6 Skelly, “Thelma Chalifoux.”
7 George, “’If I Didn’t Do Something, My Spirit Would Die…,’” 66-67.
8 edpublicschools, “Thelma Chalifoux School (Larkspur 7-9),” Edmonton Public Schools, May 8, 2018, video, 2:25, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37c6eciQO7A&feature=youtu.be&list=PLrjTpmPtLIsVjX6IuLsHKpfT5ktykrnEL.
9 Skelly, "Thelma Chalifoux."
10 “About,” Michif Cultural Connections, 2021, http://www.michifconnections.ca/#about.
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