Canadian Politics

Sheilla has been a long-time political commentator and journalist covering the antics of politicians, from the municipal to the federal level. She has been providing her two-cents worth on the latest crop of books on Canadian politics. 

• Persona non Grata: The Death of Free Speech in the Internet Age, by Tom Flanagan, Signal Books/McClelland & Stewart, Random House Canada, Winnipeg Free Press, Books, May 3, 2014

• Winning Power: Canadian Campaigning in the 21^st Century, by Tom Flanagan, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Winnipeg Free Press, Books, March 15, 2014

• The Longer I’m Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada, 2006–, by Paul Wells, Random House Canada, Winnipeg Free Press, Books, October 26, 2013

Aboriginal Politics

Sheilla wrote Rotten to the Core to shine a bright light on the machinations within Canada's Métis political organizations, all funded by federal and provincial governments. The most powerful of the organizations, the Manitoba Métis Federation, was so embroiled in internal bickering and political dirty tricks in 1995 that it was largely dysfunctional. The people the MMF was supposed to represent feared the organization. Yet neither the federal nor provincial governments seemed willing to step in to sort out the mess. No one was being held to account. Rotten to the Core is the first in-depth examination of how the fact that Aboriginal political organizations like the MMF were created by governments—and not by the people they are supposed to represent—is a fundamental weakness that strikes at their very core.

Sheilla was a member of the Treaty Annuity Working Group, a special committee of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, 2002-2005. She was the facilitator for a national workshop on modernizing treaty annuities, held June 2002 in Winnipeg. She worked with the Aboriginal community for input and representation, with a special emphasis on including voices that are often excluded or overlooked in discussions of Aboriginal issues. She is the researcher and writer for the policy document that came out of the workshop, Modernizing Treaty Annuities: Implications and Consequences, 2004.

Rotten to the Core: The Politics of the Manitoba Métis Federation

101060 (imprint of J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing), 1995

For years, the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) has been dogged by stories of internal corruption, election fraud, death threats and vicious in-fighting.

The MMF claims to be the only legitimate voice of the Métis in Manitoba, and millions of public dollars are poured into the organization annually. But little of this money goes to the poor and marginalized Métis.

From the early days of the Métis to the heady days of the Charlottetown Accord when Métis leader Yvonne Dumont stood should to shoulder with prime ministers Brian Mulroney and Joe Clark… to behind-the-scenes deals, hidden companies, slush funds, the influence of the Los Bravos motorcycle gang, and government collusion… Sheila Jones Morrison unmasks the MMF and reveals it for what it really is… rotten to the core.