Thelma Chalifoux

Thelma J. Chalifoux (8 February 1929 – 22 September 2017) was a Canadian teacher and politician.

Background One of five children, her mother, Helené, helped support the family by trading garden-grown vegetables. Her father, Paul Villeneuve, was a residential school survivor and served in the First World War working as a carpenter and farm hand. She studied sociology at Lethbridge Community College and later took courses in construction estimation at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.

Chalifoux was a social justice activist, politician, and an active figure in the Métis community. As an employee of the government agency Company of Young Canadians, she worked to advance community development initiatives in northern communities and advocated for improved housing conditions.

Chalifoux was appointed to the Canadian Senate on the advice of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien on 26 November 1997, making her the first Indigenous woman and fourth Metis person to serve in the Canadian Senate, following Richard Hardisty, William Albert Boucher, and Gerry St. Germain. She held the position until 2004 when, at the age of 75, she retired and returned to Alberta. The following year Alberta Venture magazine ranked her number 8 on their list of 50 Greatest Albertans.

After her retirement, she founded the Michif Cultural and Resource Institute now the Michif Cultural Connections Society, an organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the Métis history of Alberta.

On 8 May 2018, the Edmonton Public School Board of Trustees voted to name the new Thelma Chalifoux School (grade 7- 9) in Larkspur in her honour.

Métis Association Chalifoux joined the Métis Association in the late 1960s during the early growth of local-level activism within Métis communities. Upon joining, Chalifoux strove to fix major issues affecting the Metis by advocating within governmental bodies. She argued that there were inadequate levels of social welfare programs despite clear indications that Métis communities were among a large majority of those in Canada not meeting their basic needs. Chalifoux, advocated for the increase of affordable shelter, food, and higher welfare grants and subsidies for Métis families. She later focused her efforts on the formation of the Welfare Unit, a group of investigators that looked into complaints concerning the Alberta Government Welfare Department's dealings with Métis communities and families. Her efforts exposed welfare injustices like those that occurred at Fort Chippewa concerning the lack of funds given to various families in desperate need of assistance. Her investigations revealed accounts like that of a widow parenting "five children [and was given] $60 a month to live on."