Remembering Jim Favel 1938-2025

Jul 14, 2025

The Gabriel Dumont Institute board and staff mourn the passing of Jim Favel, a past GDI Board Member and passionate Métis activist. Favel is remembered as an important voice advocating for a technical school in northern Saskatchewan for Indigenous peoples. His vision was one that helped to shape GDI’s mission, and he served on the GDI Board of Governors during our formative years from the 1980s to the early 1990s. In 1993, Jim Favel was made a Companion of the Order of Gabriel Dumont in recognition of his excellent service to the Indigenous Peoples of Canada. Many who worked with him remember his motto: “Give us a chance and we can do it together as a people with pride and dignity,” which motivated him to dedicate his life to advocating for Métis people at every level of government.

Favel was born in Île-à-la-Crosse, where he served as Vice Mayor and raised a family with his wife Marie Durocher. Favel was instrumental in establishing local control of the Île-à-la-Crosse School Division in 1974-75, and he served on the School Board for nearly a decade.

In 1973, Favel began work as a field worker and later an area director at the Saskatchewan Native Addictions Council (SNACC). He returned to serve as Vice-Chair of the SNACC provincial board for over a decade. Favel always stood up for what he believed in, and he also gave his time and voice to numerous panels of inquiry into justice, health, education, environmental, and employment issues affecting Indigenous people of northern Saskatchewan.

In the 1980s, Favel went on to serve as the Area Director of Northwest Region III for the Association of Métis and Non-Status Indians of Saskatchewan (AMNSIS), which would eventually become Métis Nation—Saskatchewan (MN—S) Northern Region III. He worked tirelessly to ensure that the future of economic development in northern Saskatchewan included Indigenous people. In a November 1980 article for New Breed Magazine, Favel wrote “Once again, I must strongly suggest to all Native groups, it does not matter if you have different viewpoints. The main thing is you are Métis, and your children and your children’s children will be living in this area of northern Saskatchewan for countless generations. We must unite in order to have a strong, solid front to give these future generations something to live for, something much better than the welfare our generation and past generations have been forced to accept.” His message still resonates decades later as the Métis continue to strive for self-determination.

The Institute wishes to extend our sincere condolences to Jim’s family and community.
Maarsii poor li pawatamihk.

NT5