Winnipeg: The political punch-out that was the Meech Lake Accord will be revisited in Elijah, the dramatized story of native leader Elijah Harper, now in the works at Vancouver’s Anagram Pictures and Winnipeg’s Eagle Vision.

The CTV MOW is shooting in Winnipeg until Sept. 24 and retells how Harper, played by Billy Merasty (The New World), opposed the controversial accord in 1990, objecting to its exclusion of First Nations peoples.

U.K. import Paul Unwin (Poirot) directs under exec producer and writer Blake Corbet (Fido) of Anagram. Christopher Leeson (Undergound), Lisa Meeches (The Sharing Circle) and Gigi Boyd (Godiva’s) are the producers.

‘Elijah Harper galvanized his people and the country, and showed the world that First Nations were capable of gaining control of the federal political machine,’ says Corbet.

The project is backed by APTN, Manitoba Film & Sound, the Cogeco Program Development Fund, B.C. Film and by CTV’s Heroes, Champions and Villains strand. Maury Chaykin, Currie Graham, Lorne Cardinal and Gabrielle Miller also star.