Band ordered to hold elections

BY LEN KRUZENGA

After months of political and social instability on the Dakota Tipi First Nation, Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault has stepped in and ordered the band to hold elections for chief and council. As a result Nault has also placed the band under third-party management until a new chief and council are elected.

Nault used his powers under Section 74 of the Indian Act to force the band to choose its leadership.

Ousted Chief Dennis Pashe has claimed the title of hereditary chief for over two decades under band custom provisions in the Indian Act. However, a growing chorus of critics on the reserve have hotly contested his claim to the post, including his sister Marjorie, who says she has been appointed interim chief by members of the band.

The competing claims to leadership based on band custom procedures by Pashe and Marjorie Prince forced Indian and Northern Affairs Canada to act, according to department officials. As part of the minister's order, INAC has appointed The Exchange Group, a Winnipeg based accounting and consulting firm, to deliver services until an election is held.

However, days after Nault made the move, Pashe filed a motion with the Federal Court to set aside Nault's action, accusing the minister of overstepping his authority and interfering with the right of first nations to self-government.

Both the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and the Assembly of First Nations have come out in support of Pashe's challenge to Nault's action.

But dissidents on the reserve say the move is nothing more than a desperate attempt to cling to power.

"This has been coming for a long time and he (Dennis) has just been avoiding it. He uses Band custom arguments when it suits him and ignores it when the majority of people call for him to be removed as chief," said Prince.

And she noted that the support expressed by the AFN and the AMC for Pashe is particularly galling given both groups lack of support for ordinary band members who have faced hardship during the past year.

"When we were using our band customs to try and change things on the reserve and to stop the oppression of our elders and our women and children these groups did nothing to assist us and now they're stepping in to support Dennis.

"The people asked the department (INAC) and Minister Nault to step in and help us. It is the majority of the people who live here who wanted elections so it wasn't as if the minister just decided to interfere-he's listening to the people."

The political dispute on the reserve has its roots in a move made early last summer when Dennis Pashe attempted to enforce a workfare program on some welfare recipients on the tiny reserve of less than 100 people-sparking numerous legal actions and a spate of injunctions against residents on the reserve, including his own elderly mother and father.

Most recently several Portage La Prairie retailers complained that band issued cheques were being returned by the banks as NSF, sparking conjecture on the financial stability of the band. If successful, Nault's order for elections also paves the way for off-reserve members to vote for the first time as part of the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in the Corbiere case. Off-reserve member William Hall, who launched a court case last year challenging Pashe's claim to custom governance on the reserve, as well as his exclusion from band financed programs and services, says the move by Nault is welcomed by members of the band.

"Dennis has been dancing around and avoiding this issue for so long and now it's come to a head.

"The people, particularly those off-reserve, have been ignored for too long and now all the people will finally have a chance to decide for themselves who will be our leader and how the reserve is run."