Issue of Chief not resolved, says federal government

A letter to Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Canada stating there is now only one chief for the Lubicon Lake is not enough for the government to relinquish its hold on the northern First Nation.

“That (decision about the Chief) was a decision made arbitrarily. Our understanding is that it was not done in concurrence with the membership,” said Chantal Patenaude, spokesperson for ANAC.

In a letter dated July 19 and sent to ANAC Minister John Duncan, Steve Noskey states that “the two leaderships have met and a resolution has been reached. It has been agreed that Bernard Ominayak shall represent the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation as Chief.”

Garrett Tomlinson, communications coordinator for the Lubicon and long-time supporter of Ominayak, said he is “not aware of any specifics of any negotiations” that took place between Ominayak and Noskey and their respective councillors, which led to Noskey’s acquiescence.  Tomlinson added that he was informed by Ominayak that Noskey had sent the letter to Duncan.
“That should resolve the issues that (ANAC’s) put forward under third party management and any of the other interference they’ve had in the community to this point,” said Tomlinson.

Not so, says the federal government.

Controversy in leadership of the First Nation arose in June 2009, when two elections held that month put two different men in charge. On June 5, Noskey was acclaimed as chief. On June 29, Ominayak was acclaimed chief and then asked by the Elder council to take the position for life. Ominayak accepted but Noskey refused to step down. In January 2010, ANAC appointed Meyer Norris Penny as third party management. That appointment remains in place.

“As far as we’re concerned, there still hasn’t been a duly elected chief and council,” said Patenaude.  “It’s been three years. It’s been a substantial enough amount of time that an election is something that the community would have to undertake in order to produce that duly elected chief and council.”

Patenaude noted that as the Lubicon has a custom election code, there is nothing the government can do regarding the issue of chief. However the government can and will continue to use third party management to control the funding that goes to the Lubicon. The First Nation receives $2.5 million through the federal government.

That decision not to remove third party management is being slammed by the First Nation, which is referring to the federal government’s continued control as a “threat to (Lubicon) peoplehood and self-determination.”

Tomlinson said that multiple requests by the First Nation to meet with ANAC have gone unanswered and that even after the letter was sent to Duncan, ANAC maintained its decision to send a facilitator in to the community to discuss a plan that could be enacted to resolve the dispute.

A dispute, said Tomlinson, that no longer exists.
In a news release issued July 26 by the Lubicon, the federal government’s continued presence in the community was characterised as “a deliberate attempt to undermine the authority of the united Lubicon Lake Nation.”

“The Government of Canada has, for the past three years, used the excuse that we were divided and they didn’t know who to talk to, so they wouldn’t talk to us. Now, when we are united and they clearly know who to talk to, they refuse to do so,” said Ominayak in the news release. “We understand this to be a further attack on the Nation and an attempt to disempower the Lubicon Lake Nation people by taking steps to set up a Canadian mandated and Indian Act legislated puppet regime.”