Election impasse continues

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A northern Ontario community has pledged to take its fight for custom elections directly to the new Minister of Indian Affairs, Andy Mitchell.

A spokesman for the M'Chigeeng First Nation estimates the community has lost more than $4 million in revenue during an unresolved court battle with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC).

According to the band's legal counsel Susan Hare, many programs have suffered since INAC refused to recognize custom band elections in September 2001. Since then, recreation, education, housing and economic development projects have been curtailed because of ongoing litigation, she said.

"The revenue has been lost despite assurances from INAC that the community would not suffer financial losses for simply bringing a question of law to the court."

Last month, federal court mediator, Justice Douglas Campbell, travelled to Manitoulin to meet with M'Chigeeng's council, INAC and Justice department officials. For three days the parties to the dispute attempted to reach consensus, but compromise eluded them.

At the root of the impasse is a fundamental disagreement over interpretation of a Supreme Court ruling known as the Corbiere decision. In May 1999, the court ruled that off-reserve band members have the right to vote in band elections.

The court did not specify how members were to cast their ballots; however, INAC has stipulated that a mail-in mechanism must be implemented.

M'Chigeeng has developed its own custom election code that requires members to travel home to vote. Since the council and INAC don't agree, INAC has declared the past two elections invalid.

At the beginning of the mediation process Jan. 28 to 30, M'Chigeeng Chief Glen Hare was hopeful that talks would net a positive outcome. But he reiterated that INAC's funding freeze was not going to destroy community initiative.

"We find ways to get by," he said. "We don't just sit and spin our wheels.

"We are just asking for our own governance; we just want to chart our own course."

Councillor Terry Debassige also called upon INAC to "recognize our inherent right to elect our own council as we see fit."