MNS funding pulled over election irregularities

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The Metis Nation-Saskatchewan (MNS) election held May 26 has turned into a roller coaster ride for apparent president-elect Dwayne Roth and the other candidates, but after an unbelievable number of twists and turns, it appears the ride may soon be over.

Unofficial results from the election showed that Robert Doucette, manager of the Metis Employment & Training Institute (METSI) of Saskatoon, had won the election, a result borne out after the official count on June 3 when Doucette was declared president.

That decision, however, was overturned that evening, when it was discovered that ballots in one ballot box from North Battleford hadn't been included in the official count, and Roth, a lawyer from Saskatoon, was named president. Beauval businessman Alex Maurice was also running for the position.

The office of Aboriginal Affairs minister Maynard Sonntag has been inundated with calls from Metis people since the election, making allegations that there were numerous problems with the way the election was run. As a result, Sonntag has decided to withhold provincial funding to the MNS.

The minister sent a letter to Roth on June 17 indicating the province would be withholding $410,000 in funding until he was satisfied that the election results represent the democratic will of Metis people. A further $285,000 in federal funding is also at risk, the federal government's commitment under a tripartite agreement between the federal government, the province and the Metis Nation -Saskatchewan.

While funding for MNS activities is being withheld, none of the program dollars provided by the province will be withheld, Sonntag said. That means the Gabriel Dumont Institute, the Metis Addictions Council of Saskatchewan and other programs run by the MNS won't be affected by the minister's decision.

This isn't the first time an MNS election has been surrounded in controversy, Sonntag said.

"There has been in Saskatchewan ongoing controversy over the elections and the issues of transparency and whether or not the results, in the past even, have accurately reflected the democratic will of Metis people."

Sonntag's office has heard allegations that some voters were turned away and not allowed to vote, while others weren't given access to polls until near the end of the day.

"I can't even remember all the allegations, but it goes on and on," Sonntag said. "Dead people having voted, the same person having voted eight or 10 times, all of those sorts of things. Now, I mean, I have no way of knowing whether those things are true or not, but that gives you a flavour of what some of the allegations were."

Metis lawyer Marilyn Poitras has done a review of the MNS election process, and both the provincial and federal governments contributed $100,000 toward implementing some of her recommendations. Sonntag said he was disappointed that work wasn't completed in time to make a different in this election.

"But having said that I would be of the view that there is still work ongoing with that money. So I wouldn't describe that money as lost, but at the same time we believed ... that this election should be a much better run election than has happened in the recent past.

"Because I think it's fair to say, based on the number of phone calls that we got, that if anything it probably wasn't as good an election as elections in the past."

Sonntag said that while as minister of Aboriginal Affairs, the final decision as to when to restore funding will fall to him, that decision won't be based on whether he's satisfied concerns surrounding the election have been addressed, but whether the Metis people of Saskatchewan are satisfied.

A meeting between the ministry and MNS representatives was held on June 22, and all parties agreed that ministry officials would work with the Metis chief electoral office and the elections commission to look at concerns that have been raised and come up with solutions that will restore public onfidence in the election process.

Efforts to reach MNS chief electoral officer Robert McCauley were unsuccessful-his number had been disconnected and the MNS office said they could provide no new contact information for him. But during an interview conducted in the days following the election, McCauley suggested the reports of problems with the election were being blown out of proportion.

"There was people that said there was problems. There was a few problems, but nothing unusual. People make big issues of virtually nothing, really," he said.

"I know people are saying that things have happened in the past. Well, sure, things happened in the past. But we ran this election as fairly as we can."