Pressure mounts for Roth to step down

Page 1

There have been calls for Metis Nation-Saskatchewan (MNS) President Dwayne Roth to resign ever since he first took office almost two years ago, but even more pressure has been brought to bear as of late, as Metis organizations in Alberta and B.C., and even Saskatchewan's Metis Elections Commission, demand that he step down.

Roth assumed the presidency after narrowly defeating fellow candidate Robert Doucette in the MNS election held May 26, 2004, but right from the outset a number of questions were raised about the legitimacy of the election results. After receiving complaints about alleging stuffed ballot boxes and falsified polling books, the province froze its funding of the MNS and commissioned a review of the election. That review concluded that a myriad of election irregularities cast serious doubts about the validity of the election results

Criminal charges have since been laid against a number of people in connection with the election. Two of the individuals have already appeared in court, entering guilty pleas.

Roth has indicated he is willing to hold a new election in October, but members of the British Columbia and Alberta Metis councils want the election to happen sooner and have said they won't sit with Saskatchewan representatives at the Metis National Council until a new election is held.

Doucette said it doesn't matter what date Roth sets for the next election because the power to make that decision sits not with Roth but with the Metis Elections Commission.

Gilbert Pelletier is chair of the Metis Elections Commission. During a telephone interview on May 1, he said the commission was hoping to arrange a meeting of senators within the next couple of weeks so that a date for a new election can be set, adding that he hoped the election could be held in the fall. He said he is willing to comply with the requirements the province has set out for how a new election must run if the MNS is to get provincial funding to pay for it. Those requirements include using a chief electoral officer appointed by the province and working with a Metis Elections Advisory Committee.

But the commission doesn't intend to wait until a new election can be held to have a change in leadership.

"We are also in the process of writing a letter to our president telling him to step down because he's not doing nothing for us." Pelletier said. "The government won't talk to him. And what's the sense of him being there? And since we are still in power we are telling him to step down, not asking him, but telling him to step down. And then we'll carry on from there."

Because neither the provincial nor federal government recognizes Roth's leadership. Doucette is worried that if the MNS doesn't come under new leadership soon, the Metis people of Saskatchewan will miss the boat on the federal money being promised for off-reserve housing.

"If Saskatchewan doesn't have any representatives at the table to deal with stuff like that then we're going to lose another opportunity," he said.