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Accusations in the House catch up with MP

By Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Ottawa

Those who follow the goings-on in the House of Commons knew that a storm was brewing when Ted Quewezance took his place in front of the microphone and patiently waited for Jim Prentice, Conservative Party of Canada Indian Affairs critic, to finish his presentation to the chiefs-in-assembly on Dec. 8.

Quewezance, the former chief of the Keeseekoose First Nation in Saskatchewan, had seen his name bandied about during Question Period a few weeks before when the Conservatives were badgering the Liberals about charges related to missing band trust fund money.

Prentice and several of his fellow Conservatives had gone after the Liberals in the Commons, suggesting the government was refusing to release an audit of the band's education fund to protect Quewezance, who ran for the Liberals in the last election.

"During the time between 1995 and 2001, over $600,000 was systematically looted from its education fund," said Prentice in the House on Nov. 14. "The department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development has known about this since 2002 and this minister [Andy Scott] has known since he was appointed, but the minister refuses to help the new chief and council get to the bottom of this. What is the minister hiding? Why will he not produce a forensic audit that shows who stole the Keeseekoose children's trust fund?"

After Minister Scott said that a routine audit had uncovered some irregularities that had been investigated by the RCMP who laid the charges it saw as appropriate, the Conservative Indian Affairs critic continued his assault.

"Will the minister admit today that he is trying to protect the former chief because he was the chief when the money was stolen and because he was the prime minister's Liberal candidate in the last federal election? Is this why the minister will not produce a forensic audit?" Prentice asked.

Scott dismissed that allegation as "ridiculous."

Garry Breitkreuz, the Conservative member for Yorkton-Melville, took up the questioning.

"Mr. Speaker, Mr. Quewezance, the former chief, was president of the St. Phillip's Rangers hockey team when it received repeated direct transfers from the school account. He knew what was going on and the Liberals recruited him to run as their candidate in 2004 while failing to investigate complaints made to Indian Affairs about this matter in 2002. The Liberals have hit a new low in stealing money from schoolchildren while protecting one of their own from investigation. Is this the new standard of ethics the prime minister promised us in 2004: nominating candidates who steal money from schoolchildren and then covering it up?" he said.

"Mr. Speaker, the new low is across on the other side. That is a ridiculous and scandalous thing to say," Scott replied.

Prentice, now in attendance at the chiefs' special assembly to make the case for voting for his party, found himself in the same room as Quewezance and a showdown ensued.

"Mr. Prentice, you and I have never really met, officially," said Quewezance. "Yet, two weeks ago you made some derogatory remarks about me in the House of Commons. You publicly accused myself as former chief of the Keeseekoose First Nation, and the council, of stealing $600,000 from my First Nation. Mr. Prentice, I challenge you to explain the evidence that you used and the reason why you would attempt to destroy a First Nation individual by utilizing hearsay. The question I ask, Mr. Prentice, are you still of the opinion that the Keeseekoose First Nation education fund was systematically looted by myself as chief and my council between 1995 and 2001?"

Quewezance had predicted earlier that Prentice would not repeat the allegation against him outside of Parliament where he would not be immune to civil action for slander.

"Look at the facts, Mr. Prentice. You haven't got parliamentary privilege here. Only weasels hide in the House of Commos and make accusations like the way they do to First Nations communities and to leadership. Stand up here today and make those accusations, Mr. Prentice," he said.

Prentice fielded a number of other questions from other chiefs before responding to Quewezance's challenge.

"I would say in response to Mr. Quewezance that we were responding to information and requests that we received from the chief in the community. The questions that we raised in the House of Commons were directed to the minister to produce the audit information that the community had been asking for. So we were doing the best job that we could with the information that we had. Those are the questions that we asked," he said.

Later, Prentice was seen huddled with Quewezance, Kettle and Stoney Point Chief Tom Bressette and Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Vice-chief Morley Watson. Contacted on Dec. 19, to see if their differences had been settled, Quewezance said, "no."

"He just denied everything. He hid behind parliamentary privilege. The sad part about it is things like that that people say in the House of Commons, they could ruin people's lives," he said.

He denied any role in any wrongdoing in his home community and said the Opposition showed it had no concrete evidence of his involvement with Prentice's response outside the House of Commons.

"You're in a no-win situation. If you keep quiet you're guilty and if you make noise you're hiding something," he said, explaining why he took on the Conservative Party member in public.

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Tanya Tagaq Gillis was in her fourth year of the bachelor of fine arts program at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design when she began to develop the distinctive sound that has garnered the attention of music fans both in Canada and further afield. Missing her home in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, she would listen to the tapes of throat singing her mother had sent to her and began to try to recreate what she heard. What developed was a unique amalgamaion, with Tagaq's soft, sweet vocals meshing with the rhythmic sounds of throat singing.

Tagaq's album, Sinaa, which refers to the place where the water meets the edge of the ice, has won her much praise, as well as a few awards. Tagaq was one of the performers at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards held in Toronto at the end of November, and took home the award for Best Female Performer. The CD also won for Best Album Design and Best Producer. Tagaq was featured on Bjork's last album, Medulla, and the Icelandic artist returned the favor, performing alongside Tagaq on the song Ancestors, as well as producing the cut. The Inuit songstress has been busy performing at venues across Canada and Europe and that will continue in 2006 when she starts off the new year by touring with the Kronos Quartet.