Dancers and drummers receive bad cheques for powwow wins

The organizers of the Canadian Aboriginal Festival have found themselves in a troublesome financial situation.
They are not only unable to pay out prize money to the dancers and drummers that took part in their three-day powwow held in Hamilton, the cheques they presented to the winners in a variety of categories began to bounce as soon as the lights dimmed on the event, held Nov. 26 to 28 at Copps Coliseum.

It’s not clear how many of the cheques were presented. According to the powwow prize list, as published on the Canadian Aboriginal Festival’s Web site, there were about 150 possible prizes to be won worth about $76,000. The richest prize was for the drums with $8,000 for first prize, $5,000 for second, and $3,500, $2,000, and $1,500 for third, fourth and fifth respectively.

Organizers Catherine Cornelius and Ron Robert refused to speak with Windspeaker about the issue, but have accepted responsibility and promised that the situation will be resolved soon. “No further comment at this time,” they said in an E-mail.

Robert and Cornelius had earlier requested that Windspeaker publish a letter from them which stated that the organization had “hit the perfect storm financially.”
“Money that was to be there prior to the event was not there.”

The letter stated that the organization was endeavouring to collect monies from the various sponsors who committed to the powwow. They now anticipated that it “will take more time then (sic) we had thought it would, but we are confident that we will be successful in collecting the money that should cover the prizes for the various winners.”

The letter, however, does not state which of the sponsors did not live up to their responsibilities.

It is not clear if the organizers issued cheques with the full knowledge that there would be insufficient funds in the account to honour them, or if they fully believed they could collect the dollars from the sponsors in time to make good on their commitments.

Nonetheless, dancers and drummers are either dealing with the personal repercussions of having a cheque, which they accepted in good faith, bounce, or they are hanging on to bad cheques in the hope that they will one day soon become good.

Said one dancer who asked that only her first name be used for this article:

“My family has travelled to that powwow for many years and usually someone in the family has the honour of being recognized and to place,” wrote Liz in an E-mail to us. “Two of my children placed and as of yet... I have yet to take my girls to the bank to cash...I am not interested in being out ‘money’ and if I cash and they bounce, then my girls have no way of ‘getting their prize money’ if I don’t have a cheque when and if funds become available in the future.”

According to bank practice, however, those cheques that Liz is holding on to for her daughters may never be good. Once cheques start bouncing on an account the bank is most likely to shut the account down.

In the letter to Windspeaker from Robert and Cornelius, it doesn’t state that people should not attempt to cash the cheques, but does ask for banking information from those who are owed prize money.

“[I]f you could send us your bank information so that when the money does arrive we can make direct deposits to your accounts,” reads the letter. “For those who do not have bank accounts if you could send us your mailing address then we will be able to forward you the money when it becomes available.”

Banking sources caution, however, that banking information should only be disclosed to institutions that can be trusted and can ensure the security of that information. How festival organizers plan to store the participants’ banking information is not known. Nor is it known who and how many others will have access to the information.

While a bank account number may not in itself be dangerous to disclose, add the information that may already be on file with the organization. Names, addresses, and signatures may be combined if the information fell into the hands of the unscrupulous.

There are other, more secure, ways to transfer money to the recipients, if it ever comes available, rather than a hundred-plus individuals disclosing personal banking information. One is an email transfer where money is transferred to an email account and only the person with the password can access it. There are certified cheques and money drafts that can be distributed. All this requires the organizer to be actively working with their banking institution to rectify a bad situation.

“In the 17 years that we have been doing the Pow Wow,” reads the letter from Robert and Cornelius, “we have always paid the prize money and did not anticipate this to happen and we assure everyone that they will be paid.”

They signed off with “heartfelt apologies,” but that may not be enough to smooth over any banking problems that may result for the many individuals who attempted to cash the cheques.

Beyond the minimal fee the bank would charge the depositor of a cheque returned non-sufficient funds (NSF), a note would appear on the person’s account about the transaction, and this could put a black mark on the reputation of that client with his or her own bank. If the bank honoured the cheque without waiting for the cheque to clear, that money would have to be returned to the bank before regular banking services for the client could resume. If the account becomes overdrawn, the client may start to default on their own financial obligations and accumulate their own fees for non-sufficient funds.

Said Liz “I know many people who are in the situation of their accounts being in the negative because they cashed their cheques.”