Shunned councillor elected chief of Norway House

Marcel Balfour won't forget March 17, 2006 in a hurry. That was the day his election as chief of the Norway House Cree Nation became official. He defeated acting-chief Fred Muskego by 40 votes, 943 to 903.

This was not just any band election. Balfour was a duly elected band councillor who was stripped of his salary and responsibilities and kept out of the decision-making process by former chief Ron Evans and his supporters on council.

A lawyer by training, Balfour was successful in Federal Court in four different applications for a judicial review of those decisions.

The decision on the first application-handed down on Feb. 17 by Federal Court Justice Pierre Blais-was reported in this publication last month.

Judge Blais ruled that Evans and the councillors who supported him engaged in "usurpation of power" and that a "sub-group" of councillors held numerous "secret meetings" and had engaged in "deplorable blackmail and influence peddling." The judge also wrote that Evans and his core supporters on council were guilty of "failure to respect representative democracy," engaged in "unauthorized activities" and acted in "bad faith" and had put "democracy at risk."

On March 6, Justice Sandra Simpson of the Federal Court ruled on the three other cases.

She ruled that Evans and councillors Fred Muskego, Eliza Clark and Langford Saunders had "acted unlawfully" when they prevented Balfour from attending band council meetings and when they refused to allow Balfour to have access to band financial records.

The judge said the decision to appoint Fred Muskego as acting chief when Evans resigned last August to take up his new position as grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) was contrary to the band's own election law.

Judge Simpson noted that the former chief and his core supporters on council had "decided that [Balfour] was a dissident upstart who questioned and criticized their decisions, priorities and expenditures." In order to "reduce [Balfour's] influence," Evans, Muskego, Clark and Saunders had reduced Balfour's salary, tried to evict him from his apartment, confiscated his computer, denied him access to band council offices, held secret meetings, and denied him access to band records and documents, the judge also noted.

The judge ordered the former chief and councillors to provide Balfour prompt and full access to all council meetings, band offices and financial records, his computer, a locked work-room, and travel expenses to Winnipeg to consult financial advisors.

Evans and the others plan to appeal the decisions.

Reached by telephone in Norway House on March 20, Balfour told Windspeaker that Muskego had not been elected and Evans was in Winnipeg in his new role as grand chief but the others named in his court action had been re-elected.

"I'm anticipating, not a smooth ride, but that we'll all work together," he said. "I'm hoping that we will. I don't have any indications why we wouldn't yet."

The new council was scheduled to meet for the first time on March 22 to "talk about portfolios and talk about some outstanding issues, which basically are the court cases," he added.

A pamphlet was circulated around the community criticizing Balfour and defending those who had been so severely criticized by the two judges. Balfour said it was an exercise in propaganda, which the voters saw through.

"The facts were presented to the court. There's a judge that listened to both sides. The position they were putting forward in their pamphlet was not what was accepted by the court," he said, adding, "there were some things that weren't exactly accurate [in the pamphlet]."

Since he had essentially taken on the leadership establishment and exposed tactics that are not employed only in his community, the new chief was asked if he anticipated trouble with his new colleagues. He revealed he was enjoying the irony of soon attending AMC meetings that will be chaired by Evans.
"I don't anticipate a rough ride with any Manitoba chiefs at all. Are you saying the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs? Are you saying Grand Chief Ron Evans? Well, Mr. Evans works for the chiefs and that means he works for me. I don't anticipate any problems. He has a job to do and so do I," Balfour said.

"All leadership should be happy because this is the way we're supposed to be doing things. The way in which things have been done in the past, Norway House is probably a good example of it because it's been well documented and dealt with by the Federal Court," said Marcel Balfour.

There will be more court action on the judicial review applications. Balfour said Justice Sandra Simpson's order to disclose financial information of band owned companies, of which former and current members of chief and council are board members, has not been followed.

"I'm proceeding for contempt of court because they haven't followed those orders. I put that in as a councillor before the election," he said.

And Windspeaker has learned that there may be more court action in a very similar case in another First Nation in Manitoba.

Gordon Raven, a councillor for the Jackhead First Nation, has written several letters to the Manitoba region of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) asking for help because he has also been stripped of his salary and excluded by his chief and fellow councillors.

Winnipeg lawyer David Newman, the former Manitoba minister of Northern Affairs, with responsibility for Native Affairs under former premier Gary Filmon, is advising Raven and will act pro bono (for no fee) should the matter end up in court.

"The similarities between the two cases are there are two councillors that were not paid and were being dealt with by the chief in ways that were unacceptable," Newman said when contacted on March 20. "It is an example I think of the kind of intimidation used to discourage dissent, used to discourage opposition to the policies of other members of council."

He applauded Balfour for making a stand against this kind of practice.

"Marcel's a lawyer and a pretty smart guy. So he had the capacity to handle much of this himself," he said. "He did a terrific job. Gordon Raven is a more typical person in a smaller reserve in Manitoba and has very little education and has many personal challenges, which makes it difficult to be an effective adversary as an individual against a band that still controls the resources."

He said his client is trying to avoid court by asking the government to intervene.

"There's not as much money at stake. It's a much smaller band. I think it's about $1,000 a month. The approach that he's been taking is to appeal to the good sense of INAC, who should surely be encouraging good governance in an Indian Act reserve. My bad experience with them in many cases is that they don't often enough require compliance with the regulations governing the conduct of governance," the lawyer said.

"What is disturbing here is that chief and council haven't even responded to the letters of Gordon seeking an explanation, seeking entitlement to participate, notice of meetings and those type of things. Gordon's an impoverished individual who's been driven off the reserve to live and survive. It's similar in many respects but it's very difficult for someone like Gordon to take on the funded government establishment."

He believes it is a democratic right and a human right to express disagreement with the local government, whether you are a duly elected member of that government or not.

"I believe the most absolute fundamental to democracy, and see it in my travels in the world as well, no different in an Indian reserve, is human rights," he said. "If you don't have an understanding of, and respect for, human rights and an ability to enforce those rights, you can't have an economy and you can't have democracy."