Poundmaker Dissidents Attempt Removal Of Chief

Poundmaker Dissidents Attempt Removal Of Chief

Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 15:40

 

 

Some members of the Poundmaker Cree Nation insist they have a new chief and council.

 

Floyd Favel, co-chair of a group called the Band Custom Initative, says Duane Antoine and the band’s councillors were voted out of office Tuesday night during a band custom meeting.

 

He says Milton Tootoosis is the new chief.

 

Favel says people at the meeting decided to vote out Antoine and his councillors because they had concerns about finances.

 

He says they’ve been trying for months, even years, to get financial disclosure on issues like treaty land entitlement, oil and gas revenues, and agreements struck with Enbridge.

 

Concerns were also voiced about the band’s membership in the Battlefords Tribal Council.

 

Favel says the new chief and council fully intend on enforcing the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting by notifying Indian Affairs, the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, the band’s financial institution and the company that handles the security system at the band office.

 

In a release, Antoine and his council “continue to hold authority over band affairs” because “the dissident group has no authority to remove a duly elected chief and council and/or to appoint a new council”.

 

The Poundmaker release says there were only 65 band members at Tuesday’s meeting, and that “roughly” 30 of them weren’t in favour of removing Antoine and his council.

 

Antoine says the actions of the dissidents “are not democratic” and ignore the will of 600 band members who participated in the last band election.