Dissension in the ranks in the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples continued last week.
For the second time in the past 4 months, Kim Beaudin president of the Aboriginal Affairs Coalition for Saskatchewan and the provincial representative for CAP, posed a motion to remove current Chief Betty Ann Lavallee. Beaudin had put forward a similar motion in December.
According to Beaudin, 7 of 11 board members vote in favour of the motion, while 2 voted against and another 2 abstained. Beaudin says Chief Lavallee was able to keep her job because three-quarters of the CAP board are required in-order to oust a national chief.
Despite the failed coup, Beaudin says he will move forward.
“We put some extra mechanisms in place in order to keep an eye on her and to make sure she doesn’t sell the farm out from under us,” said Beaudin. “We have these in place until she either hands in her resignation or until the Annual General Assembly in September.”
Beaudin says he had hoped to have a change in leadership for CAP before the upcoming federal election in the fall.
“We are going into an important federal election and when you think about the chief of any organization is really like a minister and they should understand what’s going on and what the issues are and unfortunately at this point that isn’t happening,” said Beaudin.
Beaudin says he was caught off guard by the fact that Chief Lavallee herself could vote against the motion. He says that was a new change to the CAP constitution in 2014 that he was unaware of.
Chief Lavallee has not yet been reached for comment.
After Beaudin’s last attempt to oust the national chief, Lavallee had said she had the support of grassroots members and that she was not worried.
A vote on the leadership of Betty Ann Lavallee will likely take place next fall. Lavallee was first elected CAP’s national chief in 2009. She was re-elected in 2012.