A Kátł’odeeche First Nation finance clerk is fighting for her right to run for chief.
April Martel was acclaimed to another term as KFN chief as part of the Nov. 24 band election, but Elaine Auger, who was told she couldn’t run for chief because she doesn’t meet the First Nation’s residency requirements, is appealing that ruling by the KFN election returning officer.
“I was told I was not allowed to run when I filed my nomination papers in September because I did not have a two-year residency,” Auger said. “This was because I just returned from British Columbia and moved back in July.”
Auger said that although she was aware of the rules she feels that they are discriminatory under Section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As a result she is challenging the decision.
“I decided to fight it and it is currently going through an adjudication appeals process,” she said. “I hired a lawyer who is representing me and we are waiting to see what the outcome is going to be.
“If they don’t allow me to put my name on the ballot, then once we receive that decision, I’m going to bring it to the Supreme Court.”
Auger said that it isn’t lost on her that her efforts are a bit out of the ordinary given that, to her knowledge, the residency rules for running for chief haven’t been tried before.
“The reason why I’m doing what I’m doing is because it’s never been challenged and it’s discriminatory,” she said. “I just believe that the rules should meet the Charter of Rights and all regulations and codes shouldn’t be discriminatory.”
Chief Martel said Auger’s argument doesn’t hold water: the reserve has its own election bylaw, and the Charter doesn’t guarantee an individual’s ability to run in any election they choose.
“Under the election code, it states that you have to live and reside on the reserve for two years before running for chief,” she said. “This election code was passed long ago by the membership and is still strongly supporteed by the membership.
“We have our own election code under our own reservation. We don’t follow Canada’s rules or Indian Affairs rules. We follow our own rules on our reservation.
“She’s trying to challenge it because she states that she has Canadian rights to run in any election.”
Auger says has never run for either chief or council before but sees a lot of problems at KFN that she wants to address, starting with social issues.
“My protocol as a chief is to move forward with issues like housing, drug and alcohol abuse on the reserve and creating more programs toward helping that,” she said.
Her other criticism is what she sees as a lack of transparency among the governing body and regular members. Although she admits KFN does have a very active Facebook page and website, she says communications need to be improved, especially for Elders who may have little to no Internet access.
“There’s no transparency whatsoever and I think more has to be explained when it comes to what the First Nation is doing with economic development, jobs and employment,” she said.
“There is no communication at the moment from chief and council, mostly because of Covid happening and a lack of meetings.”
Council will be made up of Irene Graham, Michael Sunrise, Rebecca Aylward, Peter Sabourin, Shirley Lamalice and Robert Lamalice. An official annoucement was expected to be made late Nov. 29.