Tobique Fed Up With Indian Act

dru — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:23:14 +0000

[Press release, passing it on]

For immediate release
January 28, 2008

PRESS RELEASE

The self-determining people of the Tobique First Nation (TFN) are saying loud and clear that we have had enough of the racism and bureaucratic bullying that our community has received from the Department of Indian Affairs since the first Indian Act and the first Indian Reservations were forced upon our people. Why is it that ONLY Indians are forced to live on government-made reservations and under the government-made Indian Act? Why is there no government act or government reservation for the French or Germans etc? Everyone knows why, and it has nothing to do with Indians wanting it that way and everything to do with the theft of our homeland.

Our people are fed up and are organizing to take our self-respect and our self-determination back in order to fulfill our responsibility to the Seventh Generation. We are meeting in order to develop a strategy and an action plan.

Both the strategy and action plan are to create a better and equal relationship with our political and bureaucratic "rulers". A relationship that is based on mutual respect, mutual tolerance, mutual understanding and mutual acceptance. As opposed to how it has been: distrustful, adversarial, confrontational and acrimonious.

The straw that broke the camels back was the recent action by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) officials to fire the consulting firm that was hired by INAC to assist the Tobique First Nation as it works to straighten out its longstanding financial/fiscal mess.

INAC’s action to fire this consultant firm was done without cause. It was done highhandedly with no prior consultation with neither our community, nor its elected officials nor the consultant firm.

The Indian Act's Corrupt

Tue, 30 May 2006 01:22:14 +0000

Resisting the roots of corruption in Tobique First Nations

Settler culture changed the traditional Maliseet way of life. photo: Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

"All the money is gone here," says Allen Squalis. "We are, at a very conservative estimate, $10 million in the hole."

Squalis is part of the Tobique First Nation, a Maliseet community, in Western New Brunswick. According to Squalis, there's no good reason for the Tobique First Nation to be in debt: the Tobique High Stakes Casino – a community-owned operation - has grossed over $15 million over the past 3 years.

The casino was built to generate funds which would alleviate poverty thus improving social conditions in the community. Instead, Squalis and his supporters say, casino revenues are being squandered on a select few.

In 1999, then Auditor General Denis Desautels warned that the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs risked compounding existing poverty and despair on Native reserves by failing to account for how money is being spent.

According to Squalis, for 13 years casino revenues have been unaccounted for, and calling for accountability leads nowhere.

In desperation, Squalis and 10 other Maliseet community members took over the Tobique casino on June 7, 2005. The group occupied the casino for almost two weeks to bring attention to the rampant corruption they said was squandering the community's resources.

Chief Paul, Councilor Gerald Bear, and Councilor Stone Bear filed a statement of claim with the Court of Queen's Bench alleging that the 11 individuals involved in the casino takeover had taken funds from the casino and damaged the casino's video lottery terminals.

The 11 community members defend their actions as protecting the casino revenues, which belong to the community. They are concerned that managers have failed to distribute net profits among community members.

"I also have dedicated a year and a half of my life to get accountability in our community so my son will not have to go through what we did," says Squalis. He is concerned by the poverty and desperation that afflicts the Tobique First Nation. In the last year, there have been three suicides and at least five suicide attempts in the Maliseet community which consists of an on-reserve population of about 1,300 members.

The 2005 "occupation" of the casino is not the first. Just before Easter in 2004, a group of single mothers took action in a similar fashion to get a share of casino revenues. In November 2000, outraged elders shut down the casino. The outrage was triggered when the chief and councilors made a decision to award themselves salaries of $1,000 a week, after informing elders on the reserve that their monthly support cheques would cease.

Much of the responsibility for the community's finances - and its corruption – lies with Chief Paul, says Squalis. Cited as part of the evidence are two cheques totaling $2200 from the casino coffers, payable to the Chief's niece, Gillian Paul.

Chief Paul is the elected chief of Tobique First Nation, as recognized under the Indian Act. According to Squalis, however, the Indian Act deprives First Nations of their traditional ways of selecting representatives. "I do believe [that] if we selected a Chief in a traditional way that things most likely would be different. ... These non-aboriginal elections and officials are just an arm of the government and the chief and council are the puppets. Favoritism, nepotism and jealousy to name a few fun things is what it brings to our communities," observes Squalis.

"It only divides us--which is the main purpose isn't it?"

Kim Peterson finds the People of Tobique First Nation resisting corruption, and tracing the problem back to the Indian Act.

The Dominion - Tobique First Nation

Tobique Fed Up With Indian Act

The Indian Act's Corrupt