Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 16/98) - Two city residents have hired a lawyer to argue the city exceeded its authority in giving $25,000 to Friends of Democracy.

Lawyer Charles McGee, representing Marina Devine and Gary Bohnet, told council Monday night it has no business using tax dollars to fund the legal challenge Friends has initiated.

"It is not an issue that affects the rights of Yellowknife as a municipal corporation," said McGee. "This is not an expenditure of taxpayers' money for a municipal purpose."

Friends of Democracy is a group of citizens, and two members of city council, who have launched a court challenge of the legislative assembly's decision to reject an electoral boundaries commission report that recommended Yellowknife get two more seats in the new western assembly.

McGee is awaiting the city's response to several questions he's posed. The questions deal with the legal basis upon which the contribution was made and the amount of grants the city has given.

Following Monday night's meeting, Devine reiterated opposition to the legal challenge and the city's contribution which she expressed at a council meeting last month.

"It's any individual's right, if they think they've been wronged, to go to court," said Devine after McGee made his presentation Monday evening. "But some residents have differing viewpoints about this challenge."

The executive director of the Aboriginal Summit said she and Bohnet, who is president of the Metis Nation, are acting as private citizens, paying McGee out of their own pockets.

Bohnet was not at Monday's meeting.

As he did Monday night, in a Dec. 4 letter to Mayor Dave Lovell, McGee said councillors directly involved in the challenge are in a conflict of interest.

"...the involvement of councillor Slaven as chair of the organization and appointment of yourself as an additional member of the executive of the Friends of Democracy is an unacceptable conflict of interest," wrote McGee.

Slaven has consistently declared a conflict of interest when the issue has arisen in council and committee. Lovell declared a conflict of interest for the first time Monday night, when a council decision to have him sit on the Friends executive was approved.

Lovell said the city did not seek a legal opinion before it granted the money, but has since. He said the lawyers noted several municipalities have acted as intervenors in such cases before.

"I think we're on pretty firm ground," said Lovell.

Friends spokesperson Bob MacQuarrie said, "We're not particularly worried about the position they've taken," adding the issue is a city matter.