Yellowknife (Mar 08/06) - Bill Enge says "kamikaze members" are bent on destroying his leadership and escalating a feud that has been festering among North Slave Metis alliance members since 1998.

The North Slave Metis president and one-time exile insists he and the alliance's directorship are doing everything by the book, even though several dozen members are calling them a dictatorship, stating he should resign.

"They're bent on being kamikaze members," said Enge.

"They don't care what kind of damage they do to the North Slave Metis Alliance because in they're minds, the ends justify the means."

Conflict is nothing new for the 400 or so strong organization. It erupted in 1998 after Enge and 87 other members were expelled by the president at the time, Clem Paul.

Enge and his group filed a class-action lawsuit and their memberships were re-instated by a judge in 2004. Shortly afterwards, he was elected vice-president and later appointed president with the departure of Sholto Douglas.

But after a tumultuous annual general assembly held Feb. 25-26, old divisions are showing themselves again.

This time, a sizable group - some of them former directors - say Enge is being a bully, that he has operated the Metis Alliance board without proper quorum since November 2004, when half the directors quit.

Fred Turner, a former director, said Feb. 26 elections for two vacant spots on the Rae-Edzo wing of the alliance directorship was a farce because there weren't even any ballot boxes supplied to the community - even though one was sent to Fort Nelson, B.C., where some members reside.

"The Rae people are very upset," said Turner.

"There were a lot of people at the assembly who were very angry being pushed out and not represented."

Enge said the vote that elected Nora McSwain and Elizabeth Douglas last month was fair. He said instead of putting ballot boxes in Rae, members' travel costs were covered to attend the annual general meeting in Yellowknife.

As for the issue of quorum, Enge said the board has never operated without it. After director Hugh McSwain rescinded his resignation, Susan Enge and Karen Prouse were appointed shortly afterwards, a process that is legal under the alliance's bylaws.

But Turner said the last meeting left a bad impression with the membership, where two-thirds of them walked out.

"Right from the very outset, Bill, in his dictator-style, said, 'I'm going to be the chair, and this is the way it's going to be,'" said Turner.

"It was like that throughout, so we put our wishes in written form."

Three resolutions were made: one to dissolve the board; another to cancel a lawsuit against three former directors, including Turner; and another insisting on the assessment of costs for the suit.

The lawsuit is over a failed property acquisition in Rae going back two years. A Yellowknife law firm is suing the North Slave Metis Alliance for non-payment of $8,600 in legal fees.

Enge and the board counter-sued, claiming lawyers, along with Turner and two other former directors, wasted alliance money after a sale agreement deadline passed, allowing the property owner to pocket $25,000.

Enge said since taking over a little more than a year ago, the Metis Alliance's $11 million budget is back in the black and a number of expensive lawsuits against the federal, territorial and Tlicho governments have been resolved.

He called those opposed to him "double-dippers" who want to claim impact benefit agreements (IBAs) with Diavik and BHP Billiton diamond mines from both the Alliance and other First Nation bands. He said his opposition to that is ruffling feathers.

But North Douglas, a former president and one party named in Enge's counter-suit, said he's only collecting IBAs from the alliance. He said Enge's real motive is to suppress the Rae membership, which is opposed to him.

"He doesn't want the Metis people here to get any benefits," said Douglas. "He's acting like a dictator there."