Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 13/99) - Some Metis leaders are hoping a lengthy dispute concerning the North Slave Metis Alliance will be resolved in territorial Supreme Court on Jan. 25.

That is the date on which a suit launched by Metis National Locals 66 and 64 against the alliance will be heard. Behind the dispute are three men: Local 66 president and former alliance executive secretary/treasurer Bill Enge, Local 64 president and former alliance vice-president Sholto Douglas and current alliance president Clem Paul.

The dispute over the governing of the alliance and the criteria for judging membership eligibility began not long after the alliance's founding in December, 1996. It came to a head last September when RCMP officers intervened in a confrontation at the Explorer Hotel where Enge and number of others were refused entry to an alliance special general assembly.

Even the nature of the dispute is disputed, as was made clear in interviews with both parties Monday afternoon. Enge charged that his membership was revoked illegally after challenging president Paul to honour alliance guidelines regarding elections. Paul charged that Enge was never a member of the alliance - that a membership committee ruled in September that Enge and many others were ineligible for North Slave membership in the first place.

"He has arbitrarily and unilaterally cancelled my membership in the organization and therefore feels unaccountable," Enge said, adding that many Metis were shocked by their exclusion. "It's a real slap in the face and an insult."

Enge said he is prepared to provide genealogical evidence in court based on alliance criteria to prove his eligibility, that his ancestors resided in the North Slave region prior to the 1920s when treaties were signed with the Canadian government.

Paul said the membership committee reviewed hundreds of applications in September before concluding that Enge belonged to the South Slave region and that some other applicants originated in Alberta or British Columbia. He said the committee found approximately 350 Metis eligible for alliance membership.

"That's what land claims and everything comes from - land use and occupancy," Paul said. "You don't just go to a company and say, `I'm an aboriginal and here are my papers and I want part of your oil revenue.'"

Enge contended, however, that the issue of membership eligibility was but a smoke screen hiding ambitions to control the alliance and its purse strings. He argued that according to the alliance's charter, the presidency should have moved to Sholto Douglas' or to a Rae-Edzo Metis after the first two years.

"What is the motive for Paul Clem and some of the board members to behave this way?" Enge said. "I really think it has to do with power, it has to do with prestige and it has to do with money."

Enge said he and Douglas are not trying to destroy the alliance through their suit. Rather, he said he hopes to impose an injunction halting the alliance's activities, "until such time as a proper election is held and full reinstatement of the members are undertaken."

President Paul said the alliance was not surprised when it learned Dec. 23 of the legal action, having already been warned of it. And while he said he is determined to defend the alliance in court, Paul said he regretted that matters have reached this point.

"Why waste my time in court making fools out of them," he said. "There are points we could have agreed to disagree on, but I just refuse to be bullied around."

Enge said the young alliance's image has doubtlessly suffered through the infighting, but said he remains an "eternal optimist" and feels collective action on the part of the Metis is essential if they are to settle land claims.

"I chalk it all down to growing pains," he said. "Sometimes things just don't grow rightfully."