Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 15/99) - The Supreme Court of the NWT will be the site of the next showdown between the North Slave Metis Alliance (NSMA) and the presidents of Metis Nation Locals 64 and 66.

A lawsuit was previously filed by the Metis locals against the NSMA, but they withdrew it and have since refiled. The major difference this time is that Local 66 President Bill Enge and Local 64 President Sholto Douglas have named themselves plaintiffs, rather than the organizations they represent.

"We don't want the NSMA to weasel out of the lawsuit on a technicality as opposed to the substance of the complaint," Enge said.

"The constitutional bylaws of the NSMA make them accountable to their members, not their members' locals. We didn't want to take a chance of having the case dismissed on the grounds Locals 66 and 64 cannot be plaintiffs."

In 1996, the alliance was founded by the Yellowknife Metis Council, Yellowknife Metis Nation Local 66 and Rae-Edzo Metis Nation Local 64. Clem Paul, who is currently president of the alliance, is also president of the Yellowknife Metis Council.

The statement of claim filed against the alliance states Paul tried to amend the alliance's constitution to "permit a longer term of office for the presidency by removing the requirement that the presidency must alternate between the communities of Rae-Edzo and Yellowknife."

A special general assembly was called to make the amendments and at that time, the claim states Enge and "other members of the NSMA" were refused entry on the basis that their memberships had been cancelled.

"We want full re-instatement of all memberships that were revoked by Clem Paul, a properly conducted election and a properly conducted assembly for the purposes of amending the NSMA bylaws," Enge said.

Undeterred by the pending lawsuit, Paul announced that a new NSMA board of directors was elected on Aug. 31 to a four-year term. Paul was elected president of that board and will also continue on as president of the Yellowknife Metis Council.

Yellowknife Metis Council Vice-president Robert Turner was also elected vice-president of the NSMA. The new alliance secretary-treasurer, Fred LeMouel, is also a member of the Yellowknife Metis Council.

The five newly elected NSMA directors are Clem Paul's half-brother Dennis Kachkowski, Paul's sister Kathy Overvold and Yellowknife Metis Council members Chantelle LeMouel and Eddie Mercredi.

Ernie Camsell is the fifth NSMA director and he is the only member of the board not connected to the Yellowknife Metis Council. He is from Local 64.

Paul was out of town and unavailable for comment, but he did make a statement in an Aug. 31 press release.

"The delegate system of voting has never served us well in the past. So, to be more democratic to our membership, we have chosen to change the way we operate within the North Slave Metis Alliance by allowing for general elections," Paul said.

"We are just a young society and so far we are attending to the business that best serves the needs of the membership."

Enge said NSMA lawyer Austin Marshall responded to the lawsuit on Sept. 9 by filing an appearance notice, which gives them an additional 10 days to respond to the claim.