Meeting fails to resolve queen's complaint
Michele LeTourneau and Kevin Wilson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Apr 06/01) - A meeting called to settle the battle royal over the Caribou Carnival queen's crown failed to satisfy a disgruntled monarch .
Christiane Boyd, unhappy to share the crown and glory with co-Queen Gisele Forget, demanded that the Carnival association give her exclusive rights to the throne.
 Christiane Boyd |
Boyd said she will seek legal advice.
Forget said that "this has gone way overboard. I just wish we could have peace and enjoy what we have offered to us. I raise my hat to them and I'm proud of what she and I raised for the carnival."
Contestants for queen, princesses and prince sold more than 55,000 tickets - a record for Caribou Carnival.
Mott said the decision to award the crown to both women was the result of "very unusual circumstances that will probably not be duplicated" in future carnivals.
Quest for the Crown rules state that the person who sells the most tickets shall be crowned queen.
However, Mott said the large number of tickets sold by both top contestants and the narrow margin separating them, made adherence to the letter of the rules difficult.
The board, according to Mott and Sasseville, chose a solution that they felt honoured the spirit of the rules.
"With the benefit of hindsight, we would've done the same thing," Mott said.
Boyd was accompanied at the meeting by a friend in lieu of her lawyer, who was unable to attend.
"I knew this wouldn't be a nice meeting," said Boyd.
"At the end of the meeting, they said I'd gotten my prizes and that's it. The matter is over."
Boyd maintains that she was treated poorly throughout the Quest for the Crown, and said the matter is far from over.
"There are two reasons I've gone to the media. The first is that they (carnival organizers) ignored me after I'd written them a letter," she said.
On March 29, Boyd sent the carnival a two-page letter outlining her grievances. Her main issue is that carnival organizers disregarded their own rules.
Boyd also said that the carnival refused to supply her with more tickets to sell for 11 days prior to the deadline. Organizers denied that allegation.
Mott told Yellowknifer that the location where tickets could be picked up changed from the carnival's office to Sasseville's office at the Visitor's Centre, and that all contestants were notified of this change. Sasseville was also available, by cell phone, to run tickets out to contestants when they needed them.
Finally, Boyd said that Mott and Sasseville attempted to intimidate her by throwing the rules back at her.
"They were trying to make it look like I was the one initially breaking the rules by having more than one sponsor," said Boyd.
While sponsors aren't necessary, they do provide $500 which contributes to ticket sales by their contestant. Due to advertising space restrictions, one sponsor is the norm. Boyd had three.
Mott said they broached the subject with Boyd because other contestants felt Boyd had an unfair advantage.
"This could have been fun," said Boyd. "But it turned out to be a nightmare."
"If I had been just a young girl, being put through what I was put through, I would have just gone home and cry," she said.
"But because I'm older and more mature, I want to take this to an area where it would never happen to anyone else."
