Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Monday, June 02, 2008

ACHO DENE KOE/FORT LIARD - There's controversy swirling around the election code that's being used for the election of chief and council in Fort Liard.

The election set for June 17 is being governed by a new election code that was passed on Nov. 2, 2007.

Floyd Diamond'C attended the first three of the four community meetings that were held to discuss the draft election code. During the meetings band members weren't given a proper chance to have input into the code, said Diamond'C.

There were between 20 to 25 people at the first meeting. Some members put forward suggestions for the code but the chief and council quickly dismissed them saying they would complicate the document, said Diamond'C.

Two suggestions were, the chief must hold five public meetings every year and fulfill election promises within two years or resign.

"You should have a chief and council in there who are responsible to the community," Diamond'C said.

In addition to giving more consideration to input, the chief and council should have called for a vote of all band members to decide on whether or not to accept the code, he said.

Some band members object to the code being used for the election that is underway.

On May 9, Floyd Bertrand sent a letter and petition signed by 50 people to George Cleary, the director of Indian and Inuit services for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. The letter states that the people who signed the petition don't support the election code because band members weren't given a chance to vote on the code.

Chief Harry Deneron said he doesn't understand the objections.

Every effort was made to inform the band membership and include them in the process of making the new election code, said Deneron.

The code wasn't ratified by a general membership vote because members were given the chance to have input throughout the process, he said.

Bands aren't required to have their election codes ratified by the membership, said Nicole Hupe, the manager of field services with Indian and Inuit services.

All bands in the territory are free to develop their own community-based election systems, she said.

The process that is undertaken to create an election code is internal to each First Nation. All that Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) requires is it be ratified, said Hupe.

INAC doesn't have a direct role in the community's custom election processes, but if requested department members can provide advice, she said.