NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Operations of the Native Women's Association of the NWT are at a standstill pending the involvement of an independent third party.

Despite recent attempts to meet, the full board of the non-profit organization still has not overcome internal dysfunction to gather and represent the rights of all aboriginal women across the territory.

After president Terry Villeneuve spoke to News/North late last month about an alleged conflict of interest in the hiring of her daughter, Cindy Villeneuve, as the organization's finance officer, the executive tried to schedule a board meeting for Dec. 1.

But all five regional elected board members who had previously spoken out about their concerns within the organization declined to attend that meeting because they didn't feel it would be productive to face other members unless a mediator or independent party was present, so the meeting never happened.

The board hasn't met since July and has yet to schedule this year's annual general meeting, at which it would usually elect a new president.

"In talking to other regular board members, the frustration level is very high and we feel that the work we're trying to do just to resolve things is really being misrepresented.

"There's untruths about the regular board members out there and it's not fair, so obviously we need some mediation," said Sahtu regional director Lisa Duncan.

"It was funny that a meeting was finally called after so long that we've been trying to meet with (the executive) and they've refused to meet with us," she added.

Previous attempts to meet have been thwarted by a lack of quorum, which the executive members - president, vice-president and secretary-treasurer - have blamed on the regular board members and vice versa. Not holding board meetings means that while the organization continues to receive territorial government funding and keeps running training programs to benefit NWT women, the elected representatives can't pass motions to change the structure of the organization or officially bring up concerns brought to them by their constituents.

Regional board members say the July meeting brought to light several motions that still have not been effected, including forming an AGM planning committee and requesting a forensic audit of the organization's finances.

"That meeting was recorded and still the minutes were not representative of what actually happened, so that could just happen to us again," Duncan said. "We feel like our hands our tied. We want to meet, we want to resolve things, but we don't think we can do it on our own anymore because when we try, things are distorted and action isn't taken on motions that we pass."

An executive member of the women's association issued a statement, printed in News/North Dec. 6, noting the organization's deficit has been erased since Villeneuve became president. It acknowledged the limited control the board of directors has over the entire organization and said the association is "doing very well in every way." A member of the executive could not be reached for comment before deadline.

Meanwhile, Duncan has written more letters to territorial cabinet ministers pleading for an intervention.

Neither Sandy Lee, minister responsible for the status of women, nor Justice Minister Jackson Lafferty had responded to Duncan's second round of letters as of Dec. 10.

Neither of the ministers were available for an interview with News/North last week. But Duncan said she has heard from several female constituents who are concerned about the plight of a group responsible for representing their interests.

"I feel that I'm being prevented from even representing the women that I was elected to represent," she said.

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