After a decade of fighting the Qalipu band enrolment process, one advocate looks back
CBC
A long-awaited court battle over membership criteria for Qalipu First Nation will wrap up this week but one of the organizers of the challenge says regardless of the outcome, the fight isn't over yet.
Helen Darrigan is one of the co-founders of the Friends of Qalipu Advocacy Association, which is challenging the enrolment criteria for Qalipu First Nation.
"We care about the right verdict, we care about injustices and we're not going to shut up about it," she said Monday.
That injustice, according to Darrigan, was the implementation of a 2013 agreement between the federal government and the Federation of Newfoundland Indians, the organization that created Qalipu First Nation.
The agreement changed the criteria for membership in Qalipu First Nation, introducing a complex point system that required applicants to provide proof in several categories including — controversially — maintenance of a Mi'kmaw way of life.
Out of more than 104,000 applicants, only 18,044 were approved for membership. More than 10,391 founding members were removed from the band.
"They deliberately, I feel, set out to weed people out," she said.
For over a decade, Darrigan has been organizing and fundraising in an effort to challenge the 2013 agreement in court.
"It's just wrong on principle," she said. "To have the federal government and the FNI sign a contract and then change it."
Some families were divided, with some members getting in while others were rejected.
Darrigan said some applicants and former Qalipu First Nation members died before getting status — including members of her own family.
"All the ones that have passed know what's going on," she said.
According to the Friends of Qalipu, the FNI entered into the supplemental agreement without permission of its membership.
Five plaintiffs, all founding members of FNI, took the stand during the trial, describing their shock at being removed from the band.
