Former Métis Nation of Alberta president testifies about dysfunction at national council
CBC
The former president of the Métis Nation of Alberta testified in Ontario court last week on how disagreement between provincial organizations began affecting operations of the Métis Nation Council (MNC).
The MNC is suing members of its former administration, alleging they conspired in a scorched earth campaign to seriously harm it and empower the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF). The MMF denies the allegations, calling the case a baseless and defamatory vendetta. MMF broke from the national council in 2021, citing a long-running Indigenous identity dispute with the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO).
Audrey Poitras, who was president of the Métis Nation of Alberta (MNA) from 1996 to 2023, was questioned about the function of the MNC by its lawyer Robert Cohen of Toronto-based law firm Cassels, in Toronto's Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Poitras testified that before November 2018, MNC was guided by the board of governors (made up of the elected presidents of the five provincial Métis organizations) and the general assembly (made up of delegates from the provincial organizations.)
She said that drastically changed when then-MNC president Clément Chartier and vice-president David Chartrand started making decisions without the input of the board.
Poitras said the MNC's board stopped meeting in 2019 shortly after Chartier sent a letter to the provincial organizations saying that the MNO should no longer be allowed to participate on the board of governors. This followed a resolution made by Chartrand during a general assembly in November 2018 to suspend MNO because of a dispute over who it let in its membership registry.
Poitras said between May 2019 and September 2021 the board of governors never met.
Poitras said there was conflict within the organization over the resolution to suspend MNO, and in her view the MNC bylaws did not have the authority to remove any provincial organization.
Cohen presented several examples of correspondence in which Poitras called for the MNC president to call a board meeting to deal with the concerns about MNO.
During cross-examination defence counsel Rahool Agarwal presented correspondence from Chartier in which he called for board meetings, in April, June and November of 2020. However, MNA, MN-S, and MNO refused the requests to meet because MNO was not included.
Agarwal suggested that if MNA and MN-S would have agreed to meet during any of these opportunities they could have raised their concerns over the MNO suspension and the function of the council. Agarwal suggested that it was their refusal to work with MNC that was frustrating the function of the organization.
Poitras also said there were concerns over MNC finances starting in November 2018, when Canada conducted an audit of MNC programming.
Poitras said there were irregularities in the finances and was told some of these concerns were brought to the RCMP.
Poitras said the board was unsatisfied with the financial information Chartrand was presenting to them in 2018 in his position as MNC finance minister.
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