Why some female leaders dropped support for RoseAnne Archibald as AFN national chief

Cheryl Casimir said her heart was heavy when she logged in to Wednesday's virtual special chiefs assembly held by the Assembly of First Nations in private to decide RoseAnne Archibald's fate.

Casimir, who joined the meeting as a proxy, voted in July 2021 for Archibald to become the AFN's first female national chief and was elated when she won.

But two years later, the conflict between Archibald, national chief staff and the AFN executive committee became too much for Casimir to bear. 

"The big issues at hand have been pushed off to the side and we've been distracted by this too long," said Casimir, political executive with the B.C.-based First Nations Summit. 

Casimir was one of 163 First Nations leaders who voted to remove Archibald as national chief after an external workplace investigation launched by the AFN concluded she harassed and retaliated against staff.

Archibald's historic electoral win also ended in an unprecedented way — the first impeached national chief. 

The coming months for the national advocacy organization will present challenges, but also an opportunity to turn a chapter.

The AFN will elect a new national chief in December, whose first job will be to heal divisions within the fractured organization that Casimir and many other leaders said is in desperate need of a reset. 

With one year left in Archibald's term, Casimir said it felt like the AFN was going to keep spinning its wheels instead of supporting First Nations to rebuild their nations.

"That was a tough decision to make," she said.

"But we also had to make sure that we were looking out for the better interests of the organization."

The turning point for Casimir came after a provincial court judge in Chilliwack, B.C., sentenced a man and woman to 10 years in prison earlier this month after they pleaded guilty to beating to death an 11-year-old fostered First Nations boy and assaulting his eight-year-old sister. 

Casimir said it was clear to her that First Nations need more support from the federal and provincial governments to implement their own child welfare laws.

"That is a priority we should be talking about and that the national chief should be spearheading for us," Casimir said.