Fond du Lac impeachment attempt thwarted

A court injunction stopped a speedy by-election on Fond du Lac First Nation, dead in its tracks this month.

The by-election for a new chief came on the heels of an impeachment letter from the northern Saskatchewan first nation to Chief Earl Lidguerre, dated Sept. 18.

Signed by Chief Electoral Officer Alex Mercredi and the band’s four executive advisory councillors, the letter cites multiple breaches of their custom band acts.

The strongly worded letter to Lidguerre reads “You have betrayed the members of Fond du Lac Band as you breached the code of ethics as you [showed] no interest in serving the duties and responsibilities with the current council members and the band.”

According to Mercredi, this came after complaint letters were passed on to councillors alleging Chief Earl Lidguerre breached his Oath of Office, which he took after an October 2013 election. Lidguerre was first elected chief in 2011.

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They include numerous leaves of absence from office for more than 30 days, being intoxicated on and off reserve, and missing meetings “due to being intoxicated,” according to a separate letter from the Executive Council sent to Mercredi dated Sept. 9.

That letter stated Executive Council had reviewed all actions and violations mentioned in the complaints. Their solution was to “institute disciplinary, or impeachment proceedings.”

Part of Mercredi’s role was to review the complaints.

“They were valid, legitimate complaints made by the people on the chief.”

He backed the decision to impeach Chief Lidguerre.

“I remained impartial the whole time and I just did what was right and what I was ethically bound to do,” Mercredi said in a phone interview at the end of September.

Lidguerre immediately took issue with the allegations and sought legal counsel through Pandila & Co.

“There’s no evidence, there’s no proof … I’ve never had a chance to defend myself.”

His counsel successfully applied for an injunction with Prince Albert’s Court of Queen’s Bench for Lidguerre to remain chief and to cancel by-election proceedings.

The injunction approved by Justice L. Zuk involved extensive research.

In his reasons, Zuk stated the election process was moving with “great haste.” The short notice about the removal of chief “would have the effect of placing the community into a state of confusion respecting its properly elected Chief and would have the effect of causing harm to the community. I find that irreparable harm would arise in the event the interim injunction was not granted,” he wrote.

Mercredi said the actions taken were not meant to upset Lidguerre.

“These decisions basically were done with due diligence and due care as well. It’s not out of spite to have the chief impeached, it’s not out of spite it’s just his infractions basically.”

Eli Adam, Dorothy Adam, Louie Mercredi, Derek McDonald are the executive council members who signed the impeachment notice and several are named in the injunction.

Even with the courts now involved, band councillor Leonard Adam commented he didn’t think anybody from outside the community will be able to solve the rifts between people in Fond du Lac.

claskowski@panow.com

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk