By Thia James

Sturgeon Lake man gets second chance

Oct 6, 2014 | 7:10 AM

A man disqualified from the March 2013 election to become Sturgeon Lake First Nation’s chief will be able to challenge the decision to kick him out of the race.

Federal Court Justice Catherine M. Kane ruled the band’s election tribunal must hear Henry Felix’s appeal of a decision to disqualify him from the election. Kane also awarded Felix reasonable costs, which have yet to be determined.

In her decision, Kane found the band’s appeal tribunal took part in the very decision they refused to hear an appeal of.

“I find that the appeal tribunal did usurp its role according to the Election Act and it also usurped its role according to the custom to observe and oversee the election. The tribunal did participate in the decision to disqualify Mr. Felix as a candidate in the election. The evidence does not support the respondent’s position that the appeal tribunal merely attended and observed,” Kane wrote.

Felix, who had been at the centre of legal battles with the band dating back to the 2010 election, had lost a Federal Court decision on election day. The judge had also awarded the band costs. As a result, the chief electoral officer posted a notice in the polling stations which said Felix was disqualified because he now owed the band money.

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Voting continued after the notice was posted, and advanced voting had already taken place. Felix received 325 votes, which were all disqualified. Craig Bighead was declared the winner of the election.

Band officials contended that Felix was ineligible to be a candidate under Sturgeon Lake’s 2009 Election Act. However, Kane found the Act’s rules regarding disqualifications based on owing money to the band required] debt to be present in the audited financial statements, which it wouldn’t have been at the time Felix was disqualified.

Kane cited the band’s own election act which states that a candidate is “a person who does not owe any money to the band as evidenced by the most recent audited financial statement (this prohibition excludes funds advanced for emergency or post-secondary purposes).”

She wrote that the judge’s order asked both parties for submissions regarding costs within 30 days and then another 25 days for replies. “Mr. Felix would not be aware of the specific amount he would be required to pay until that order was finalized.”

Kane found that the appeal tribunal played a role in the decision to disqualify Felix and overstepped its authority when it did this. She wrote that the March 2013 ruling against Felix did not automatically disqualify him, and “it appears that no one carefully read the Election Act or the decision of Justice Snider before posting the notice.”

This included the chief electoral officer, Gary Turner, who testified he posted the notice first and read the March 2013 court ruling later.

Kane also made a number of recommendations regarding how the appeal tribunal should handle its hearing of Felix’s appeal. Her ruling also included suggestions to clarify a number of areas of the band’s election act before the next vote takes place.

On Friday, Felix said he should be happy with Kane’s ruling.

“I feel that I’ve been cheated out of the position, and I feel that the tribunal did not understand what the federal ruling was,” he said.

Months after the original election, the band’s appeal tribunal called a by-election for the position of chief. Felix was now not eligible to run because of the earlier decision by band officials. Craig Bighead won the May 2013 vote. Felix filed to stay the by-election, and that appeal was denied.

Felix contended he did not owe the band money as a result of March 2013 ruling. And on Friday, he once again asserted he doesn’t owe the band money.

But with the path cleared by the Federal Court to fight the decision to disqualify him, the band’s tribunal has not moved any closer to listening to the appeal, according to Felix. He has appealed the decision that denied his contempt challenge and awarded costs against him. That appeal is still in front of the courts.

Kane’s decision is a couple of weeks old. Felix said Sturgeon Lake officials are now “stalling.”

“They’re stalling because we’ve already had the ruling back on the 23rd of September. Now, they’re still wondering what to do with it. They had meetings upon meetings on this. And yet, they haven’t decided what to do with anything.”

He said Kane’s decision clears him and he was cleared because he didn’t owe anything on the audited financial statement.

“I even paid my tuition to run for chief and I was [of] good character. And I’m still [of] good character.”

In the aftermath of Felix’s disqualification, a working group formed to represent the 325 voters whose ballots were set aside.

“They no longer had a council to depend on. They couldn’t depend on the appeal process. The tribunal disregarded all appellants including Henry Felix,” said A.J. Felix, Henry’s brother, is the spokesman for the group.

He said they decided to form a working group – a lobby group – to help with Henry Felix’s case. He said the working group assisted Henry with his appeal and were present in the courtroom during testimony in this latest round of the legal proceedings.

A.J. Felix said the working group will now be challenging the “still-in-place” tribunal. “The working group now will be pressuring the tribunal to have a meeting with Henry Felix, or to have a meeting with Henry’s lawyer and the working group’s lawyer and also the band lawyer.”

Henry Felix also has plans to post signs calling on the tribunal to “do the right thing.”

“We have the ability to appeal again. But why appeal when you have won already?”

Felix has spent between $50,000 to $60,000 on lawyers’ fees and travel over the last four and a half years for the ongoing court battles.

It’s also had an effect on his family, who he said is so mad, they want to “do something.”

“And I’m afraid,” Felix said, “that if these people don’t smarten up and do what they’re supposed to do, that there is going to be an eruption in Sturgeon Lake.”

Despite multiple attempts to contact Bighead for comment, calls were not answered and messages were not returned.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames