Chief Offers Apology To Fired Employees
Friday, October 07, 2005 at 15:14
The Lac La Ronge Indian Band has resolved a long-standing dispute with two former employees who were wrongfully dismissed.
Former health services director Sol Charles and former youth support worker Robert Ballantyne have also received an apology from band chief Tammy Cook-Searson about how the entire matter was handled.
Charles and Ballantyne were fired from their positions in April 1997.
The following year, a federal adjudicator ruled that both men were fired improperly, and the band was ordered to reinstate them.
The band didn’t reinstate the men, and fought the ruling in the courts for five years.
The Federal Court of Appeal eventually upheld the adjudicator’s decision.
Cook-Searson says “no amount of words can overcome the loss of reputation and income, as well as the emotions they experienced over the last eight years”.
The chief also says she is “truly sorry for the injustice brought upon them” and hopes “the divisions and hard feelings this matter has caused” will be a thing of the past.
The band and the two men reached an undisclosed financial settlement yesterday through court-assisted mediation.