CSC Responds To Chief’s Healing Lodge Complaints

Friday, July 07, 2006 at 15:41

 

 

A meeting is scheduled to take place next month between officials from Correctional Service of Canada and the chief of the Beardy’s/Okemasis First Nation.

 

Last week, Chief Rick Gamble said the facility was not living up to the promises it made when it first opened in 2004.

 

Gamble said restorative justice techniques were not being practised enough and First Nations people were not being allowed into senior positions.

 

He also went on record as saying the band will hold a designation vote so it can take back the land the lodge currently sits on.

 

Cathy Stocki, a communications officer for the facility, says she’s not sure what the chief is talking about. Stocki says there is nothing in the agreements between the band and the CSC that has been violated that would justify such a move.

 

She also notes 42 of the 44 staff members at the healing lodge are of Aboriginal ancestry and half come from Beardy’s itself.

 

The meeting between the two sides is set for early August.