Métis Nation of Saskatchewan President Robert Doucette didn’t mince words Tuesday morning when he spoke to media about this past weekend’s Métis National Council election results.
Clem Chartier was re-elected as MNC president by a razor thin margin of 28 to 27 votes over Métis Nation of Alberta President Audrey Poitras.
However, Doucette says he questions the legitimacy of Chartier’s re-election as the result of an earlier motion that was passed.
The MNS President contends the motion removed four elected officials and replaced them with unelected delegates.
Had the four disenfranchised delegates been allowed to vote, the election could seen Poitras elected president instead of Chartier, he says.
The motion was brought forward by MNS Vice-President Gerald Morin and nine area directors.
Doucette says the MNC no longer has the moral, legal, or political right to represent Métis citizens and their federal funding should be suspended immediately until the situation is sorted out.
He adds he is willing to take the matter to court if necessary.
However, a northern Saskatchewan area director says he disagrees with Doucette’s version of events.
Chester Herman of Northern Region 2 says the Provincial Métis Council has the right to choose the voting delegates that ended up representing the MNS.
“We, the provincial body, are the governing party of MNS, and we, the area directors, made the selections of the right people to go to this meeting – and we picked them according to our constitution,” he says.
Herman adds Doucette is overstepping his authority and a court has already ruled the provincial council – including the executive – is the MNS’s governing body.
Herman and other members of the council were suspended in the fall – a move judge ruled was invalid.
Doucette says he is appealing this ruling.