The head of the Aboriginal Affairs Coalition of Saskatchewan is calling for Congress of Aboriginal Peoples National Chief Betty Ann Lavallee to step down.
AACS President Kim Beaudin will be putting forward a motion at a CAP board meeting on Dec. 3 calling for the national chief’s resignation.
Beaudin says Lavallee has failed to get the Harper government’s attention on some of the most important issues facing CAP including the Daniels court decision, continuous funding reductions to the organization and missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
“We’ve had very little in respect to meeting with the federal government, in particular Bernard Valcourt, the Aboriginal Affairs Minister, and we didn’t have a chance to meet with him at all last year,” he says.
He also says the organization simply cannot wait until the next election for national chief to address the issue.
“I just believe the longer we wait – we’re going into an election year now in terms of federally and we need a new voice.”
Beaudin says in order for his motion to be successful, 75 per cent of CAP’s 11 board members have to vote in favour.
A spokesperson for Chief Lavallee’s office says they will not be commenting until after the board meeting.