The Federal Appeals Court is upholding a lower court decision to annul the election results of the Chief and a Councillor of the Red Pheasant First Nation.
Chief Clinton Wuttunee and Councillor Gary Nicotine were found to have engaged in serious electoral fraud under the First Nations Elections Act in the March 2020 election.
“Insofar as Chief Wuttunee was concerned, the Federal Court found that he was an untruthful witness, and that he repeatedly lied about his involvement in corrupt electoral practices,” stated the court decision from last month.
The Court said that Chief Wuttunee breached the First Nations Elections Act twice in that he offered goods, money, employment or other values to influence a voter.
“The Federal Court further found that Chief Wuttunee was directly involved in five instances of serious electoral fraud relating to vote buying or attempted vote buying, and that in at least some instances, the funds used to purchase votes belonged to the RPFN,” the decision read. “In addition, the Federal Court found that Chief Wuttunee had accessed and exploited confidential electoral information from the RPFN’s Electoral Officer, or from officials within his office, including election lists naming electors whose Requests for Mail-in Ballots were accepted, and those whose requests were not accepted.”
The Court found that while the the number of ballots found to be corrupted by Chief Wuttunee would not change the result of the election, it concluded his conduct was significantly corrosive to the integrity of the election process.
Councillor Nicotine was found to have violated the First Nations Elections Act three times, being directly involved in several incidents of electoral fraud through vote buying.
“The Federal Court further had regard to the number of instances of serious electoral fraud and contraventions of the Act committed by Councillor Nicotine, as well as the fact that he had been involved in the purchase of at least one vote using RPFN funds,” stated the decision. “This led the Court to conclude that Councillor Nicotine’s misconduct was “on a par and only slightly less egregious than that of Chief Wuttunee”, and that it seriously corroded the integrity of his election.”
Chief Wuttunee and Councillor Nicotine argued that the number of rejected ballots would not have changed the outcome of the election and that nullifying the results would disenfranchise the voters. They also argued that the court should exercise greater discretion in annulling the results.
The unanimous decision by the Federal Appeals Court states that Chief Wuttunee and Councillor Nicotine did not establish the Federal Court erred in its decision.
“None of the above facts have been challenged by Chief Wuttunee and Councillor Nicotine, nor have they established that the Federal Court erred in law in exercising its discretion to annul their election as Chief and Councillor of the RPFN. Having concluded that it was open to the Federal Court to annul the elections of Chief Wuttunee and Councillor Nicotine in the absence of a finding that the “magic number” test had been satisfied, it follows that I would dismiss their appeal.”