Internal conflict dominates AFN General Assembly for second straight day
For the second consecutive day, emergency resolutions related to a conflict between the Assembly of First Nations National Chief and the organization’s executive council threw the agenda into chaos.
A potential outside audit into the AFN’s finances and management practices remains up in the air after an emergency resolution calling for one was punted for the second day in a row.
The motion was originally on the agenda for 11 a.m. Tuesday, then moved to Wednesday morning. Delegates finally began debating it Wednesday afternoon.
Many amendments had been made to the original resolution, and by the time debate began, very few people in the room had an updated copy.
After a brief recess, the decision was made to table the resolution until Thursday morning, when debate is expected to continue, followed by a vote.
“We have to have competent and skilled financial management,” said Doug Kelly, of British Columbia’s Sto:Lo Tribal Council. “If there’s any question whatsoever about that competency or integrity, then we need to address it.”
Elected National Chief Roseanne Archibald has levelled allegations of widespread corruption, and ran on a campaign to reform the AFN from within.
Another emergency resolution calling for vote of non-confidence in Archibald was withdrawn.
Archibald easily won a vote Tuesday on an emergency resolution calling for an affirmation of the suspension she had been under since June 17 over allegations of workplace bullying.
Much of the first two days of the annual meeting has been devoted to the conflict between Archibald and the AFN’s executive council, leaving little time for chiefs and proxies who travelled from around the country to debate serious issues on the agenda, including child welfare, health and education.
“Sometimes it happens where we get focused on differences, and not what we share in common,” Kelly said.
More than one delegation used its time at the podium to decry the amount of time and resources devoted to the emergency resolutions and not the 48 draft resolutions that pertain to many of the serious issues Indigenous communities across the country are dealing with.
Rosalie LaBillois of the AFN National Youth Council was in tears as she urged those in attendance to focus more attention on the issue of child welfare.
“Remember all the missing First Nations children out there who are waiting to come home,” she said. “Every time you decide to squabble amongst yourselves, you forget the children and the young people that you once swore to protect.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.