Court overturns decision removing Poundmaker Cree Nation leadership

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The court did not rule on whether the election itself was valid, but found the process used to overturn it was flawed.

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Justice Cecily Strickland wrote the tribunal’s decision “was unreasonable, procedurally unfair and biased.”

The ruling says the elected officials were not provided with details of the appeals or given an opportunity to respond, noting they “did not meet with them, apprise them of the case against them or afford them an opportunity to respond to the allegations.”

Strickland said those failures breached procedural fairness.

The court also found the tribunal exceeded its authority under the election regulations it relied on, ruling it had no power to ban individuals from future elections or impose new eligibility requirements, including mandatory criminal record checks.

The decision states the tribunal “lacked jurisdiction to prohibit Chief Antoine (or any PCN member) from running for office in future elections.”

The judge also found evidence of bias, concluding the tribunal could not be seen as deciding the appeals fairly.

“In my view, an informed person viewing this evidence would not think that it is more likely than not that these Tribunal members would decide the appeals fairly.”

As a result, the tribunal’s decision has been quashed in full. The original decision was issued by tribunal members Lester Bugler, Sharon Baptiste and Delainee Antoine-Tootoosis.

However, the dispute over the election is not resolved.

The court ordered the appeals to be reheard by a newly constituted election appeal tribunal made up of individuals with no affiliation to Poundmaker Cree Nation.

That tribunal must provide full disclosure of the appeals to affected candidates and conduct any hearings in accordance with procedural fairness.

“The new election appeal tribunal will ensure that complete copies of the appeals with all supporting documents are provided to the candidates who may be affected by one or more of the appeals,” the ruling states.

The new tribunal will determine whether the appeals should proceed and is expected to issue a decision within four weeks of being appointed.

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Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com