A troubled Northwest Territories First Nation is suing one of its members for $600,000.
In court documents filed in Alberta, the Smith’s Landing First Nation, its four current councillors and a staff member allege that Elizabeth Stirrett said defamatory things about them and released confidential information.
The confidential information includes the names, birth dates and status card numbers of all 325 members of the First Nation.
The band provided the information to Stirrett as part of her appeal of the 2016 election of chief and council. Stirrett passed it on to Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada to support a complaint against the First Nation.
Councillors Geronimo Paulette, Tony Vermillion, Thaidene Paulette and Fred Daniels, along with executive assistant Christine Seabrook, also allege Stirrett made false and damaging allegations about them in a letter she sent to the band and distributed to other First Nation members seven months ago.
In her statement of defence, Stirrett says the First Nation should not be paying for the lawsuit against her, or be a party to it, because council has not passed a resolution authorizing it. She says the councillors and employee are misusing their positions and band money to continue a personal campaign of harassment and intimidation.
The First Nation says the chief and council authorized the lawsuit by a resolution they passed in October — three months after they filed the lawsuit in Fort McMurray, Alta.
Counterclaim alleges harassment
Stirrett, an outspoken former councillor and candidate for chief, has filed a counterclaim against the four councillors and a staff member. She wants $200,000 in damages for what she says is years of harassment.
In court documents, she says the First Nation has denied her services like home renovations and threatened to have her removed from the reserve.
Smith Landing Chief Executive Officer Maurice Evans said the First Nation does not comment on legal matters that are before the courts. Stirrett referred CBC to her lawyer, who did not return calls.
In its statement of defence to Stirrett’s counterclaim, the First Nation challenges her allegations of discrimination and harassment.
It offers up a list of benefits it says Stirrett and her family have received from the First Nation, including purchasing Christmas gifts for her children and grandchildren every year and delivering turkey and ham to her home. It also cites $11,200 in home renovations carried out in 2017 and 2018 and “providing financial assistance for a variety of reasons requested by Ms. Stirrett and her children on a regular basis.”
Political conflict
The First Nation says it has been looking at developing a policy to allow chief and council to banish members from the reserve, but says that discussion is focused on members who have threatened or intimidated staff, not Stirrett.
The lawsuits are winding their way through the Alberta courts with each side requesting documents from the other.
The Smith’s Landing First Nation has had more than its share of political conflict. Six years ago, a forensic audit of the band’s finances reportedly uncovered missing money. The results were turned over to the RCMP. No charges have been laid.
At about the same time, a young chief, Cheyeanne Paulette, and a councillor, Andrew Wanderingspirit, resigned, citing their frustration with what they say was a dysfunctional council more concerned about its own interests than those of the First Nation.