Regional News-Optimist April 7, 2022

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T H E B AT T L E F O R D S

Regional

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Thursday, April 7, 2022

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Red Pheasant chief removed over election impropriety One councillor also named

By John Cairns Staff Reporter

The northern lights have made for some pretty night viewing as captured in these images by a Unity resident. Scientificallynorthern lights are called aurora borealis. According to the Canadian Space Agency, auroras in both the south and north hemispheres occur when charged particles streamed from the sun collide with gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere. These collisions produce tiny flashes that fill the sky with colourful light. | Photo by Eslam Eraky

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A Federal Court of Canada decision has resulted in the removal of the chief and one band councillor at Red Pheasant Cree Nation. Red Pheasant Chief Clint Wuttunee and Councillor Gary Nicotine have had their election results in the March 20, 2020 band election annulled, in a ruling by the court dated March 30, 2022. The federal court ruling came in the case of Whitford v. Red Pheasant First Nation, filed by applicants Mary Linda Whitford and Alicia Moosomin. The applicants had been seeking to set aside the elections of the chief and all eight councillors according to the First Nations Elections Act, but in the end only Wuttunee and Nicotine were removed. According to the ruling of Hon. Justice Henry S. Brown, their results were annulled “because their numerous and gravely serious electoral frauds corroded the integrity of the election regardless of the number of votes they received.” According to the court document, the applicants had alleged contraventions that included vote buying, forging requests for mail-in ballots, payment to electors to request their mail-in ballots, forging of mailin ballot voter declaration forms and forging identity documents. In his ruling Justice Brown noted the vote buying in this case was almost entirely related to mail-in ballots. Brown cited several instances of electoral fraud against Chief Wuttunee in submitting requests for

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mail-in ballots. Among the findings: Justice Brown determined Wuttunee has used his personal cellphone to text a forged request for mailin ballot to the Electoral Officer Burke Ratte, which showed a false address. He also determined that $700 in funds was provided at the direction of Chief Wuttunee to purchase the request for a mail-in ballot by one band member. Justice Brown also found Wuttunee was aware and “directly involved” in directing the use of band funds to pay another individual $200 for his mail-in ballot, in the knowledge and expectation it would be used to vote for the respondents. Continued on Page 7

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