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Liard First Nation chief has lost confidence, been suspended by his community

Wednesday, 18 December 2024 15:03

By Juliann Fraser

LFN citizens vote to suspend Chief Stephen Charlie

LFN citizens who attended a public meeting Tuesday in Watson Lake overwhelmingly sided with the Deputy Chief and Council members who drafted a resolution to have Chief Stephen Charlie suspended from his duties

Liard First Nation citizens passed two resolutions at a community meeting Tuesday evening that pushes Chief Stephen Charlie further away from his leadership on behalf of 1,053 souls.

The ultimate goal of removing him permanently from his seat by petition is yet unmet. Removing him requires signatures from "50 per cent plus one" of the LFN membership (which equals 527) according to the First Nation's election code.

The petition was passed around to the 100 or so LFN citizens who braved minus-27-degree temperatures to attend a community meeting at the Watson Lake Community Centre, which was open to members of the media and made available on the internet via Zoom.

PHOTO: LFN Deputy Chief Harlan Schilling

After some discussion and remarks by Councilors Kyla Magun, Joseph Jules, and Deputy Chief Harlan Schilling, the majority of citizens voted in favour of the two resolutions brought forward; the first states a loss of confidence in the chief; the second states he should be suspended from his duties "effective immediately".

The three Council members spoke out about being excluded from discussions with Chief Charlie and two other Council members, Susan Magun and Ed Brodhagen, none of whom attended the meeting despite being invited.

“It’s been a really rough term,” said Schilling, who has served on the LFN Council for seven years. “We were never really welcome. We are just as much in the dark as you are,” he told LFN members.

“Some of us council members don’t have a voice,” said Kyla Magun. “We are overpowered and outnumbered… We have not been treated equally.”

“It has been very stressful,” said Jules.

The three Council members leading the community meeting said there has only been one Council meeting attended by all elected members since the election on June 26, 2023.

The public meeting was hosted by the group Dene A'Nezen. (deneanezen.squarespace.com). It formed following the recent dismissal of two staff in the language department and the termination of their Director's contract.

Emeral Poppe, 28, who was one of the dismissed employees and founders of Dene A'Nezen, led the meeting.

Some of the night's discussion revealed divisions along colonial-geographic lines. The LFN Council consists of Daylu Dena from British Columbia and Liard First Nation from Yukon, all of whom identify as Kaska. However, the elected Daylu Dena Council members, including the Deputy Chief, say they have been excluded from decision-making and denied access to information about the development corporation, First Kaska.

In February, Chief Charlie was joined by Yukon MP Brendan Hanley and federal Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu, during a housing announcement in Whitehorse in which the two parliamentarians praised Charlie's leadership and ingenuity with First Kaska, which Charlie presented as a holistic effort to provide housing built by LFN members while sustaining a profitable enterprise.

LFN citizens, however, complain that the 15 houses began construction in 2021 and are still not occupied.

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