Low participation at assembly sees small number of chiefs drive AFN agenda forward

Less than 10 per cent of chiefs comprising the Assembly of First Nations made decisions last week that will impact the business of more than 630 First Nations across the country.

This marked the third consecutive national gathering of chiefs that was held virtually—including July’s forum which saw the election of RoseAnne Archibald as national chief—and the third consecutive gathering that lack of chiefs’ participation was raised as a concern.

On Dec. 7, the first of the three-day Special Chiefs Assembly (SCA), co-chairs were forced to call on AFN legal counsel to clarify that rules passed by chiefs that morning did, in fact, set a path forward for approving resolutions.

According to those rules, an immediate morning test vote would be held with chiefs through the online voting system, both electronically and by telephone. This number set the quorum for that day. For a resolution to pass, 60 per cent of the quorum had to be in favour.

Wapastim Harper, proxy for Chemawawin Cree Nation, called a point of order and asked for a legal consult.

“I want to go on record today to express my concern with regards to the voting quorum process established this morning with respect to the test vote. My concern is that no number has been shared about what has been established as quorum to pass the numerous resolutions over the next three days …. These resolutions have an impact on the work that First Nations will be doing in their respective regions,” said Harper.

AFN legal counsel Stuart Wuttke confirmed the rules passed by chiefs in the morning were consistent with the AFN charter, which set 60 per cent of the quorum as the threshold for making decisions.

He said 41 chiefs and proxies had participated in the test vote, meaning 25 votes were required to pass a resolution at the assembly that day.

On all three days of the SCA, Frog Lake First Nation and Confederacy of Treaty Six Grand Chief Greg Desjarlais registered his opposition to continuing discussions on resolutions.

On the second day of the SCA, Desjarlais claimed that only four per cent of the chiefs were making all the decisions and he felt uncomfortable doing that.

“I don’t think it’s fair that we’re put on the spot to make these decisions. These are life-changing decisions where we have to think about our children and grandchildren,” said Desjarlais. “Four per cent of the 600 chiefs, are we going to be to blame?”

That figure of four per cent is unconfirmed by Windspeaker.com as quorum numbers were not made public.  

Desjarlais suggested waiting until the summer meeting to vote on resolutions “where all nations are represented across the country, not just four per cent.”

However, this SCA already included resolutions that were not voted on at the July annual general assembly.

The majority of new resolutions that were discussed did not have in attendance the movers or seconders who had registered them. In order for the resolutions to go forward, new movers or seconders had to step up during the assembly.

Archibald acknowledged Desjarlais’ concerns about lack of participation in the gathering.

“I am concerned about low numbers as well,” she said, noting that AFN in-person meetings habitually lost quorum on the third day.

She said virtual forums had their own unique challenges with some chiefs in the “wrong (virtual) room” and unable to vote and other chiefs not wanting to sit in front of a computer all day.

“Stopping the resolution process is detrimental to the First Nations who need that support, to communities and regions who need resolutions to support the work that they’re doing. I think we’re in a spot where we need to figure out how to balance these two competing things,” said Archibald.

She also expressed concern about transparency with the virtual process when she was told that it would take a day before the final vote tally came through for a resolution that trumpeted the changes she wanted to bring about in the organization.

Co-chair Adam Fiddler explained that while virtual voting was instant, telephone voting took longer. He also said the identities of voters needed to be verified so it was difficult to announce vote results the same day.

“This is a very contentious resolution and I want to make sure that we’re absolutely 100 per cent transparent on this and that we’re giving people the instant results on the resolution,” said Archibald. “There’s change that has to be made and I know that there’s always a bit of hesitation around that. It’s not new to AFN. It’s with any organization that undertakes to make even positive forward-looking changes.”

The resolution, Solidification of political and administrative roles at the Assembly of First Nations, was announced defeated the next day as it had not received the requisite 60 per cent favourable vote.

Desjarlais raised concerns that he had been unable to cast his ballot virtually and was unclear if his vote had been counted.

Fiddler assured him that the resolution committee had got his message and his vote had counted.

This concern about not knowing if their votes had been counted was raised more than once by chiefs and proxies.

The exact vote count was not publicly released. No vote counts for any resolutions were released publicly.

The final day of the SCA saw the majority of resolutions included in seven omnibus packages. Chiefs expressed displeasure at having their bills dealt with in this manner. They were told they could pull their bills from the packages so they could be voted on separately, but there was no guarantee they would be discussed during this SCA. Two omnibus packages were not discussed or voted on.

The results on the final day on some resolutions have still not been released publicly.

Unlike past SCAs and annual general assemblies, this SCA was not livestreamed and everyone had to pre-register, including media.

As an example of participation in virtual assemblies compared to in-person assemblies, in 2018 when voting took place in-person for then national chief Perry Bellegarde to be returned to the position, he received 328 votes out of 522 cast. When voting took place virtually in 2021 Archibald captured 205 votes out of 350 cast.

This marked Archibald’s first assembly as national chief.

“Over the last three days we have deliberated on many important, often difficult issues that impact our nations…. We have many pressing and emerging issues affecting First Nations,” she said.

Local Journalism Initiative Reporters are supported by a financial contribution made by the Government of Canada.