Controversy, Corruption and Chief Theresa Spence

"I can't afford to go all the way there. They, of all people, should understand poverty and make it possible for off-reserve members to have a vote.
"There are plenty of educated people from Attawapiskat. We've got doctors and lawyers and accountants who are living off-reserve so they can get a job, go to school, or for health reasons. They need to be part of this process if anything is going to change.
"There are a lot of functional and healthy bands. Ours is not." (one of them)
Jocelyn Iahtall, Attawapiskat First Nation reserve member, Ottawa

The troubled, in-the-news-dysfunctional Attawapiskat First Nation is holding elections for band council. All reserve members are informed that if they wish to vote they must appear at the James Bay site in person to cast their ballot. There is no other way available. Mail-in ballots have not been made available as an alternative. Band members living outside that remote northern Cree community, wishing to exert their right to vote and have some say in what occurs there are hugely disturbed.

Attawapiskat has 3,351 band members. Of that number 1,862 live on the reserve, according to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. It's pretty expensive to fly into the remote community. Return flight from Timmins in northern Ontario to much further-north Attawapiskat is around $1,200. To and from Ottawa, where Jocelyn Iahtall lives, it's $2000, an inaccessible amount to someone living on low income.

Mike Koostachin, an Attawapiskat member currently living in Fort Albany Cree Nation is prepared to pay the return ticket cost of $400, although it represents an expense he hasn't budgeted for. "Transparency in Attawapiskat is at zero percent. In my opinion incompetent people are running our government system, and the same people are running for council again."

Once on a special committee of Attawapiskat band members, Mike Koostachin helped to draft a new custom-designed election code, meant to bring the band in line with the Supreme Court of Canada's 1999 decision that all members of a First Nation band over 18 years of age, living on- or off-reserve should be entitled to participate in band elections.

There was also a move afoot to prevent council members from holding other influential positions at the same time. That draft code had measures preventing abuse of power. It specifically pointed to councillors appointing friends or family members to decision-making bodies; the education authority, health services and the group managing money received from mining developments; nor could councillors have a criminal record.

The vote to approve the new code passed in 2010, but the band council decided against ratifying it on the grounds that only 74 of a possible 2,166 eligible voters had managed to cast their ballot. "We're not denying any people from voting; they can come here to vote", says the band's electoral officer who anticipates 400 of over 2,100 eligible voters will arrive to vote.

According to Jocelyn Iahtall, friends and family living on the reserve who would like a change from the incompetent and corrupt management of current Chief Theresa Spence and her band of councillors, are fearful of coming forward and making their views known. For the simple reason that the chief and council have complete control of housing, health education and band finances.

And they have no wish to be punished for appearing to defy the authority of the incumbents who have every intention of holding on to their positions for now and for the foreseeable future.