‘Quit playing games,’ MNS president tells VP
SASKATOON — The president of the Metis Nation — Saskatchewan (MNS) is calling on his political foes to “do the right thing” and work together to get the beleaguered organization back to business.
President Robert Doucette said he will continue trying to contact vice-president Gerald Morin, who has remained absent and silent since Monday, when a Queen’s Bench justice ruled against him and his nine supporters on the Provincial Metis Council (PMC), ordering them to hold a legislative assembly by June 19.
Members of “the Morin faction,” as they were dubbed by Justice Robert Scherman, have used their constitutional power to delay an assembly since 2010, a move Scherman called “an abdication of PMC’s constitutional and fiduciary responsibility.”
The federal government withdrew the organization’s funding last fall, saying it will only be reinstated after the gathering of representatives from across the province meets.
“We’re all under a microscope now. I’m choosing to believe they will do the right thing,” Doucette told reporters Tuesday at a news conference in the MNS offices that have been empty of staff since the first of the month, when the last workers were laid off.
“Quit playing games. Get on with the business. Let’s bring back the MNS to what it was in 2012 and prior, because we were doing a good job,” he said.
In 2012 MNS had an operating budget of almost $4 million and about 40 staff. It now has no money and no staff, he said.
Doucette said he has been in correspondence with the federal government about releasing funds to hold the assembly and he is hopeful, now that a court order is in place.
Doucette also called on the Morin faction to hold the assembly in Saskatoon or Prince Albert to reduce extra travelling expenses that he said could double the cost of the meeting if it is held, as planned, in Yorkton, which does not have direct flights from northern communities.
He also hopes the assembly will amend the MNS constitution to prevent the PMC from conducting similar filibusters in the future, he said.
“LET’S BRING BACK THE MNS TO WHAT IT WAS IN 2012 AND PRIOR, BECAUSE WE WERE DOING A
GOOD JOB.”
ROBERT DOUCETTE