AFN regional chiefs accuse national chief of stoking division on child welfare reform
CBC
Six Assembly of First Nations regional chiefs accused their national leader of stoking division on the issue of child-welfare reform, suggesting she may be too cozy with the Canadian government, a letter obtained by CBC Indigenous shows.
The blowback comes after National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak wrote to Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, asking how the society plans to improve on a $47.8-billion federal offer to overhaul the system, which the chiefs rejected last fall.
On Jan. 14, Woodhouse Nepinak wrote that "the AFN remains quite concerned" after the Liberal government decided to seek a carveout deal with chiefs in Ontario, while refusing to renew negotiations nationally.
In response, more than half of the assembly's executive committee accused Woodhouse Nepinak of letting Canada off the hook.
"It is Canada — not the Caring Society — that must be held accountable," the regional chiefs wrote on Jan. 15.
"Shifting this responsibility and stoking division undermines the collective efforts of the Chiefs-in-Assembly and regional leadership."
The letter is signed by regional chiefs Joanna Bernard (New Brunswick), Ghislain Picard (Quebec-Labrador), Bobby Cameron (Saskatchewan), George Mackenzie (N.W.T.), Terry Teegee (B.C.) and Kluane Adamek (Yukon).
They went on to comment on the optics around the letter, noting that Canada's legal counsel, Paul Vickery, also wrote to the Caring Society — digging in on Ottawa's position — on the same day as Woodhouse Nepinak.
"Your comments and timing of this letter coinciding with the Justice Canada correspondence calls into question the required independence of the National Chief from the Liberal Party and the Government of Canada, writ large," the regional chiefs wrote.
Woodhouse Nepinak responded on Jan. 31 in a three-page letter, also obtained by CBC Indigenous, rejecting the concerns.
"With respect to your references to a letter of Jan. 14, 2025, from Justice Canada, I can confirm that I was not in receipt of any such letter," she wrote.
"Any inferences as to my independence are therefore unfounded, inappropriate and malicious."
Woodhouse Nepinak's ties to the Liberal Party are well documented.
She is a former Manitoba president of the Liberal Party's Indigenous Peoples Commission; she worked on Justin Trudeau's 2015 election campaign; and Elections Canada recorded 149 political donations under her name — all to the Liberal Party of Canada.
