Youth council calls out chief 'squabbles' over national chief suspension
CBC
Rosalie LaBillois didn't mince words as she addressed First Nations leaders gathered in Vancouver for the second day of the Assembly of First Nations annual general assembly, Wednesday.
The day began with reports from the AFN's veterans council, women's council, and youth council.
LaBillois, a co-chair of the youth council, said she was deeply concerned about the actions of some leaders at the assembly a day prior.
"The AFN walked out yesterday when a resolution was put forward that didn't pertain to the drama of the day, and refused to stay for the issues that continue to plague one of our communities in this room," said LaBillois, who is Mi'kmaw from Eel River Bar in New Brunswick and Listuguj in Quebec.
On Tuesday, chiefs and proxies spent most of the afternoon discussing an emergency resolution related to National Chief RoseAnne Archibald's suspension.
A total of 252 First Nations chiefs and proxies gathered voted against the resolution to continue Archibald's suspension. There were 44 chiefs and proxies who voted in favour, along with 26 abstentions.
The majority of the crowd left following the results of the resolution, as the family of Frank Young addressed the assembly. The five-year-old went missing in April from his home at Red Earth Cree Nation in Saskatchewan.
"When our youth council has seen a room of empty chairs to support him, our hearts were broken," said LaBillois.
She pleaded to chiefs and the public to remember Young and all of the other missing First Nations children.
"Every time you decide to squabble amongst yourselves, you forget the children and young people that you once swore to protect," said LaBillois.
Archibald's suspension was the subject of three emergency draft resolutions to be brought forward at the assembly Tuesday. Only one was addressed before the day concluded.
The other two emergency draft resolutions were pushed to Wednesday. However, Chief Harley Chingee of the McLeod Lake Indian Band told CBC News that he is dropping the non-confidence resolution.
"I didn't want to waste people's time debating this issue," he said.
"There's an internal investigation going on right now with the national chief and the HR department. We'll let the investigation run its course and wait for the report to come out this summer. Once we get that, I think we'll put the resolution back on the floor at the December meeting in Ottawa."