New Metis group fighting MAA for control of south

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The Metis Association of Alberta (MAA) is facing major opposition in southern Alberta by a breakaway Metis group who are planning a direct challenge to MAA's claim to represent Metis province-wide.

The group, which calls itself the Metis Self-Determination Society of Alberta, has been founded by five Zone 3 representatives of Metis locals who were suspended indefinitely by the MAA's Elder's Council earlier this summer.

Two presidents with a combined service of more than 40 years with the MAA are spearheading efforts to win the hearts and minds of southern Alberta Metis.

Bruce Letendre, former vice-president of Calgary Local 1001 said the newly-formed society hopes to secure the lion's share f government funding now allocated to the Zone 3 regional office.

"We are asking to do things in southern Alberta for southern Alberta Metis," he said, estimating the number of Metis in that area at 30,000 people.

Last July, the MAA's Elders's Council suspended Letendre and four others after five of six presidents of Zone 3 locals in southern Alberta voted to impeach zone director Freda Martel and zone vice-president Peter Pelletier and have them removed

from office. They were accused of financial mismanagement although none of the allegations have been proven.

Zone 3 includes Rocky Mountain House and Red Deer south to the American border.

But Pelletier said Zone 3 financial records were examined by Alberta Municipal Affairs officials and the Calgary city police department's commercial crimes unit. He said they were found to be in good order.

"We were given a clean bill of health," he claimed.

There has been no financial mismanagement, he said. "I've never done anything wrong."

According to records filed with Alberta Consumer and Corporate Affairs, while the Metis Self-Determination Society was incorporated on Aug. 16, 1989, the provincial government struck the Zone 3 "deemed to have ceased to carry on business in

the Province of Alberta on July 1, 1989."

The regional council, which includes all the Metis locals in Zone 3, was incorporated Jan. 23, 1986. It was struck for failing to file annual returns and financial statements for 1987 and 1988. In fact, it has not filed a return since being

incorporated.

The organization can continue to carry on business but not as a legal entity under the Societies' Act, says Bob Foord, director of corporate registration with consumer and corporate affairs.

MAA president Larry Desmeules refused to comment on any aspects of the issue and categorically denied that the MAA has suspended southern MAA representatives.

"The MAA did not suspend them," he declared. But when pressed further on the issue, he refused further comment.

But the suspensions were confirmed by Elders' Council vice-chairman Fred L'Hirondelle and by Pelletier, who in an interview Oct. 25 identified the suspended members as Jim White, president of Local 18 in Calgary; Mike Woodware, president of

Local 2002 in Calgary; Doug Fidler, president of Local 1001 in Calgary and Bruce Letendre, vice-president of Local 1001.

L'Hirondelle said the decision to suspend the Zone 3 presidents was the most important decision made by the 14-member council since it was established more than one year ago.

"We had to suspend them. The court upheld our decision," he said.

"It (the Elder's Council) is just like a court. The only thing we can't do is put them in jail," L'Hirondelle said. Decisions of the elder's council cannot be appealed.

L'Hirondelle and chairman Leonard Bellerose were appointed by Desmeules to the council, which was formed to resolve disputes within the MAA and to judge membership qualifications. The council ultimately reports to Desmeules.

Roy Charette, president of Local 8 in Medicine Hat, also voted to impeach Pelletier and Martel, but he was not suspended.

He was "smart enough to get out," said Pelletier. "When the ship is going down, you bail out. That's exactly what he did."

He denied Joann Graham, past resident of Local 845 in Rocky Mountain House, who also supported impeachment, has been suspended.

But Graham told Windspeaker she had received a letter following the revolt, advising her that her membership had been suspended.

She accused the MAA of doing nothing for Metis people in the Rocky Mountain House area.

"I think the Metis Association has to clean house. They should start right from the top."

Letendre says the breakaway Metis group now wants "a place at the table" to discuss a framework agreement with the provincial government rather than "just having Larry Desmeules making decisions for Metis."

He accused Desmeules of being ",more interested in fighting us and in suspending members than trying to get the situation (in Zone 3) resolved amicably."

White, who has been active in the MAA for over 20 years, told Windspeaker he was suspended July 4 for a year.

"I'm neither a radical or a screaming idiot or any of the other things I've been accused of," he said.

"All I'm trying to do is get value for the dollar for the good of the community," said White.

"There was never any money for the community to develop anything," charged White, explaining why he wanted Martel and Pelletier impeached.

"A few things we were able to get off the ground they effectively killed," he said.

That was most upsetting, he said, given the way money was being spent by the office.

White's father, Henry, was a founding member of the MAA.

"They accuse us of being a gang of dissidents. How can five of six be a dissident group?" asked White, who was president of the local for the last four years.

But Pelletier said he defeated White in nine elections for a director's position with the MAA. "Now you can see why he wants to start his own organization," he said.

He said he wasn't concerned the new society would replace the MAA in the south. "It's been tried before."

Woodward, who in 1969 became the first MAA fieldworker in the province, said the membership of Local 2002 withdre from the MAA after he was suspended in July.

He claimed Zone 3 is in trouble.

"The locals which were with them have moved over to us. It's a question of whether they're dying or whether the government is going to continue backing them," he said.

Woodward said he was evicted for "no justification, no reasons" from a Metis Housing complex after his feud with Martel and Pelletier. The eviction notice was delivered by Martel's husband, he said.

A similar membership battle raged last year in the Metis local in Edson.

Sharon Johnstone, president of Local 44, and her husband, Dan Martel, former vice-president, led a successful fight to have association financial records scrutinized, but not before their memberships were suspended.