Criticized for supporting a man convicted of sexual assault? Claim the critic is an imposter

July 27, 2007 6:29 PM

Dene Nation leaders blindsided at National Assembly by speaker invited to speak about a women's walk to raise awareness about violence against women. She took the podium and criticized local leaders for voicing support of a man convicted of sexual assaultt. The national chief's response? Claim she was an imposter not invited to speak.
posted by surplus (16 comments total)

I'll capture the "imposter" claim here because I don't know how long it will last on the Yellowknife website.

Today's (Friday, July 27, 2007) headlines

Chief says speaker posed as women's group representative
A woman who publicly condemned Behchoko Chief Leon Lafferty at last week's Dene National Assembly misled chiefs into believing she was a representative from the Native Women's Association of the NWT, according to National Dene Chief Bill Erasmus.
posted by surplus at 6:35 PM on July 27, 2007

"If you go into a meeting, you have to do the presentation on something, don't go and change the issue around," Lafferty later told Yellowknifer, adding again that he didn't think her subject was appropriate.

Yeesh.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 6:49 PM on July 27, 2007

How is this the best of the web?
posted by IronWolve at 6:53 PM on July 27, 2007

Wow, that's really bad, apparently.

oh, what Ironwolve said, too
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 7:07 PM on July 27, 2007

Some related info about the challenges - huge understatement - faced by Aboriginal women. Sobering stuff:
Victimization of Aboriginal Women, StatsCan, 2001
Aboriginal Women: An Issues Backgrounder, 2005
CBC Archives
Amnesty International, 2004

How is this the best of the web?
posted by IronWolve
Heh.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:10 PM on July 27, 2007 [3 favorites]

I was just replying with the normal reply when I post political news. Really, the woman didn't get kicked off stage, she wasn't told to leave, the chief made a comment about her discussion that she misrepresented herself. OMG the conspiracy!
posted by IronWolve at 7:19 PM on July 27, 2007

And an appropriate response was expected from someone who deigns them self to be a "chief".

Senator Vitter now has the floor.
posted by jsavimbi at 7:36 PM on July 27, 2007

For anyone involved in Aboriginal communities, this is almost the standard operating procedure of many conferences, community meetings or assemblies.

In general our communities are highly political and highly aware of political currents. Aboriginal leadership is a tough business populated by some tough characters and this tussle is tame compared to some of the outright brawls I have seen at Metis conferences, United Native Nations assemblies and other gatherings where tempers run high and hearts are worn on sleeves.

Good links on Aboriginal women though. To that I will add one on matrimonial property issues under the Indian Act.
posted by salishsea at 8:56 PM on July 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

This is just another example of Chief Lafferty and his cronies trying to silence dissent so that they can impose their retrograde policies from Behchoko through the entire community, without regard for what the people really want. It is amazing in this day and age that this kind of character assassination is still tolerated in Yellowknife. I, for one, am gratified that we have strong public personalities like Jeremick'a to speak truth to power to people like Erasmus and National Dene.
posted by Slap Factory at 9:37 PM on July 27, 2007

Outragefilter!
posted by grouse at 4:47 AM on July 28, 2007

Grouse: Bingo. That was a lot of fun. And I do sort of hate that Lafferty character now.
posted by Slap Factory at 10:58 AM on July 28, 2007

I personally cannot think of a single First Nations political organization from the national front straight down to individual bands, that is not run by corrupt and/or incompetent blowhards.
posted by nightchrome at 9:11 PM on July 29, 2007

nightchrome: I personally cannot think of a single First Nations political organization from the national front straight down to individual bands, that is not run by corrupt and/or incompetent blowhards.

What the hell are you talking about? What do you mean "National front?" Clearly you are trolling, but I won't let that comment stand.
posted by salishsea at 2:55 PM on July 30, 2007

Given what you do for a living, I can't say as I'm surprised you'd take such a remark personally. I thought I was fairly clear, the post on which we are commenting did not surprise me as I cannot think of a single political organization not run by villains.
posted by nightchrome at 5:29 PM on July 30, 2007

Well you are either not too acquainted with the world you are speaking about, you are not too interested, or you're just trolling. But the comment is so general as to be irrelevant.

At any rate, I'm not taking it personally, just putting a marker out, perhaps for others who actually are curious, that there is more sophistication and competence in the Aboriginal political world than you are letting on.

And I still don't know what you mean by the "national front?" I can only think of the British fascist organization, which seems a strange thing to invoke as a First Nations political organization. So that's the point of "what the hell are you talking about?"
posted by salishsea at 11:15 AM on July 31, 2007

Very strange that you were confused by that. I meant "at the national level". Since the words were not capitalized, I don't understand how you could interpret "national front" as an organization name.
I'm reasonably acquainted with the world, moreso on the local level than the "national front", as large sections of my family live on band land in band houses and deal with band bullshit. But you are correct in that I'm not too interested, as I was mostly just making a throwaway remark about the self-serving, willfully incompetent career-politicians who do the sorts of things described in the fpp.
posted by nightchrome at 6:30 PM on July 31, 2007