Charges have been laid for treaty land entitlement fraud, this time involving several leading officials on Poundmaker First Nation.
In all, nine individuals and public officials have been charged and are due to appear in provincial court in Cut Knife Aug. 16 at 10 am. The individuals charged include the current chief, Duane Antoine, and former chief, Ted Antoine, as well as councillors and other officials.
The nine face charges including theft over $5,000, fraud over $5,000, breach of trust by a public official and criminal breach of trust, all in connection to money misspent from the Treaty Land Entitlement fund at Poundmaker First Nation. The alleged offences date back to 2004.
According to a news release from the RCMP issued Tuesday afternoon, Cut Knife RCMP received a complaint from a member of Poundmaker First Nation in June 2004 that band funds and Treaty Land Entitlement funds had been misspent. TLE funds are allocated to reserves in order for them to purchase additional land.
Cut Knife RCMP then initiated an investigation, receiving assistance from "F" Division Commercial Crime Section's Saskatoon office. Later, in January 2006, the Commercial Crime Section assumed responsibility for the investigation.
All of those charged are from Poundmaker First Nation. They are:
Duane Antoine, age 51, with two counts of theft over $5000, two counts of fraud over $5,000, two counts of breach of trust by a public official and one count of criminal breach of trust.
Ted Antoine, 55 with two counts of theft over $5000, two counts of fraud over $5,000, two counts of breach of trust by a public official and one count of criminal breach of trust.
Colin Favel, 51 with two counts of theft over $5000, two counts of fraud over $5,000, two counts of breach of trust by a public official and one count of criminal breach of trust.
Bryan Tootoosis, age 58 with two counts of theft over $5000, two counts of fraud over $5,000, two counts of breach of trust by a public official and one count of criminal breach of trust.
Irene V. Tootoosis, age 67 with two counts of theft over $5000, two counts of fraud over $5,000, two counts of breach of trust by a public official and one count of criminal breach of trust.
Norman Antoine, Age 61, with one count of theft over $5,000, one of fraud over $5,000, and one of criminal breach of trust.
Hickson Weenie, Age 65 with one count of theft over $5,000, one of fraud over $5,000, and one of criminal breach of trust.
Burton Baptiste, Age 55 with one count of theft over $5,000, one of fraud over $5,000, and one of criminal breach of trust.
Victoria McMillan, Age 66 with one count of theft over $5,000, one of fraud over $5,000, and one of criminal breach of trust.
The charges at Poundmaker come on the heels of a similar investigation and charges at Mosquito First Nation, where five individuals faced various charges of theft, fraud and breach of trust stemming from misspent TLE funds from that reserve. The funds were supposed to go towards purchasing land.
Two individuals, Alphone Moosomin and Eldon Starchief, were sentenced to 12 months in jail for breach of trust convictions in January. Three others - Chief Clarence Stone, Gerald Bird and Clifford Spyglass - await a Queen's Bench trial by judge alone on theft and fraud charges in that case.
Poundmaker First Nation has seen controversy of another sort in the past year. A dissident opposition group tried to oust Chief Antoine and the incumbent council in 2010 over allegations of unaccountable leadership.
The dissidents went so far as to hold a traditional band custom meeting to vote out the incumbent council and set up their own alternative government with a new chief and council. However, the incumbent chief and council ignored the attempt to remove them and continued in office as usual.
