Massive political rift remains

Photo: Colin Dacre

Electoral officer Julia Buck reads from a list of nominees

A massive fissure within the Penticton Indian Band was on display Wednesday night at a nomination meeting to fill five vacant council seats left open by resignations.

After more than two hours of arguing, several nominations were eventually accepted by third-party electoral officer Julia Buck, under protest by about half the room, including former Chief Jonathan Kruger.

Buck was brought in by band administration to manage the contentious byelection, replacing longtime community-elected PIB electoral officer Valerie Baptiste. She had previously stated there was grounds for an entirely new election following the two most recent council resignations.

The half of the room opposed to Chief Chad Eneas and calling for a new election, argued that Buck had no authority to run the nomination meeting.

“We all voted her (Valerie) in when we were all here, and it got dealt with when there was nobody here,” Nicholas Kruger told about 100 people at the meeting.

The other half of the room argued that Baptiste never had the authority to call for a new election in the first place. Baptiste eventually declared the whole meeting illegal, leaving before it ended.

Multiple band members backing the existing Chief and Council stood to speak, chastising the opposition for blocking the byelections.

“There is no reason to take these people out of office. That is the only reason you’ve been obstructing the vote, is because you want to take these people out of office,” Jeanette Armstrong said. “It’s personal, because you don’t like them. But we do, we voted them in. That’s the way the voting works, that’s the way the process works.”

Another band member stood to lament the chasm within the community.

“We have to move forward as family. I’m related to probably 90 per cent of you in this room,” said Fred Kruger, speaking in support of Eneas. “But yet, I can’t walk or drive, or go into the band office, or any other business out here without someone looking at me funny.”

As arguing continued and nomination paperwork was being handed into Buck, Jonathan Kruger told Castanet he considered the entire nomination process illegal. Dolly Kruger, another vocal opponent of Eneas, made a similar public declaration.

Dolly also forwarded Castanet News a copy of a letter she sent to Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada on behalf of 117 band members, asking the federal government to declare the band’s current Chief and Council illegitimate, due to a lack of quorum.

Chief and Council currently has just four of the original nine members.

INAC previously indicated they would be staying out of the situation, stating the band has its own election customs.

Buck said it would be up to the band to decide whether the nomination process was legal, or if she would stay on as electoral officer. Several time throughout the evening, she reiterated that she was simply there to accept the nominations, and the band could vote to oust her at a future meeting.

Chief Eneas was not in attendance. He was elected in Oct. 2016.