The mayor of Quesnel, B.C., has been stripped of many of his duties and barred from entering land belonging to multiple First Nations in and around his community.
On Tuesday night, Quesnel’s city council voted unanimously to censure Ron Paull and impose multiple restrictions on his ability to represent the city.
The decision is in response to reports Paull’s wife has given out copies of a controversial book about residential schools to people in the community and that Paull himself had offered the book to other elected officials at a local government meeting.
In response, the Lhtako Dene, Nazko and Lhoosk’uz Dené First Nations have said they will refuse to work with Paull, who is also no longer welcome on land belonging to the Lhtako Dene.
The story thrust the community of roughly 23,000 people, located about 400 kilometres north of Vancouver, into the national spotlight as a flash point in the ongoing conversation about residential schools and Canada’s efforts at reconciliation with Indigenous communities.
But Paull says while he may have made an error in judgment, he has no plans to leave his position.
“I have four loves,” he said at this week’s meeting. “My wife Pat, my family and friends, my wonderful community of Quesnel, and my faith … I wholeheartedly intend on continuing giving back to my community.”
WATCH | Mayor plans to stay on after being censured:
Quesnel city council censures mayor
22 hours ago
Duration 2:13
Quesnel city council has voted unanimously to censure Mayor Ron Paull, claiming he damaged relations with First Nations. Paull’s wife distributed a book that local First Nations say minimizes the harms of residential schools.
Paull will continue to serve as mayor, as there is no formal mechanism to force elected officials to resign. He will also continue to chair council meetings.
However, council has formally condemned his actions, removed him from several committees, removed his travel budget and will not allow him to act as their representative with First Nations or other external groups.
They have also asked him to issue a formal apology, something which he has so far not done.
Coun. Tony Goulet said the steps were necessary to restore Quesnel’s relationship with First Nations.
“If we don’t have a working relationship with all Indigenous communities, we’re gonna be in trouble,” he said.
Other councillors expressed concern they would not be able to successfully apply for grants or enter partnerships with other levels of government or contractors without taking strong action.
“Our reputation internationally is being damaged on a colossal scale,” said Coun. Scott Elliott. “All the work that we’ve done to rebrand this city has been demolished.”
Council voted to revisit the sanctions in 90 days.
In 2024, Quesnel and the Lhtako First Nation officially partnered as hosts of the B.C. Winter Games, a first for the organization. (Laurey-Anne Roodenburg)
In an interview with CBC News after the meeting, Lhtako Dene band administrator Maynard Bara said his nation was pleased with council’s decision and said from his perspective, “It’s back to business as usual.”
“It’s great to see that city council did the right thing here and now we can move forward,” said Bara, adding that the past several weeks have been painful.
Quesnel has taken major steps in working with the Lhtako Dene, starting with a 2015 agreement which formally acknowledged the nation as partners upon whose land the city was built.
In the years since, it has taken other steps toward what it calls “true reconciliation,” which include restoring ownership of a downtown park to the First Nation and being the first city to officially co-host the B.C. Winter Games with an Indigenous community earlier this year.
Book given out by mayor’s wife
Tuesday’s decision came after several weeks of controversy which started at a council meeting held March 19, with a letter of concern from the Lhtako Dene First Nation.
According to the letter, a person related to a member of council — who Paull would reveal was his wife — had been giving out copies of a book titled Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools).
The book is a series of essays edited by C.P. Champion and Tom Flanagan, described by its publisher as challenging several assertions made about the harms of residential schools.
People walk on the former grounds of St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School, on March 30, 2022. Many members of the Lhtako Dene First Nation were taken from their community to the school in Williams Lake. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
In publicity material for the book, publishers True North and Dorchester Books say statements that residential schools traumatized Indigenous people across generations and destroyed Indigenous languages and culture are either “totally false or grossly exaggerated.”
The book is particularly critical of media reports on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation who, in 2021, announced preliminary findings of ground-penetrating radar work at the former Kamloops Residential School.
The nation has said they found anomalies which could be unmarked graves of children who attended the school, while clarifying that that possibility had yet to be confirmed.
WATCH | Learn about ground-penetrating radar:
How ground-penetrating radar works
3 years ago
Duration 4:51
Ground-penetrating radar is being used by Indigenous communities to pinpoint unmarked graves near former residential school sites. Here’s everything you need to know about the technology behind these discoveries.
However, the book points out many reports from media and other entities failed to include that context, which the authors say have helped shape a false public narrative of what happened at residential schools.
While some of the essays acknowledge abuse and harm to some children, others challenge the veracity of survivor’s accounts as well as the belief that in its attempt to assimilate Indigenous people, the residential school system amounted to cultural genocide, as determined by the federally-appointed Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
That commission heard testimony from more than 6,000 attendees of residential schools across the country, documenting stories of physical, sexual and psychological abuse, harsh punishments and malnourishment.
The letter from the Lhatkao Dene said, weighed against that testimony, the essays in Grave Error amount to “a slap in our people’s collective faces” by denying or minimizing the harms of residential schools that many of its members personally experienced and which are still felt within the community.
In response, Quesnel council, including Paull, voted to denounce the book and reaffirm their relationship with the Lhtako Dene.
Paull said at the meeting he had not personally read the book and that he does not always share the same opinions as his wife.
Controversy grows
However, that did not quell the backlash and on April 2 more than 200 people marched outside Quesnel city hall and called on the mayor to resign.
Inside, elders spoke of their own experiences at residential schools while Lhtako Dene Chief Clifford Lebrun told council his nation could no longer work with the city until the matter was resolved, a position reiterated by other First Nations in the region.
That notice led to this week’s decision by council to formally distance themselves from the mayor.
WATCH | Lhtako elder addresses council:
Residential school survivor calls for Quesnel mayor to resign
27 days ago
Duration 2:47
Lhtako Dene elder Bryant Paul, who attended St. Joseph Mission residential school, speaks to Quesnel city council on Apr. 2, 2024.
Paull opened the discussion about the possibility of being censured with a statement, saying the anger toward him was “all based on a misunderstanding.”
“I was accused of handing out and distributing the book,” he said. “I have not read the book.”
In a written statement to CBC News, Cariboo Regional District Chair Margo Wagner said that in her recollection of events, “Mayor Paull had a copy of the book and asked me if I was interested in reading the book as it was an interesting read. I politely declined and said I was not interested and walked away from the conversation.”
100 Mile House Mayor Maureen Pinkney gave a similar response in an interview with the Quesnel Cariboo Observer, in which she is quoted saying Paull “casually asked if I was familiar with the book and did I want to read it?”
Paull has not responded to interview requests from CBC News, but at the council meeting he said he was simply trying to use the book as a talking point for discussions about what sort of literature might or might not be allowed in local libraries.
But Coun. Laurey-Anne Roodenburg said the issue had moved beyond the book itself.
“I don’t care if you read the book – I bought it online and I want my money back,” she said.
“It’s about leadership and what’s transpired as a leader.”
On April 30, Quesnel city council voted unanimously to censure Mayor Ron Paull. Paull recused himself from the vote, citing conflict of interest. (City of Quesnel)
She and other councillors expressed disappointment that Paull’s story around whether he had ever recommended the book had changed over the weeks, and questioned if he was being truthful.
Councillors also spoke about the amount of scrutiny the episode had placed on them under.
“It has taken a toll,” said Goulet. “We’re all getting calls, we’re getting emails.”
Coun. Debra McKelvie said she had experienced multiple sleepless nights.
Lhtako Dene’s Maynard Bara said he and Chief Clifford LeBrun had also been getting “hate mail,” from people who disagreed with the decision from the First Nation and Quesnel’s council.
Among those who have been critical is Grave Error editor and contributor Tom Flanagan, who wrote that what was happening in Quesnel is similar to “totalitarian societies” accusing its members of “thought-crime,” while fellow editor C.P. Champion argued in a press release that council is “preventing the truth from coming out.”
But Goulet reiterated council never attempted to ban the book or prevent anyone from reading it.
“To me, denouncing was we weren’t going to promote the book. We weren’t going to talk about it. We were going to leave it at that.”
Goulet and the rest of council expressed hope that Paull would eventually apologize and his duties could be restored, but said that decision would not be made without first consulting First Nations.
LANGLEY, B.C. – Police in Langley, B.C., say one person is dead in a crash between a car and a motorcycle on Highway 1 that shut down the route for hours.
Mounties say their initial investigation indicates both vehicles were travelling east when they collided shortly before 4:20 a.m. near 240 Street on the highway.
The motorcycle rider died from their injuries.
Highway 1 was closed for a long stretch through Langley for about 11 hours while police investigated.
RCMP say their integrated collision analysis reconstruction team went to the scene.
The Mounties are asking anyone who witnessed the crash or who may have dash-camera footage from the area to call them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
WINNIPEG – A court has been asked to declare Lake Winnipeg a person with constitutional rights to life, liberty and security of person in a case that may go further than any other in trying to establish the rights of nature in Canada.
“It really is that simple,” said Grand Chief Jerry Daniels of the Manitoba Southern Chiefs’ Organization, which filed the suit Thursday in Court of King’s Bench in Winnipeg.
“The lake has its own rights. The lake is a living being.”
The argument is being used to help force the provincial government to conduct an environmental assessment of how Manitoba Hydro regulates lake levels for power generation. Those licences come up for renewal in August 2026, and the chiefs argue that the process under which those licences were granted was outdated and inadequate.
They quote Manitoba’s Clean Environment Commission, which said in 2015 that the licences were granted on the basis of poor science, poor consultation and poor public accountability.
Meanwhile, the statement of claim says “the (plaintiffs) describe the lake’s current state as being so sick that she is dying.”
It describes a long list of symptoms.
Fish species have disappeared, declined, migrated or become sick and inedible, the lawsuit says. Birds and wildlife including muskrat, beavers, duck, geese, eagles and gulls are vanishing from the lake’s wetlands.
Foods and traditional medicines — weekay, bulrush, cattail, sturgeon and wild rice — are getting harder to find, the document says, and algae blooms and E. coli bacteria levels have increased.
Invasive species including zebra mussels and spiny water fleas are now common, the document says.
“In Anishinaabemowin, the (plaintiffs) refer to the water in Lake Winnipeg as moowaakamiim (the water is full of feces) or wiinaagamin (the water is polluted, dirty and full of garbage),” the lawsuit says.
It blames many of the problems on Manitoba Hydro’s management of the lake waters to prevent it flushing itself clean every year.
“She is unable to go through her natural cleansing cycle and becomes stagnant and struggles to sustain other beings like animals, birds, fish, plants and people,” the document says.
The defendants, Manitoba Hydro and the provincial government, have not filed statements of defence. Both declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Daniels said it makes sense to consider the vast lake — one of the world’s largest — as alive.
“We’re living in an era of reconciliation, there’s huge changes in the mindsets of regular Canadians and science has caught up a lot in understanding. It’s not a huge stretch to understand the lake as a living entity.”
The idea has been around in western science since the 1970s. The Gaia hypothesis, which remains highly disputed, proposed the Earth is a single organism with its own feedback loops that regulate conditions and keep them favourable to life.
The courts already recognize non-human entities such as corporations as persons.
Personhood has also been claimed for two Canadian rivers.
Quebec’s Innu First Nation have claimed that status for the Magpie River, and the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in Alberta is seeking standing for the Athabasca River in regulatory hearings. The Magpie’s status hasn’t been tested in court and Alberta’s energy regulator has yet to rule on the Athabasca.
Matt Hulse, a lawyer who argued the Athabasca River should be treated as a person, noted the Manitoba lawsuit quotes the use of “everyone” in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“The term ‘everyone’ isn’t defined, which could help (the chiefs),” he said.
But the Charter typically focuses on individual rights, Hulse added.
“What they’re asking for is substantive rights to be given to a lake. What does ‘liberty’ mean to a lake?
“Those kinds of cases require a bit of a paradigm shift. I think the Southern Chiefs Organization will face an uphill battle.”
Hulse said the Manitoba case goes further than any he’s aware of in seeking legal rights for a specific environment.
Daniels said he believes the courts and Canadians are ready to recognize humans are not separate from the world in which they live and that the law should recognize that.
“We need to understand our lakes and our environment as something we have to live in cohesion with.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
OTTAWA – MPs on the public safety and national security committee voted unanimously to launch an investigation into an alleged Russian ploy to dupe right-wing influencers into sowing division among Americans.
A U.S. indictment filed earlier this month charged two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, in a US$10-million scheme that purportedly used social media personalities to distribute content with Russian government messaging.
While not explicitly mentioned in court documents, the details match up with Tenet Media, founded by Canadian Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, who is identified as her husband on social media.
The committee will invite Chen and Donovan to testify on the matter, as well as Lauren Southern, who is among the Tenet cast of personalities.
The motion, which was brought forward by Liberal MP Pam Damoff and passed on Thursday, also seeks to invite civil society representatives and disinformation experts on the matter.
Court documents allege the Russians created a fake investor who provided money to the social media company to hire the influencers, paying the founders significant fees, including through a company account in Canada.
The U.S. Justice Department doesn’t allege any wrongdoing by the influencers.
Following the indictment, YouTube removed several channels associated with Chen, including the Tenet Media channel.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
