Gambler First Nation ordered to pay woman $50K

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This article was published 11/08/2015 (3736 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — A Manitoba First Nation has been ordered to pay $50,000 in compensation to a band member it prevented from running for chief because she wasn’t related to the right person.

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal issued its ruling Friday in a case that dates back more than three years, when Gambler First Nation resident Sharon Tanner was told she was ineligible to run for chief of the First Nation because she wasn’t a descendent of John Falcon Tanner.

John Falcon Tanner was part of the originating history of Gambler First Nation and signed the band’s treaty with the government. Sharon Tanner was born as a member of Sagkeeng First Nation, but under the Indian Act became a member of Gambler in 1981 when she married a man who was from there. Since 2007, Gambler has required anyone wanting to run for chief or councillor to be a blood relative of John Tanner.

In hearing the case, the tribunal found requiring someone to be a descendent of someone in order to run for office is discriminatory under the Canadian Human Rights Act. The decision largely stemmed from a question of whether ancestry is protected by the CHRA, even though it is not explicitly named within it.

“I find ancestry, whether framed in terms of racial ancestry, national or ethnic ancestry, or family ancestry, is a characteristic protected from discrimination under the (CHRA),” wrote tribunal member George Ulyatt.

Ulyatt gave Gambler First Nation one year to revise its election law, which currently makes being a descendent of Tanner an eligibility requirement to be nominated to run for chief or one of the band’s two councillor positions.

It also found the band discriminated against Tanner when it fired her from her job as an economic development officer in 2012, after she made her complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

The CHRC referred the case to the tribunal in 2013 after finding an inquiry was warranted.

The tribunal did not find Tanner had been discriminated against by the band in other ways, including being denied welfare or even being banished from the reserve for a period of time in 2000. In those instances, the tribunal believed evidence suggested it was Tanner’s own behaviour or living situation that led to those decisions.

The ruling shows there has been tension between Tanner and her family and other members of the First Nation for decades, including violent confrontations.

Ulyatt ordered the band to pay Tanner $50,238 in compensation for pain, suffering and lost wages.

Gambler First Nation Chief David Ledoux did not return phone calls from the Free Press Monday.

Tanner’s lawyer, Norman Sims, said he has yet to speak to his client about the ruling but believes it is a good decision for her.

Sims said he is not sure what happens in a year if Gambler doesn’t comply. He also said he expects the First Nation to appeal.

Gambler First Nation is about 160 kilometres northwest of Brandon and close to the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border.

First Nations in Canada only became subject to the Canadian Human Rights Act in 2011, when the act was amended to no longer exclude the Indian Act and First Nations governments.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca