OTTAWA—RoseAnne Archibald, who was ousted as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) by chiefs of the AFN on June 28 is calling on her supporters to tell their chiefs and councils to reinstate her. In a five-minute video posted to Facebook last week, she said they need to ensure a forensic audit of the national advocacy organization moves ahead and called for an independent investigation into potential government interference at AFN.
“You can call, text or email your chief and council and you can ask for two things. One, that they reinstate me as national chief and two, that they make sure that the forensic audit goes ahead,” Ms. Archibald said on the video.
She stated, “I don’t want to be reinstated because of my ego. I want to be reinstated because I have a sacred responsibility that I have to fulfill. What the chiefs did on June 28 is…they just went ahead and did one of the most violent acts against an Indigenous, First Nations woman leader.”
Ms. Archibald was voted out as national chief three weeks ago after more than a year of turmoil involving her leadership. The vote took place during a special chief’s assembly that was convened in part to address the implications of a human resources investigation related to complaints that AFN staff had filed against her. The report by Emond Harnden LLP reviewed five complaints against the former AFN national chief and found her behaviour amounted to harassment in more than one instance. It found she failed to maintain confidentiality and breached AFN policy, including retaliating against complainants.
Ms. Archibald has vehemently denied all the allegations against her and said the chiefs didn’t receive the full report. She alluded to interference in her video, including allegations that there were connections between assembly staff, chiefs, former national chiefs and the federal Liberal government. She has called on supporters to write to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to ask for an investigation into interference.
The resolution to oust her, just over two years after she became the first woman to serve in the role, passed with support from about 70 percent of those who took part in the virtual meeting.
The infighting at the organization that represents more than 600 First Nations played out in public last July at a gathering in Vancouver, when Ms. Archibald showed up despite having been temporarily suspended.
After chiefs voted down an emergency resolution to affirm her suspension, she expressed her gratitude, alleging she had been unfairly suspended because she had been trying to investigate corruption within the assembly.
In her Facebook video, Ms. Archibald repeated those claims, stating pushback she has received is because she has been fighting corruption at the AFN since October 2022.
First Nations chiefs and leaders will be meeting in Halifax this week for the annual general assembly.
The AFN has said the national chief position will be vacant until an interim national chief is selected from the executive committee, and that an election is set to take place during a special chief’s assembly in December.
