The accounting firm hired to audit the finances of the troubled Attawapiskat First Nation reserve in northern Ontario says there is little or no documentation for millions of dollars spent by the band, CBC News has learned.
The unreleased audit was intended to ensure that more than $100 million provided by the federal government to Attawapiskat between April 2005 and November 2011 was spent as it should have been.
CBC News has obtained a copy of the audit. The funding was intended for housing, sewage, education and other services.
In a letter dated Sept. 20, 2012, that was written by Deloitte to Chief Theresa Spence and copied to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, that auditing firm says that of 505 transactions reviewed, more than 400 lacked proper documentation.
[…]
Deloitte reported its finding to Spence in late August. It’s not known what she or the band council did in response to the findings.
I sense a blood clot coming on.
First things first – a statement from @justintrudeau MT @kady now we wait to see if #IdleNoMore begins to distance itself from Spence
— katewerk (@katewerk) January 7, 2013
And this is from the left wing cbc no less! How dare the left wing cbc be so mean to irresponsible Indians! The left wing cbc should be defunded!
Fish broth is expensive – I’m sure that’s where the bulk of the unaccounted for funds went. You can’t expect Porkahontas to eat icky local fish touched by local people. That’s just … ick.
The “other shoe” has just dropped, Deloitte,whom my Nephew is employed by as a forensic accountant, says 81% of the expenditures have no proper documentation. Millions of dollars have NO paper trail.
It seems those of us who were skeptical weren’t “racist” ,but absolutely RIGHT in our assertions and the often asked question,”where’s the money”?!
I wonder if the useful idiots of the MSM, who backed Spence like she was Ghandi and Mandela combined, will have the decency to back off their criticism of the Harper stance on this story.
Maybe CBC sees a rat here. Last night on the National they gave the whole Aboriginal issue about 10 seconds 3/4 the way through the program. They reported on Hockey, Syria, Wildfires in Tanzania, and a few other stories before they even mentioned the Hunger strike and then when they did they hardly gave it a second look.
Chief Spence is losing her credibility on her Fish cleansing diet
In another thread, “john” aka phil/troll/whatever linked to a National Post article which purported to explain where the $90 million (the article was written last year) was spent. In it, the author quoted a section of the act where the “minister .. may review” expense authorizations, and interpreted that as the minister always reviews the authorizations. In fact, I suspect very little such review occurs. It reminds me of Captain Renault from Casablanca:
“Oh, please, monsieur. It is a little game we play. They put it on the bill, I tear up the bill. It is very convenient.”
Yes. Very.
Over on Kinsella’s site, I made several comments about the actual actions of Spence with regards to her hunger strike. I’ve always said this was just a showboating crook who was playing the “native Card” to hide the fact she and her cronies were absolutely incompetent/corrupt. Kinsella deleted my comments, and has once again barred me…which he does every time I shoot holes in his arguments. His site..his rules, but at least I know I’ve hit a nerve he would rather not have exposed.
Of course, he may have barred me because I referred to Ms. Spence as
“Chief double-chin-starving-in-tent”
And joe Clark and Paul Martin.
If they just watched sun news they would have known the chief was bad news… Shows poor Judgement on the part of all three…
Meanwhile, at least one paper is Trying to spin this against the CPC:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1311314–federal-government-audit-severely-critical-of-attawapiskat-chief-theresa-spence
“OTTAWA—The federal government is concerned a damning independent audit of how federal funds are spent in Attawapiskat will inflame tensions in advance of Friday’s meeting between the prime minister and First Nations leaders, says a source who has seen the report.
The government, however, says it is not deliberately withholding the document and it will be released soon through “normal channels.””
This just confirms what we thought. The so-called hunger strike was to deflect and garner enough public sympathy to bury this report and the Idle No More demonstrations are meant to try and kill Bill C-45 which will bring more accountability to reserves among many other positive changes. The grievance industry does not want positive economic improvements to the reserve system.
The high-ranking comments at the CBC are telling.
Spence is losing this battle on the political and PR fronts.
The Paul Martins and Joe Clarks and…yes…Justins….haven’t kept up with the times.
Sympathy for this sort of stunt would show off your “I care” credentials twenty years ago, but the normals in mainstream society have been veering off script for some time now. I went through some CBC comments about Idlenomore and it was like reading smalldeadanimals.
People have had it with Indian issues. Enough is enough. The normals are finely feeling empowered to say what they think without any traces of assumed guilt.
Its gonna get interesting in the next short while, assuming that Chief Moans-a-lot even attends the meeting.. when the leftards lose the CBC, you know they have a lost cause.
Sun News Network — particularly Ezra Levant — was on to this story ages ago and he revived it last week. Sun has forced the lamestream media, against their wishes, to cover this important aspect of the story. First CTV mentioned it, then Glowbull and now, for heaven’s sake, the CBC. It is so sad to see these establishment journos ousted from their anti-Harper narrative comfort zone. NOT!
Justin (just call me Justin) was moved by Chief Spence when he visited the teepee. Paul Martin was inspired. Does anyone need more proof that Liberals are soft in the head?
It must greatly pain the CBC to report this news and I am sure they will do their best to indianwash this news and not tell Canadians the whole, real story.
Because it is the CBC after all. Truth is always the servant to philosophy.
Martin just yesterday saying what an inspiration Spence is. Talk about timing. No wonder he was such a loser in the political game.
“Deloitte reported its finding to Spence in late August. It’s not known what she or the band council did in response to the findings.”
That sentence alone should destroy ANY credibility Spence has left. The B**** has known about the audit for 4 or 5 months!
Yes,Trudeau and Martin show the poor judgement of second-rate political whores who pander to the loudest activist rather than make good decisions regarding governance,
Of course,the Indian Industry just LOVES Paul Martin,of the infamous “Kelowna Accord” that would have handed MORE billions to the Band Chiefs,to go unaccounted for!
This AM,I am pissed off!
Definition of a racist: An accountant.
Last night I suggested a parody/vid of all the lib-left losers fighting in line to get a photo op with her. They all just ended up with fish broth in their faces!
Life imitates art…
Thank you Ezra and SNN!!
Justine and Jabba in the same picture? What are you trying to do to us? It belongs on some S&M website.
Poor Paul Martin. Just looking to soak up a little limelight and he gets burned by a shyster. You’d think that he, of all people, would recognize a leader who is on the take and attempting to deflect blame onto a side issue.
Progressives, the Liberals and the NDP should listen to Martin’s old pal Bono who finally wised about poverty and capitalism. (Note for Native Band leaders, federal Liberals and Quebec politicians: avoid the temptation to illegally skim off a tithe and poverty will be reduced faster) My bold is directed to all the righteous minds like the professor Taiaiake Alfred and company.
[Bono] said it had been “a humbling thing for me” to realize the importance of capitalism and entrepreneurialism in philanthropy, particularly as someone who “got into this as a righteous anger activist with all the cliches.”
“Job creators and innovators are just the key, and aid is just a bridge,” he told an audience of 200 leading technology entrepreneurs and investors at the F.ounders tech conference in Dublin. “We see it as startup money, investment in new countries. A humbling thing was to learn the role of commerce.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2012/10/22/bonos-humbling-realizations-about-aid-capitalism-and-nerds/
About 81% had inadequate supporting documentation and 60% had NO documentation. None. And that includes expenditures in five and six figures. No documentation.
So, the 104 million given by the taxpayers between 2005 and 2011 for housing, education, etc, seems to have not been spent on those functions but..has disappeared.
However, the majority of people are no longer automatically onside with native complaints. They are now asking: where did the money go?
Strange that Spence was told about this audit and its criticism in September and yet, she has ignored it to hold her ‘fast’. Did she think it wouldn’t be made public? Did she misread the Canadian taxpayer?
The CBC has reported this. What’s next?
I must say, she sure looks hungry in that photo. The lovely full double chin is particularly convincing in someone on a “hunger” strike.
And please, somebody out there, how the hell is that woman an Indian? She’s whiter than my pure Scots aunties. She’s whiter than Justin!
That woman has never missed a meal.
How much did she weigh Dec. 11th,
50 stone,
700 pounds?
Let’s face it, maybe the Liberal/Left really has big hearts and tiny, infinitesimal, mostly unworkable brains.
Hearts so big they are willing to kill entire cultures and races to prove it.
Or maybe it is just about ideology and ignorance.
Justin the Annointed twit has 178000 twit followers, so I’m leaning to the latter.
ET said: “The CBC has reported this. What’s next?”
If Caledonia is any indication, next comes the beatings of reporters by “peaceful demonstrators”, the belligerent armed mobs commandeering public highways, and of course the burning tires. Possibly some arson, as when the “demonstrators” burnt down the Sterling Street bridge in Caledonia.
Which wasn’t replaced, incidentally. Instead they had a cop car with two $65/hour cops in it guarding the charcoal remains for a really long time. This is known in policing circles as shutting the stable door after the horse has run off.
Now the Globe and Mail, National Post and even, heh, the Toronto Star have the story about the audit. The Star doesn’t talk about the figures and still tries to blame Harper – even for releasing the audit – but, facts are facts.
The comments are almost all against Spence and the abuse of taxpayer money. Therefore, what will Spence do?
Reporters asking the band what they thought of the very, very critical audit, are met with no comments.
Phantom, I may be wrong, but I think the next phase won’t be similar to Caledonia, ie, in the control of the natives.
This very damning audit has moved authority over the narrative from Spence, from the natives to the government. And to the taxpayers. This isn’t about a disputed land base; this is a factual report that cannot be disputed. Namely: what did you specifically do with the taxpayers’ specific amountn of money?
Facts trump fiction. What will be interesting is – how will Spence try to regain control of the narrative?
Harper is on the side of the taxpayer. He is merely saying: the taxpayer is giving you money; you must be publicly accountable for it.
No narrative of ‘we were the First People’; or ‘we are pure’ or even ‘we live in squalor’ can trump those financial facts.
So, what will Spence do? Must less, Justin and Martin. Heh.
What I want to know is why someone with a $100,000 plus salary (tax free) needs donations to go on a hunger strike.
Stan beat me to it, but what Dear Kady should be waiting for is how long before the Accounting firm is called RACIST.
If Chief double-chin-starving-in-tent was really serious, she’d stop taking any food whatsoever to make her case.
That would give her about 18 months to really make her point before her health was in jeopardy.
Old joke:
Doctor: Chief Spence, I’m sorry to inform you that you have a very aggressive strain of the fatal Flesh Eating Disease.
Chief Spence: Oh My God. How long have I got left to live.
Doctor: From the looks of you, I estimate about 20 years.
ET et al:
There is a growing contingent within the pre-columbian community that very much supports reform and rejects both the indian Act and the corruption of many (a large majority) of the chiefs and their hangers-on. The changes that the new legislation brings forward were not done without consulting the pre-columbians (PCs) – they were in fact very heavily involved with the support of Tom Flanagan and others.
PMSH’s strategy has and continues to be to largely let the PCs debate the way forward and let them hash it out in public. The upcoming meetings will demonstrate that… And PMSH will let others do the public condmening of the actions of spence and her ilk.
The government’s role will be as facilitator – not as overlord. The indian Act as its presently is written prevents that. At long last Canada now has a leader AND a party that is acting to change that and thus greatly improve the futures of PCs. One day the PCs will build statues of PMSH in recognition of that…
The Globe & Mail article about these revelations is titled, “Attawapiskat audit raises questions about millions in spending: reports.” Any Canadian with any sense has been asking questions about the abuse of taxpayer funds for decades. Why has it taken so long for the government and media to notice fraud and theft?
Big Chief Bouillabaisse has attempted to conceal her misuse of taxpayer funds while status Indians are exempt from taxation that supplies the money. Finally her “hunger strike” is revealed as a shallow attempt to direct attention away from her corrupt deeds.
$90-$100M over 6 years for a reserve of 1549 (2011 census).
$64,557 for every man, woman and child.
Gord Tulk, thanks for the comments.
Yes, thank god for Harper. His tactic is to move the debate about ‘the natives’ from the Liberal/NDP narrative of white guilt and into the reality of reserve abuse of taxpayer money and the reality of the public status of the reserve.
A narrative of white guilt has no resolution for more money won’t solve the real problems of reserve corruption and lack of an economy. Reserves, being public property and communal, can’t legally allow private businesses. So, there’s no means of an economy on a reserve. You can’t work on the reserve because you can’t set up a business.
Removing the taxpayer from emotional support for the ‘hapless and helpless native’, and showing the corruption on reserves will also, enable natives who want change, to force the old guard corrupt chiefs out.
Of course, the Liberals and NDP touting the praises of the Noble Indian, will also lose contact with the reality of taxpayer anger. Heh.
I guess this will take some of the wind out the activists sails at Fridays meeting between Harper and the FN leaders. How self-righteous and accusatory can you get while wondering what Deloitte may find in an audit of your Band’s finances? Even chiefs have to stand for re-election and native voters may decide to clean house and replace them with leaders who give a damn about the conditions of the band members.
Kudos, dmorris, you’ve been all over this one for some time now.
You’ll remember your recent reference about the John Ivison “agenda” column: I didn’t say so directly at the time, but I was wondering if the position in that particular dispatch didn’t come from the AFN (based on an earlier idea that had occurred to me that the AFN would not view Ms. Spence’s behaviour as particularly helpful — “counter-productive” was the term I used).
L. Ian MacDonald had a great article in the Montreal Gazette over the weekend about the “face-saving” move by PMSH to have an accelerated schedule of meeting(s). How would that happen, exactly? Here’s an answer: the AFN privately requested it.
And now this? Who actually released the information? For the CBC to report it, I’d say that it didn’t come from anybody in Mr. Harper’s administration — if it did, that would be a reason NOT to report it, from the CBC’s perspective.
My guess would be, since the information’s been around since August, and would not have been containable on the grape vine — all the while in the Dominion’s possession — that it came from the AFN. If you go to Gord Tulk’s remarks at 9:39a.m., you’ll note the implicit denial by the Harper government that they released it.
If true, that would suggest a whole new level of trust between the AFN and the Government of Canada. Which would put PMSH in a league of his own.
Conjecture? Certainly.
Ouch, that picture hurts. One of them makes a ton of money for very little, one wants to be prime minister…and the other will likely be appointed head of aboriginal studies at a university. And forget to show up.
Thanks,David. I think your “conjecture” is right,an increasing number of Indian politicians realize that the old ways can’t continue much longer.
The AFN surely MUST recognize a politician,Stephen Harper, that actually wants to help the situation rather than just pander,as Martin did.
Stephen Harper works slowly and deliberately to accomplish the many changes he has to make to not only the Indian Act, but so many more Liberal disasters in this Country.
One day he WILL be recognized as the best PM we ever had.
The Phantom “She’s whiter than my pure Scots aunties. She’s whiter than Justin!”
I don’t know if Spence was her original name but they were Orkneymen in the employ of the Hudson’s Bay Company 200 years ago. Spence is a common Scottish Half-Breed name in the West. Most of the traditional Half-Breeds and Metis have long since merged into white society although they might have a coloured sash in their closet and do a mean Red River jig when called upon. It ticks some of the traditional Metis off that offspring from more recent couplings call themselves Metis.
Picture caption in the next election for the Harper Government, “Birds of a feather….”
Chief Spence wanted action on several fronts. Somehow I don’t think this is what she had in mind. More like the straw that broke the camels back.
ET “Reserves, being public property and communal, can’t legally allow private businesses. So, there’s no means of an economy on a reserve. You can’t work on the reserve because you can’t set up a business.”
Nobody has ever been forced to live on a reserve in Canada. You are likely denied many benefits if you live elsewhere but so be it. The treaties usually specifically allow hunting within the treaty area.
For a native to start a business on the reserve all he needs is approval of the local government, just like any other Canadian. It happens all the time.
The reserve usually ends within a few miles and the native is free to start a business outside the reserve should he meet zoning and other requirements. Municipalities are not in the habit of rejecting tax dollars so they are normally approved unless they are a nuisance.
Love your twitter feed Kate.
Her PR stunt could of been timed to ensure the public focuses on her non-starvation diet and not on the undocumented spending. Personally I think that kind of accounting should be a criminal offense, RC doesn’t allow me to file returns sans any lawful receipts thus she should have to pay every dime she spent back personally.
A very good example of what can be achieved by Indian Bands is Westbank FN. You can drive through the Reserve for about two miles,every inch filled with Big Box stores anchoring malls,and hundreds of smaller businesses.
WFN has a population of 6200,and is governed by ONE Chief and FOUR Band Councillors.
Who was it who said “If you are not a socialist (liberal) by the time you are 20, you have no heart. If you are still a socialist by the time you are 40, you have not brain.”
Scar – what you say is true, but that’s part of the welfare trap. By ensuring that the first step away from dependency is a very large step, they ensure that less people will try to take it. The more people stay dependent and on the reserve, the more money the reserve will get.
Chief “Dense” is not sure what a hunger strike is.
Her idea is you use a plastic spoon, when you EAT. Lobster biske goes down just the same.
scar, the business on the reserve would have to be approved by the federal government, which owns the land, and the band, which ‘governs’ the land.
But, even so, since it’s public land, then no private enterprise is permitted. The profits of that business do not go to the individual entrepreneur but to the whole band. That’s the point. You can’t start up a private business on public land.
The Indian Act and the Reserve System ought to both be abolished. Give each native a ‘settlement’ sum, and that’s it. It’s over. They retain their heritage and culture on their own, just as do every other ethnic groups in Canada.
But to pay them to not work is debilitating. Of course it leads to corruption and ten very enriched band councillors for each 100 impoverished people on the reserve.
And no, it’s not the fault of the evil white colonials. When it began, both sides genuinely thought that the natives would continue their old lifestyle. Heh. But they don’t want to; they want modern technology as much as anyone else.
The RCMP Fraud Division and some DNA testing would clear this farcical Liberal scam up in a month –
That is if anyone had the balls to do the right thing for a change.