As the tragic details of Treaty Land Entitlement fraud, first investigated in 2004, unfold at a snail's pace in North Battleford Provincial Court, the far reaching implications of actions by some members of the Mosquito First Nation are becoming apparent.
Two of the individuals who were charged in the case have pled guilty to breach of trust and are scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 2. Three others have entered not guilty pleas. Preliminary hearings are scheduled for next year.
Mosquito First Nation, initially defrauded by the Canadian government when it was shortchanged on the amount of land granted to the band according to Treaty 6 signed in the late 1800s, has now been defrauded by its own people.
Treaty Land Entitlement framework agreements, brought into play in the early 1990s, were designed to assist First Nations in making up the shortfall of acreage promised to them in treaties signed in good faith with the Canadian government. Mosquito First Nation is likely to never attain the minimum acreage - 20,096 acres - they were to acquire through the funds granted by the framework agreement.
The funds are gone, according to information presented in court. Between 2002 and 2003 a total of 3,256 acres were actually purchased, not a lot to show for the $9.6 million granted by the framework agreement.
In the process, future generations of Mosquito First Nation are the ones who will suffer from the portrait of greed and mismanagement that is being painted in court.
The numbers are astounding. In 2002 alone, $766,000 went to expenses and only $343,000 to land cost. One of the individuals was paid $105,000 in a year, another $136,000.
It is apparent the Treaty Land Entitlement structure is fatally flawed, in that no checks and balances came into play to prevent this wholesale abuse of power and influence.
The system has failed the people of Mosquito First Nation and Canadian taxpayers. Punishment of the two individuals who have pled guilty to their misdeeds will be of small compensation and the likelihood of restitution ever coming close to the millions squandered is a pipe dream.
As Crown prosecutor Robin Ritter observed in court last week, a public perception of theft, misspending and crime tar many respectable people in the aboriginal community. The victims are not just those on Mosquito but "all aboriginals struggling to improve their lives."
