A Yellowknives Dene First Nation band councillor suspects asking too many questions about where band money is being spent led to her firing.
Barb Powless-Lebel said she was asked to leave the room during a council meeting Nov. 28 while the band elders held a three-hour, closed-door session.
"When I went back into meeting, nobody spoke," Powless-Lebel recalled this week. "Elders looked shocked. Some councillors [were] looking down at table. [Chief Peter] Liske did all the talking."
She said Liske told her she was no longer a band councillor, and that she was going to be struck from the band list.
Powless-Lebel said the only explanation Liske gave was that the elders wanted it, but she thinks it's because she has been calling for an audit of band spending, including where money from the diamond mines is going.
"If they have nothing to hide, they shouldn't be worried about a forensic audit," she said. "Maybe there is something to hide. Maybe that's why I'm being treated this way."
Reached by the CBC in Ottawa this week, Liske said it was an internal matter and hung up the phone.
"As far as being removed from the band list, the band doesn't have the authority to do that," said George Cleary, who is in charge of Indian and Inuit services at the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.
"So, as far as we're concerned, she is still a member of the band," Cleary said.
However, Cleary add, it's up to the Yellowknives Dene to make and enforce their own rules for hiring and firing councillors.
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