Hello – from the real Métis Mama:

On http://derrylsanderson.blogspot.com there was a posting today that identified “Local 845 President Is Wrong, States MNA Member”

I know that some things are challenging for others to understand but we will take a stab at bringing clarity to some of the misinformation that is contained in this posting.

Firstly, Métis Mama and Bev Weber, President of Rocky Mountain House Métis Local 845 are not one and the same. I do a great many things that I would not want to lay at the feet of others and will take responsibility for what I do.

As for believing what you read – this is my philosophy – I provide collaborating material and do my best to validate the material I am responsible for writing. I do admit when my items are of an editorial nature and accept that I have an opinion – not always popular – but like I have posted in the past – other people having opinions does not bother me either – it challenges me to completely understand my point of view or admitting when I may be wrong if someone is able to demonstrate that my opinion is based on false research or information.

Who ever “Hothook” is clearly states that they do not have the facts based on the materials but they are sharing a letter they came across.

The truth about Mr. Mark Nystrom’s letter is that there has never been a letter that was sent to the Rocky Mountain House Métis Local – there has only been an email that originated from Joe Chodzicki’s email address. A letter sent by Joe to select individuals after a meeting to discuss his ethics – sounds a bit on the maybe this is Joe’s letter.

There was a meeting in Rocky Mountain House community. As our bylaws stipulate – the Local must call a Special Meeting with 21 days notice to discuss issues of the right of recall. This community was not just upset at issues that related to Mr. Chodzicki’s letter writing and fight with Audrey Poitras – they had discussions around the issues that Mr. Chodzicki was not acting on behalf of the people he represented and was acting on behalf of individuals like Trevor Gladue. He was no longer attending meetings and participating as the elected official – but was in another Region working with Rick Boucher, Trevor Gladue and David Chartrand. They knew this because Joe had attended private sessions with community people and had tried to encourage them to come and join his cause in Northern Alberta.

The information about his behaviours was shared and he was given an opportunity to defend his actions or even deny them. As I was told by more then one person who attended this meeting - (some of those being Joe’s friends that he took with him) instead of preparing a defense or presenting his views on his actions – he whined about losing his pay cheque.

Let’s look at Joe’s record of what he has done in the three years of his election – he has only raised two issues at the Provincial Council meetings:

He wanted a clothing allowance – because he has to where clean clothes to meetings now that he is elected and has to present himself in public more often. This notion was thrown out at the Provincial Council and for good reason – The Regional Council is responsible for determining their wages and benefits.

The second issue that was raised is he wanted travel money to attend Métis funerals across the province. Once again his Provincial counterparts indicated that this was probably not an advisable expenditure – or even an eligible one.

We are noticing a common theme about Joe though. It is about Joe and his money for Joe. Yes that is my opinion and only because he is not doing anything but whine about money.

Now for some of the other misstated facts:

At the beginning of the meeting they would not leave members without cards vote – the bylaws clearly state that for it to be a legal Special Meeting you must be a card carrying member of the Métis Nation of Alberta and be from that community. If they had not done that the meeting would have been identified as “illegal”.

Trevor and Joe also tried to change the agenda at the meeting and Trevor used the pretext that he wanted to talk to the youth. He was advised that because of the requirements of the Special Meeting the agenda could not be altered – but he was given a chance to bring forward a discussion with the youth after the meeting. Instead – he left without talking to any youth. In fact, we were advised that Trevor Gladue brought a written presentation and gave it – including his poor command of the Cree language. He did present his scripted defense and even his friends who came with him thought he looked bad.

Trevor and Joe showed up at this meeting with several of their cohorts from Edmonton and Red Deer – and no they were not allowed to vote. When they talked about the large vote they received – it has already been well documented that their large votes from Rocky Mountain House – never did exist in the last election. In fact there were less then 5,000 votes from across Alberta – remember now they say they represent 600.000 Métis people here and less then 1% of the population vote.

This author of the email from Joe indicates – How do we bring the Métis Nation together – well we do not believe that Joe’s or Trevor’s actions speak of unity. Even their recent actions where they clearly say there are no Board Meetings and then throw the agenda of the Provincial Council meetings out or boycott them does not reflect unity. Read Métis Matters – no unity. Read Trevor’s press release – no unity. Read Joe’s infamous letter and view the APTN press packages – no unity in these boys – Just their own political agenda that is all about filling their own pockets.

As for charges being laid – that has not happened - even as of today. Mark’s uncle, Eric Nystrom is one of the individuals asked to leave the meeting. He is not a youth – in fact Trevor advises people that it is his Shaman. He does not live in the community and has a big history that had him leave the community in disgrace many years ago. He now lives in Red Deer, along with the other individual named Shylo and they were there to be disruptive and disrespectful to the community. The other youth that was taken out of the meeting was a child who is the grand child of Bev Weber. She did not want her grand child exposed to the swearing and name calling that Trevor’s group of friends were partaking in.

In fact, the Shaman, Mark’s uncle called the Métis Elder/Matriarch from the community names. Hurtful names that were meant to cause her great pain and suffering. He called her “Mrs. Clifford Olsen”. It was very personal, hurtful and derogatory – because that elder had lost a child to the Clifford Olsen killing spree many years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Olsen) This Métis woman has committed herself to ensuring that he never gets out of jail and never does that to any other children.
These types of activities from Trevor’s friends had them thrown out of the meeting. I would advise Mark that any young Métis people who do these types of things should be thrown out of Métis meetings. Bullying verbal or physical is not tolerated.

It is true that disruptive individuals who were not from the community were swearing, name calling and being disruptive to try and stop the meeting. They were the friends of Joe and Trevor’s – if that is leadership – we are in for a very scary time.