We now have more information on how the Squamish Nation emergency fund was managed, but an informative report on the issue has left many Squamish Nation members demanding a more in-depth investigation.
Through the release of the report written by lawyer Nazeer Mitha, it’s clear there wasn’t an accountability system in place for the disbursement of emergency social services money to Squamish Nation members in need. Over the course of three years, nearly $1.5 million in emergency funds was handed out by Krissy Jacobs and Glen Newman. Jacobs is a councillor and Newman is the Squamish Nation’s elected band manager.
A meeting of the Squamish Nation membership has started a process designed to remove the pair from their elected positions and hold a by-election to elect replacements.
When Squamish Nation members found themselves in need of a hand-up they went to Jacobs or Newman.
“It appears that this process of obtaining funds was not publicized or widely known within the membership,” wrote Mitha in his report.
The emergency fund is supposed to help those in need of essentials. Through Mitha’s report we learned Newman kept some notes on who got money and what it was for. We also learned that Jacobs kept very few notes.
Mitha noted there was no evidence through his investigation that Jacobs or Newman kept emergency funds for themselves.
In his summary, Mitha wrote: “Finally, concerning Ms. Jacobs, while there is no direct evidence that she kept any of the funds she received personally, she did clearly receive a personal benefit in that she was able to curry favour with many members of the Nation by providing them with funds at her discretion.”
Mitha made a similar observation of the favours band members may have felt they owed Newman.
Earlier in his report he noted that Jacobs sometimes requested a cheque for emergency purposes then deposited the money into a personal bank account. She claimed she did this because many of the people she was helping didn’t have bank accounts so she would give them cash.
According to Mitha, sometimes she would take a cheque to a Bank of Montreal branch, the Squamish Nation’s bank, and cash the cheque. She told Mitha the cash would then go into a safe she had in her home and she’d give out the money, as it was needed. Mitha found that some cheques were deposited into a personal account that Jacobs had at a Toronto Dominion branch.
“For example, Ms. Jacobs received three cheques on Saturday, April 2, 2011: one for $1,800, one for $1,500, and one for $3,500,” Mitha wrote. “On April 4, 2011, she deposited the $1,800 cheque into her TD account and, on the same day, cashed the $3,500 cheque at BMO.”
Mitha reported that he asked Jacobs if she spent every dollar on others and not on herself.
“She stated emphatically that all of the monies were spent to assist band members, and were not for her personal benefit, even though she kept no records whatsoever and could not verify this,” Mitha wrote.
Since the release of Mitha’s report, we have learned that the RCMP in North Vancouver opened a file after upset Squamish Nation members asked the police to dig deeper.
According to a memo from the chiefs and council to the Squamish Nation membership, the way cheques are approved and issued has changed. The chiefs and council are confident the new controls will result in better management of Squamish Nation funds.
Jacobs was one of the chiefs and council co-chairs with Byron Joseph (Ts’élkwílem Siýam). That responsibility was stripped from her and now Ann Whonnock (Syexwáliya) is working with Joseph to manage the political affairs of the Squamish Nation.
Contacted late last week, Whonnock said she and the rest of the Squamish Nation chiefs and council aren’t talking to reporters.
Jacobs also said she isn’t talking and Newman couldn’t be reached.
Possibly the most concerning thing about this issue is that Mitha focused on financial information from the past three years. Jacobs was co-chair for the last two terms and she first became a department head eight years ago.
Newman was first elected as band manager in 1967 and he was hired as a Squamish Nation employee in 1969.
Squamish Nation members are justified in asking when the pair started the practice of putting emergency funds into their own bank accounts and safes in their homes.
