(file photo)

By Susan McNeil

Legal precedence

Judge gives Thunderchild First Nation deadline for financial disclosure

Mar 24, 2025 | 4:18 PM

Thunderchild First Nation has been given a shorter timeline than they wanted to prepare and release missing financial records from the last decade.

The Federal Court of Canada’s Madame Justice Blackhawk ruled last week that band leadership must prepare and publish multiple years of financial records. The band had asked for two years to catch up on years of statements going back as far as 2013. Instead, the judge offered various timelines with 390 days for the information from each year to be filed.

“It is simply unacceptable that the Respondent did not anticipate being able to fully comply with their disclosure obligations for at least another 12 months. However, I am not persuaded that the extreme remedy of ordering disclosure within 30 days of this order, as suggested by the Applicants, is an appropriate remedy,” wrote Blackhawk in her decision.

Along with about 25 individual members, the Band Members Alliance and Advocacy Association (BMAAAC) applied for the documents to be released in a case that was before the federal court on March 18, 2025.

The current chief and council of Thunderchild First Nation were elected in 2022, years after the issues with reporting first began. Previous band leadership disputed the legitimacy of the First Nation Financial Transparency Act, passed under the Harper government, and refused to comply with it.

Leader in growing the sport

Meadow Lake wrestling coach named Rivers West Coach of the Year

Mar 25, 2025

VISHING

Meadow Lake RCMP warm of scam calls from 'fake cops'

Mar 25, 2025

Election boundary changes

Local constituencies changing shape in 2025

Mar 24, 2025

That is no longer an option, according to Blackhawk’s ruling.

“The First Nation Financial Transparency Act required these chiefs across Canada to be more transparent with their finances so that their band members can see where the money is going and what its being spent on,” said Rob Louie, the founder and head of BMAAAC.

Louie said that Blackhawk set several legal precedents in her ruling; one was to allow his organization to have public interest standing. The other was a supervision order in which Thunderchild First Nation band council must check in with the courts every three months to ensure they are in compliance with the orders.

“This is the first time, that I’m aware of, where a court fashioned such an extraordinary judgement on a band council,” said Louie. “This case will help also set a precedent for other band members in Canada as they pursue access to justice and financial accountability against their chief and council.”

The recent judgement is not an indictment of the current chief and council as they were not in power when the issues began.

According to the judgement, within 14 days the oldest of the outstanding financial statements and schedules of remuneration and expenses must be shared with the band members who sued for the information, and published on the band’s website.

Leadership has longer to prepare and share other years of documents.

Since the records must be prepared by year and go in order, the last deadline is for the 2023-2024 statements and is set for 390 days from the date of the order.

Calls to Thunderchild First Nation for comment were not returned prior to the publishing of this article.

—

susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On Bluesky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social