RoseAnne Archibald, ousted AFN national chief, urges supporters to demand her reinstatement

RoseAnne Archibald, the former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), is calling on supporters to tell their respective chiefs and councils to reinstate her and to push for a forensic audit of the organization's finances to go ahead. 

She made the request in a video posted on her Facebook page Monday evening. They were her first comments since being ousted from her role last week. 

"I don't want to be reinstated because of my ego. I want to be reinstated because I have a sacred responsibility that I have to fulfil," Archibald said in the video recorded inside her vehicle in Vancouver. 

She said AFN chiefs "ignored sacred ways" and carried out "one of the most violent acts against an Indigenous, First Nation women leader ever." 

She was ousted last week at a virtual assembly attended by 231 delegates, less than half the 634 First Nations eligible. It saw 163 people vote to adopt a non-confidence motion, 62 opposed and six abstentions.

CBC News was granted access to that meeting after repeated requests for accreditation. It was called to address the findings of an investigation into five workplace misconduct complaints filed last year, which found Archibald harassed two staffers and retaliated against all five.

Archibald calls misconduct probe 'a distraction'

Archibald said the complaints were political. "This pushback I have been getting is because I have been fighting corruption at the AFN since October of 2020. That's when I first heard about financial improprieties," she said. "Don't be fooled by the [human resources] investigations. They are a distraction from what is really happening."

The AFN is the largest Indigenous advocacy organization in Canada, representing more than 600 First Nations communities across the country.

Watch | RoseAnne Archibald's first comments since historic AFN vote: 

RoseAnne Archibald appeals for help to be reinstated as AFN national chief

10 hours ago

Duration 5:12

In a video posted to Facebook on Monday, RoseAnne Archibald said Assembly of First Nations chiefs 'ignored our sacred ways' on June 28 when they voted to oust her as national chief. Archibald appealed to her supporters to contact their respective chiefs and councils to ask for her reinstatement as national chief and to advocate for a forensic audit that she previously called for into AFN finances under her predecessors.

Archibald is a Cree leader from Taykwa Tagamou Nation in Ontario who first entered the national political arena in 1989 as a youth activist hunger striking against Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservative government. She became her community's youngest and first female chief a year later.

She brought that activist edge to her political style, leading a blockade and another hunger strike against logging on her First Nation's territory as chief in 2000.

She won a two-day, five-ballot election to become the AFN's first woman national chief in 2021 on a platform that included a pledge to clean up the organization.

She is now the first national chief officially voted out of office mid-term.

Criticism of Archibald's conduct

Judith Sayers, president of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, told CBC News last week she tried keep an open mind after workplace misconduct allegations against Archibald began to surface, but there was a limit. 

"There was just a moment when we knew that things just weren't going to change with her," Sayers said. "Her need to go to the media, her need to be fighting in a public space, as opposed to working, trying to work together with the regional chiefs, with the chiefs across the country."

Sayers, who was a proxy voter, said it was a difficult decision to vote yes to remove Archibald, who she said she still has a lot of respect for. 

Regional chiefs who spoke during the June 28 meeting also expressed disappointment with Archibald's conduct. 

"The vote we entertain today has nothing to do with gender," Nova Scotia Regional Chief Paul (PJ) Prosper told the virtual gathering. "It has everything to do with the actions, competence and performance of the national chief."

But Prosper conceded the governance dispute has harmed the organization, claiming the low turnout sends a strong message from a silent majority of chiefs.

"They are the ones that are completely fed up with the actions of the national chief," he said. "The national chief has created a national embarrassment."

But others placed blame on the assembly itself. 

Jeffrey Copenace, chief of the Ojibways of Onigaming in Ontario, a vocal Archibald backer, spoke against the regional leaders.

"This is not how the Anishinaabe conduct business," he said. "This is an embarrassment to the country."