A Message from Band Council
The Consultation Vote will end at midnight on February 14th. Your vote matters, and we are asking for you to speak up and say what you want to see from Kwantlen.
There are 6 questions, asking if you agree with the November 27th meeting, asking if you support the removal of Marilyn Gabriel, asking if you want a new governance code, and asking if you support the new expanded band council. Vote on one question, or all - the choice is yours to vote ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘abstain’ on any question.
Marilyn Gabriel’s Recent Letter
As many of you know former chief Marilyn Gabriel sent a letter to the band yesterday, saying that she will launch a lawsuit against the leadership of the Reform Movement. That lawsuit doesn’t just target reform and those few individuals, it targets every person on Kwantlen who wants to have a say in how this Nation is run.
Ask yourself this - when is the last time Marilyn Gabriel asked you what you want? In all of her letters, has she ever reached out to you and asked you what you think? No. She tells you what to think, and what to do, and minimizes the voices standing up against her. She doesn’t want you to say what you think, to vote - she’s said that.
Why? Well, if she is as popular as she claims she is, why not just hold a vote herself and ask? Why not hold a meeting of the elders and ask - she hasn’t even met them since October. Why not hold a meeting of the Lands Advisory Committee? She said she was going to have a meeting of them in January, and then cancelled it. She won’t meet people, she’s afraid to. Because she knows what the answer will be.
And how do we know she knows? If she thought she could win, would she tell you not to vote? If she is really so popular, and Reform really so widely opposed, why not ask her many supporters to go out and vote, win, and end Reform once and for all? Reform has made it clear that the new council would fold and reform movement end, if Marilyn won the vote. So why won’t she try? You know why. Because in every survey, every petition, every gathering, the results were the same as in the General Assembly - no one wants her one-person dictatorial rule. We all want a reformed Kwantlen.
Our Customary System of Governance
Some of you might say that she is opposing this vote because it’s not our way. What is our way? In a 2019 interview, Marilyn Gabriel explained how our system works:
In that audio tape, she explains that in 1993, the People convened a General Assembly, held in the church on Gabriel Lane. Robert Thomas organized it, and the people put our unwritten governance system up for a vote, they voted on chief, and they voted on council. Outsiders attended as non-voting witnesses as is the universal custom in all Sto:lo nations.
On November 27th of last year, the People convened a General Assembly, held in the church on Gabriel Lane. Robert Thomas Jr. organized it, and the people voted on chief, and they voted on council. Outsiders attended as non-voting witnesses as is the universal custom in all Sto:lo nations.
Marilyn says the 1993 vote was the way of our people, and uses it as the basis of hers and Tumia’s and Les’ legitimacy. But she says the November 27th, 2021 vote which was identical in every respect wasn’t legitimate. Why? What’s the difference? In 1993 she won, and in 2021 she lost.
Let’s sit down and talk
In her letter yesterday, Marilyn said that the only way to solve this kind of issue is to sit down and talk. She wants you to forget that this is what the Reform Movement has ben doing since 2019.
Back in 2019, when the people signed a petition asking Marilyn to leave, she said the same thing. That the only solution is to sit down and talk. And so what did the Reform Movement do? It sat down and talked. For 3 years of third-party mediated consultations.
The result of those talks - talks which Marilyn herself never attended - was that the people decided that Marilyn should leave. It’s right here in the mediator’s report from May, 2021:
Marilyn didn’t seem to like the mediator’s answer, because she now says that this one doesn’t count either. That’s new - as recently as last fall, her councillor, Tumia Knott, was saying that the Governance Code was at the draft stage.
Do you see the trend? If it doesn’t result in support for her unlimited hereditary rule, it doesn’t count.
Sto:lo Customs
Marilyn points to Sto:lo custom, and a letter from two friends of hers who tell Kwantlen to stay under Marilyn’s hereditary rule. As evidence to support their claims, they point to a report by a renowned professor of Sto:lo history and culture. But the report doesn’t say what they say it does. In fact, it describes the process for removing someone like Marilyn, and explains how that process has deep roots in Sto:lo culture:
"The power of a Yewal Siya:m [Hereditary Chiefs] was restricted by cultural dictates requiring consensus among family leaders on all major decisions. He had no means of compelling compliance other than relying on others to respect his exalted social status. He held his position only as long as his community let him. He could be deposed by the "Elders and chief men of the tribe" at any time should he ever ever prove himself incompetent by acting selfish, or mean, or neglectful of the material well being of the tribe."
This type of consensus government, does that sound like how Marilyn has run things? No. And can they rule as long as they want? No. They can be removed, by a General Assembly where they could be “deposed”. This is what happened to Marilyn on November 27th, and her own sources show that this is our ancient custom.
In spite of all this, the Reform Movement has tried and continues to try and talk with Marilyn Gabriel, Tumia Knott, and Les Antone. They won’t sit down, they won’t hear us out. They won’t respect the decisions of our custom governance code, they won’t respect the 3 years of consultations that we all did, they don’t respect the Kwantlen people.
In her latest email, Marilyn Gabriel says she wants talks, that this is the only way for things to work. And in the same breath she announces a lawsuit against the Reform Movement. Does that sound like talking? Any other leader would have convened their own meeting, set a date, and invited Reform to it. That’s how talks work. But not Marilyn Gabriel though.
Marilyn wants to let lawyers do the talking for her, possibly in the hopes that some loophole in the Indian Act would make her only leader in all of Canada (besides King Charles III) who can rule for as long as they want, without any possibility of recall or reform. She’s not a Queen, or a God, she was a chief, and a chief under Kwantlen and Sto:lo law, and there is a process for removing them, one that was followed on November 27th. And now she is defying it.
So what is this vote about?
Marilyn wants to make this vote about the leadership of the Reform Movement. She wants to do this because she thinks that her years of demonization and personal attacks against Reform leadership will be enough to convince people to support her instead.
Here’s why it’s not about Reform leadership - because once the new Governance Code is in place, and elections are called, the Reform Leadership will not run. We will resign our places, and turn over the Band Office to new leadership. We are doing this to demonstrate that we aren’t out for power or money, or anything else. We are working for the good of the Nation, and once reform is achieved, we will not be the ones running it. The people running it will be the people that Kwantlen elects for the role.
Instead what this vote is about, is Marilyn Gabriel. Basically it boils down to this question: is the Kwantlen Nation and everything in it, the personal property of Marilyn Gabriel? Yes? or No?
Because, ultimately, isn’t that how she treats us all? Like house guests? If we get anything in this Nation, she takes credit for it. Education funding? Thank Marilyn. Except don’t because education funding comes direct from the federal government, the band office just administers it, it’s not her money. What about her famous “love offerings?” - that’s not out of her personal bank accounts that’s band money - your money. And $150 is a paltry bit of money to get from your band. Every reserve with an elected council gets more money. It’s hard not to notice, that as the Reform Movement becomes more successful, suddenly the band has a $10,000 disbursement coming to everyone. When Marilyn could rule without question, there were no payouts like that. It’s likely there because of Reform.
This vote will decide who owns Kwantlen, the Kwantlen people or Marilyn Gabriel. It’s not about putting new leadership in place, it’s about setting the stage for Reform to happen, Reform that the Kwantlen people have asked for again and again and again.
Don’t let intimidation win
We know about the loyalty letters that Marilyn’s group are trying to get band employees to sign. How low is it for an employer to corner their staff and demand they sign a letter supporting their political views? We know about the vandalism - a boat from Kwantlen’s most revered fisherman trashed. We know about the intimidation and violence - an elder attacked, a child threatened. We know about the harassment, the non-stop homophobic calls. We’ve seen Marilyn’s brother riding around with his rifle, like he did on November 27th while Kwantlen people were meeting at the General Assembly.
So many people have told us that they’re afraid. They’re afraid of losing their jobs - and Marilyn’s letter to band staff last week didn’t allay that fear. They’re afraid of violence from Marilyn’s supporters. They’re afraid of losing out on a land allotment, or the $10,000 payment.
Some don’t want to vote because they don’t understand the issue - under Marilyn’s rule, this nation has lost contact with itself. In the Seyem offices, there’s a list of band members on the wall, and someone there has marked many of them with Question Marks, showing that they don’t know who they are. It’s disrespectful, but symbolic of what’s become of this Nation under Marilyn.
But you know what the truth is? Even before 2019, people expressed the same fears. But we wrote the petition anyway. Why? Because oppressive people rely on their victims to oppressive themselves. That’s what fear is for. But it only works if you let them. In 2019, we didn’t let fear rule us and nothing happened.
Without support, Marilyn and her supporters can’t follow through on these implied threats. And the bigger the vote against her, the clearer it is to these people that they are alone. They are isolated. And they are too weak to try and hurt any of us.
Your Job
As citizens, we are asking you to take possession of your Nation, Kwantlen, it’s yours. The land, the culture, the history, the money, the jobs, the opportunity - it all belongs to you, not Marilyn Gabriel, you.
Our culture has guided us to this point. And we ask that culture guides you.
Voting ends very soon. Click below to cast your vote - if you have not received your voter login and password, please email spokesperson@kwantlen.community