Fact check: Marilyn Gabriel wrong about Mission schools

On January 11th, the lawyers for Marilyn Gabriel’s gang sent a legal letter to the Kwantlen Band Council which stated:

Even more concerning, on January 5, 2023 Mission School District staff advised Kwantlen that, because of that letter, the school could no longer engage with Kwantlen staff to support three Kwantlen students in that school. Kwantlen has dedicated significant resources to assist these children. Your client’s conduct is creating grave risks for members.

Kwantlen Band Council has a positive relationship with the Mission School District, as does the Kwantlen Band Administration. Band Council has been cc’d on messages between Donna Leon in Band Admin, and Mission schools as recently as January 10th - showing continuing engagement with Kwantlen staff. So the suggestion from Marilyn’s legal team was puzzling. Or would be, if Marilyn’s gang didn’t have a track record of these types of erroneous statements (see Marilyn’s wrong again about the so-called Sto:lo Tribal Council Letter).

After receiving the letter from Marilyn’s lawyer, Band Council reached out to the Mission School District to address the issue. They wrote back, confirming that there had been no interruption in services or communication on any Kwantlen file: “I can, with certainty, confirm that we in SD75 have not withdrawn services to the three Kwantlen learners. They have continued to receive services from Siwal Si’wes Indigenous Department, without any break, since September 2022.“ (emphasis in original).

The discussion with Mission School District that Marilyn was referring to was - according to the School District - over the change in communication from Cheryl Gabriel to 2 different members of Kwantlen staff.

If you remember, Marilyn was in a physical confrontation with Cheryl last year, which ended with Cheryl being removed from her job. A job which included regular communication with the Mission School District.

The disruption and risk her lawyer is speaking about has nothing to do with this Council’s outreach to the Mission School Board but is likely yet another consequence of Marilyn’s unprofessional and irrational behaviour at the elder’s meeting last fall.

This type of misinformation from Marilyn never seems to end. Whether it is intentional or the byproduct of poor literacy skills, it has no place in government - and is undoubtedly one of the reasons why the Kwantlen people removed her from office on November 27th.

That being said, claiming children are at risk, when they are not, is a new low in her public communications, and betrays the desperation she will go to to cling to power at any cost.