Is the former chief asking band employees to sign “loyalty oaths” to her?
Band Council has received numerous reports from staff of the Band Office that one of Marilyn Gabriel’s supporters, and someone in a supervisor role, has been pressuring band staff members to sign letters saying that they are loyal to Marilyn and her gang.
These types of loyalty letters are wrong because:
They are an abuse of the employer-employee relationship. The person who signs your paycheques, and who decides if you can be promoted or fired, should not force”encourage” you to sign a letter saying you agree with their political position.
They are a misuse of band resources for private purposes. The Band Office is not the private property of Marilyn Gabriel, and she does not pay band employees out of her own pocket. But it is clear from witness accounts that this ‘loyalty oath’ campaign is occurring during work hours. I.E. every member of the band is paying the salary for the time Marilyn’s supporter spent creating this letter, and spent going from person to person getting signatures. This is effectively money that has been stolen from our pockets, and put in Marilyn’s.
On an administrative level it exposes the band, and the Kwantlen people, to a huge risk of being sued. Imagine someone doesn’t sign a loyalty oath, and then they get fired by the band - possibly for a reason entirely unrelated to any of this. They can then go to a human rights tribunal and claim they were fired for political reasons. And what is the evidence? The fact that their refusal to sign this letter put a target on their back. When the tribunal orders Kwantlen to pay $10,000, or $50,000 or whatever the judgement is - will it come out of Marilyn’s pocket? No! It comes out of yours.
As if you needed yet another example of Marilyn Gabriel and her gang’s irresponsibility and disrespect for band members and our resources.