Juno News - Most Alberta First Nations don't publicly release financial audits

00:00:00.000 the ottawa pride parade was canceled after anti-israel activists blockaded the march

00:00:10.480 most of alberta's 44 first nations have not publicly released financial audits for several

00:00:16.920 years a bc court of appeal overturned a lenient community-based sentence for a non-citizen

00:00:23.540 who allegedly stabbed a stranger without provocation hello canada it's tuesday august 26th

00:00:30.320 and this is the true north daily brief i'm gosman gerja and i'm jeff knight we've got you covered

00:00:35.400 with all the news you need to know let's discuss the top stories of the day and the true north

00:00:40.340 exclusives you won't hear anywhere else anti-israel activists block the capital pride parade in ottawa

00:00:50.200 causing it to be called off after 90 minutes the activists insisted that ottawa's mayor publicly

00:00:56.740 back their group or else be barred from participating queers for palestine ottawa the group responsible 0.99

00:01:03.960 for blockading sunday's capital pride march asserted they had permission from capital pride's grand

00:01:09.880 marshal patience plush to halt the event the group claimed plush invited hundreds of anti-israel

00:01:17.120 lgbt activists to participate in the march according to an instagram post on sunday the group's demands

00:01:24.320 were that capital pride be quote transparent to the community about the commitments they have made and

00:01:30.880 about their pro-palestine values and that mayor mark silk cliff apologized for boycotting capital

00:01:36.880 pride last year and for the mayor to quote pledge his support to their anti-israel movement last year

00:01:43.440 capital pride a group supposedly centered around lgbt rights and advocacy pledged to boycott israel

00:01:50.160 in support of the palestinian boycott divest and sanction movement at the time suck cliff vowed not to

00:01:57.040 go to the march in support of the jewish community who were being excluded the liberal party of canada

00:02:02.720 and several other major institutions also joined last year's boycott of capital pride due to the

00:02:08.640 organization's geopolitical stance suck cliff released a statement sunday admonishing queers 0.91

00:02:15.680 for palestine for disrupting the event he said in a statement quote it's deeply regrettable that a

00:02:21.520 group of activists chose to block the parade ultimately leading capital pride officials to cancel the event

00:02:28.240 my heart goes out to many people in our city who are deprived of the opportunity to participate in

00:02:33.680 the celebration of joy resilience and community emily quayle who identified herself as the sole

00:02:39.840 negotiator with capital pride on behalf of queers for palestine ottawa said the march would not have 0.70

00:02:45.920 been cancelled had sucklef capitulated to their demands mark sucklef had two choices he could have

00:02:51.760 left the parade without talking to us refusing to take a stand with solidarity with us with palestinian

00:02:57.680 people a stand against genocide or he could come talk to us and apologize for last year's boycott

00:03:04.080 and understand that if he's marching in a parade led by a grand marshal who has invited queers for 0.94

00:03:09.360 palestine to join them at the front of the parade then maybe he should recognize that that is in fact

00:03:14.080 the parade he is in him choosing to leave to acquiesce to capital pride's false and arbitrary 20 minutes

00:03:24.560 allowed for a disruption before they disperse the parade meant that the mayor chose to disperse our

00:03:32.160 pride parade rather than talk to the people leading the parade so jeff i don't think this is the first

00:03:39.280 case where the pride movement tried to do a march and it was derailed due to these geopolitical issues

00:03:50.800 and the certain perspective that dominates the left side of the equation has there been any pushback

00:03:58.720 from lgbt people just in general about these events being hijacked and what are some of the critics of

00:04:06.640 these demands and this particular happenstance saying yeah cosmon uh some lgbt community leaders

00:04:13.200 in ottawa have privately expressed frustration to local media outlets indicating plans to hold a separate

00:04:19.280 event to reclaim the spirit of pride though no official announcements have been made so far

00:04:23.680 critics from jewish advocacy groups such as the center for israel and jewish affairs have issued a

00:04:28.480 statement condemning queers for palestine's actions arguing that the blockade alienates jewish lgbt members

00:04:34.880 and contradicts the inclusive ethos of pride according to a press release on august 25th social media

00:04:40.960 analysts by independent researchers show a spike in hashtags like hashtag pride not politics with over

00:04:47.360 1200 posts since the cancellation reflecting growing discontent among diverse canadians who feel the

00:04:52.800 event was derailed by geopolitical demands legal experts including university of ottawa professor

00:04:58.720 charisma mathen whose work focuses on constitutional law suggests that municipal bylaws governing public

00:05:05.360 gatherings could be relevant to assessing the legality of such disruptions based on her prior analysis of

00:05:11.040 protest regulations nearly a decade after the federal government suspended enforcement of canada's

00:05:19.920 indigenous transparency law most alberta first nations have seized publicly publishing financial audits

00:05:26.720 according to federal records reviewed by true north 13 of alberta's 44 first nations have not posted

00:05:33.520 an audited financial statement since at least the 2020 to 2021 fiscal year some bands such as sutina

00:05:40.560 nation haven't filed a public audit since 2014 to 2015 a few bands have never filed an audit only 11 of

00:05:48.560 alberta's 44 bands have posted an audited consolidated financial statement for the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year

00:05:56.320 passed in 2013 the first nations financial transparency act requires bands to publish their audited financial

00:06:03.280 statements and the salaries of chiefs and counselors however in 2015 the trudeau government announced it would

00:06:10.160 no longer enforce the law stopping all court actions and reinstating funding withheld from a non-compliant

00:06:16.560 bans no replacement framework has been introduced since despite the federal government saying in 2017 that

00:06:23.200 it would work with first nations to develop a new approach to encourage financial transparency and

00:06:28.800 accountability gage hobrick prairie director of the canadian taxpayer federation said the federal government no

00:06:35.040 longer enforcing the fnfta is very unfortunate he explained that in non-indigenous communities

00:06:41.440 any citizen can access basic financial data like budgets and salaries on a government website he said

00:06:47.600 quote it's the most basic part of transparency that we expect from governments of all levels and first

00:06:54.000 nation communities shouldn't be left out of that hobrick added that by not enforcing the act regular band

00:07:00.240 members are hurt by the lack of transparency he said it becomes much more difficult for band members to

00:07:05.760 ask important questions about where community money is going while some communities struggle with addiction

00:07:11.760 and poverty so cosmon the liberals have not been enforcing these audits since 2015 what are some of the

00:07:17.280 things that people who are calling for a reversal of the liberal decision saying well i think what people

00:07:22.880 are asking for is to get rid of this double standard and to hold first nations to the same standards that

00:07:29.680 everybody else particularly governments are held to when it comes to financial transparency

00:07:36.800 governments provincial municipal federal are required to expose their spending detail how much people are

00:07:46.000 getting paid etc and it's sort of ridiculous that we have this piece of legislation the first nations

00:07:53.200 financial transparency act in effect but it's not being enforced what is the purpose of this law if the

00:08:02.320 liberals choose to suspend its enforcement and are just keeping it on the books for what reason i assume it has

00:08:10.160 something to do with it's probably not going to be politically popular for them to get rid of this particular law

00:08:17.280 because i think most canadians would agree with the spirit and intent of the legislation to require some

00:08:24.720 amount of financial transparency from first nations and perhaps the liberals just don't want to open that

00:08:32.960 can of worms by revisiting this but you know i will add that it's commendable that there are first nations

00:08:42.400 governments that are still choosing to follow this act even though they're not required to which means

00:08:49.360 they're going the extra step to at least inspire confidence in their own governance and it just does

00:08:58.240 a service not only to taxpayers but to their own band members and it really helps set the standard which

00:09:05.360 should be obliged by all first nations that you should be transparent and accountable in how you deal

00:09:11.520 with your finances especially due to the fact that they get boatloads of money from canadian taxpayers

00:09:21.920 british columbia's court of appeal has overturned a lenient community-based sentence for a man who

00:09:27.360 stabbed a stranger without provocation in a decision released friday a three-judge panel allowed a crown

00:09:34.160 appeal and imposed a 42 month prison term on jaywan lee 24 for aggravated assault and possession of a

00:09:42.240 dangerous weapon less than 102 days credit for time served the ruling stems from a march 16 2024 incident

00:09:51.280 in surrey bc where lee then 23 confronted a middle-aged man who was smoking outside his housing complex

00:09:58.560 according to court documents the victim question lee about why he was touching a neighbor's parked motorcycle

00:10:04.960 when lee produced a six-inch knife and told the victim quote to mind his business as the victim was walking

00:10:12.320 away lee stabbed him in the arm chased him into the building and stabbed him again in the abdomen the victim 0.86

00:10:19.200 required 18 stitches for his arm and 50 staples to close the abdominal wound lee then told the victim to

00:10:26.560 get on your knees and say you're sorry according to court documents lee a permanent resident born in

00:10:32.960 australia who moved to canada at eight years old pleaded guilty provincial court judge sentenced him in april

00:10:39.600 to two years less a day under a conditional sentence order to be served in the community followed

00:10:45.760 by three years of probation lee's background included a youth criminal record for weapon possession and

00:10:52.080 breaches and an adult conviction two months before the stabbing for wielding a switchblade on a sky

00:10:58.240 train threatening a friend and a passenger this seems like a pretty light sentence for such a serious

00:11:05.920 incident jeff is there any reason why this guy was given an easier sentence yeah the initial lenient

00:11:14.960 sentence of only two years less a day under a conditional community order for j1 lee was

00:11:21.040 influenced by the provincial court judge's consideration of his immigration status as a

00:11:25.520 permanent resident with a fear that his prison term might lead to deportation to australia of all

00:11:32.240 places as noted in the bc court of appeals ruling it's kind of ridiculous to think of australia as a

00:11:36.880 factor in this case it might be known for having some poisonous spiders and snakes but it's a peaceful

00:11:42.080 first world country in my opinion having visited there recently it's one of the most beautiful

00:11:46.160 places i've ever seen it's hardly a place to fear being deported to however the judge probably weighed

00:11:51.920 in on the potential disruption to lee's life and his family ties here in canada where he's lived since

00:11:57.040 age eight against the severity of his unprovoked stabbing opting for a lighter sentence with those

00:12:02.480 factors in consideration this decision also reflected a broader judicial trend of factoring in collateral

00:12:08.080 immigration consequences overall despite lee's prior youth and adult criminal record including

00:12:13.440 weapon possession which the appeal court later deemed insufficient to justify leniency given the

00:12:19.040 violent nature of the attack that's it for today folks thanks for tuning in you can stay on top of

00:12:27.200 new episodes every weekday by subscribing to the daily brief on itunes and spotify also while you're at

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Juno News - August 26, 2025

Most Alberta First Nations don't publicly release financial audits

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