Paul McCartney and Ryan Reynolds nominated for chief of First Nation in Ontario thanks to ‘archaic’ clause
Ryan Reynolds #RyanReynolds
The nomination of two high-profile celebrities for chief in Walpole Island’s upcoming election has put a renewed spotlight on a clause in the “archaic” federal Indian Act.
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds and Sir Paul McCartney are nominated for chief even though they are not members of the First Nation. But if their names are allowed to stand, one of them could in theory become the new band chief for Walpole Island, a First Nation reserve in southwestern Ontario.
James Jenkins, Walpole Island’s director of operations, said Wednesday it’s not his place to make a judgment, nor did he know the intention of the nominator when asked if the nominations were an insult to the office of the chief.
“It was somewhat known in the community, I would say, that a non-member or non-native person could be nominated (for) chief,” he said.
After unsuccessful attempts to reach the two celebrities, Indigenous Services Canada is now allowing Walpole Island band officials to remove the candidates from the ballot, but only if they can’t be contacted and accept the nomination by 4 p.m. on Thursday.
The problem with the nomination stems from the federal Indian Act, Jenkins said. When it was enacted in 1876, the legislation stripped First Nations communities of their self-governance and — along with its many other components — allowed the federal government to establish residential schools.
The legislation also states that “no person other than an elector who resides in an electoral section may be nominated for the office of councillor.”
But that section says nothing about the position of chief. Chief and councillors must be nominated and seconded “by persons who are themselves eligible to be nominated” — meaning the nominators must be members of the First Nation.
“It certainly hasn’t been updated in the way that most other major pieces of federal legislation has been updated so there are many archaic aspects to it,” Jenkins said.
“I think the direction that most First Nations are going, including ours, is towards self governance, so eventually towards our own law making, our own constitution and gradually that displaces the Indian Act.”
He noted that Walpole Island was the first First Nations community in Canada to remove the federal Indian agent.
“We have been governing our own administration since 1965, we were the first First Nation to do so,” he said. “There’s avenues to take on even more self-governance and that’s in the way of lawmaking.”
One of those avenues would be for Walpole Island to create its own constitution that would allow it to make its own laws, Jenkins said.
“Right now it’s a very passive role because it is largely dictated by that actions of federal administrators,” he said. “Going through the Indian Act process, it can be quite cumbersome, and we would be able to set our own parameters for what’s the approval process for what’s First Nation law.”
Walpole Island First Nation council postponed the election, originally set for June, due to the pandemic. The Sept. 19 election currently has 12 candidates nominated for chief and about 80 council nominees.