Judge rules 2023 Gwichya Gwich’in election was valid

An NWT Supreme Court judge has dismissed a challenge to a 2023 election in which Mavis Clark was acclaimed as president of Tsiigehtchic’s Gwichya Gwich’in Council.

The Gwich’in Tribal Council and six individuals said irregularities had taken place that called for a new election to be held.

They alleged voters hadn’t been given proper notice of the election, Clark should have been disqualified from running, the election rules included an unlawful residency requirement, and officials had been biased in Clark’s favour.

Justice Sheila MacPherson said the evidence did not support any of those claims and the result should stand.

She did, however, order the Gwichya Gwich’in Council (GGC) to publish financial statements from 2017 to 2023, saying there was concern that the GGC had “failed in its obligation to provide financial statements to its members.”

Friday’s written ruling is a victory for the GGC in what has been a years-long series of conflicts with the Gwich’in Tribal Council, or GTC, which is its parent organization.

Clark was held by the GTC to have been permanently removed in a vote at last year’s Gwich’in Annual Assembly. Later that year, the GGC said the GTC had appointed someone “falsely claiming” to be the new GGC executive director.

Earlier this summer, the GGC took its parent to court alleging “oppressive, unfair and prejudicial conduct.”

Separately, the GTC’s own election of a grand chief has ended up in court and is awaiting a judge’s verdict. (The GGC ruling issued on Friday has no direct bearing on the GTC election case.)

How the decision was reached

The GTC and the six individuals had alleged that because details of last year’s GGC election weren’t sent to members by mail, there had been no proper notice that it was taking place.

Justice MacPherson, inspecting the bylaw under which the election was run, concluded enough notice had been given – including on Facebook, which the judge said the bylaw expressly allowed as a means of providing election information.

A second allegation involved an election rule requiring that candidates live in Tsiigehtchic for a year before running for office. The GTC and its allies said this was unfair to the many GGC members who do not live in the community.

MacPherson said the evidence suggested the GGC’s members had approved those election rules at an assembly in 2019.

“It is up to the participant members to dictate a residency requirement and it is equally up to those participant members to amend the by-laws to remove that residency requirement,” she wrote, declining to intervene on the matter.

The third complaint was that Clark had been suspended as a director by the GTC, which the GTC said meant she was ineligible to run in the GGC’s election.

However, MacPherson said this complaint could not stand – in part because of the way the phrase “and/or” is used in the relevant bylaw.

The GGC bylaw in question states that a president or director must be “in good standing with the Gwichya Gwich’in Council and its affiliates and/or Gwich’in Tribal Council and its Affiliates.”

MacPherson wrote: “The use of the phrase ‘and/or’ leaves doubt as to whether a candidate must be in good standing with the GGC and the GTC or whether a candidate must be in good standing with the GGC or the GTC.” (The judge added the bold emphasis.)

“In the circumstances, given the ambiguous wording … I will resolve the ambiguity in favour of Ms Clark,” the judge continued, declaring Clark had been in good standing with the GGC. “Where one seeks to disqualify an individual from holding office, clarity is required.”

Lastly, the GTC and co alleged that one official charged with running the GGC election had been a close friend of Clark who carried out their duties in a biased manner.

The judge said the GTC had “failed to establish” that.