York Factory plans boycott of Hydro partnership

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This article was published 04/12/2018 (2250 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

York Factory intends to boycott a key Manitoba Hydro partnership and rally the other First Nations involved to join the protest.

Chief Leroy Constant said the action doubles down on the northern Manitoba First Nation’s earlier call to remove Hydro vice-president Lorne Midford from any involvement with the Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership (KHLP).

York Factory, Tataskweyak Cree Nation, War Lake First Nation and Fox Lake Cree Nation are partnered with the Crown corporation on the Keeyask generating station project, located about 725 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg on the lower Nelson River.

On Monday, the utility said Hydro president Kelvin Shepherd had cleared Midford of any allegations of wrongdoing in his leadership role on northern hydroelectric development, following an internal investigation.

Midford voluntarily resigned as KHLP board chairman in September, hours before the York Factory chief called for his resignation over allegations of racism, discrimination and sexual violence at the hands of workers at the Keeyask site. Midford remained on the board as a Hydro representative.

“Obviously, we’re not happy with the outcome. York Factory’s position is we’ll boycott the KHLP until this is resolved, until Mr. Midford is removed,” Constant said Tuesday.

In September, Constant cited York Factory board member Louisa Constant’s reaction to a call from the Hydro executive, which the chief described as an example of harassment. Midford was alleged to have taken issue over a media statement Louisa Constant had prepared, and then threatened the board would no longer review the communications protocol, as promised.

Hydro said it ordered an independent investigation into the allegations, which cleared Midford, the Crown corporation’s vice-president of generation and wholesale.

On Tuesday, the chief didn’t back down, further accusing the Hydro executive of being disrespectful to an Indigenous woman.

“It goes to the standard of respecting women… you’re in the position where you’re the chair of a board, and you don’t conduct yourself in that manner to anybody,” Leroy Constant said.

“He (Midford) made a call to her after hours, the same day we went to the media and asked for an inquiry of hydro development. They were disappointed we went to the media in regards to the complaint against Midford and all the other mistreatment, (that) allow(s) them to continue to mistreat our women and our people.”

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee said Tuesday he shared Constant’s concern and pointed out a broader issue.

There have been 40 years of mistreatment related to Hydro’s involvement in the north, and the utility’s handling of the Midford complaint is indicative of a flawed corporate decision-making process, the northern grand chief said.

“We need to move forward and advocate on behalf of our women, who continue to be subject to all kinds of inequality. Nobody has a right to talk down or undermine or have a superiority complex towards our women… A complaint like this, when it’s not regarded as important, I question how far as a society have we come,” Settee said.

“No voice should be stifled, no voice should be muffled, especially in this day and age when we’re trying to be included with the rest of society as equals.”

In response, Hydro said Midford will keep his current role.

“Manitoba Hydro has full confidence in Lorne Midford, and he will continue as a KHLP board member,” spokesman Bruce Owen said by email.

“We have no further comments.”

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca