Douglas Doucette has submitted his name for nomination in the election of the Qalipu Band chief, according to a press release distributed on Sunday.
Doucette became a Qalipu member on Jan. 9, after many years of waiting, and became interested in the enrolment process.
According to the release, Doucette said he began poking around for information, and what he found was “disturbing and alarming.”
He said each day he went deeper and deeper into the mysteries of the relationship between the Qalipu Band, the Federation of Newfoundland Indians (FNI), and Indian Affairs and Northern Development Canada (INAC).
He was bothered enough, he said, he launched two lawsuits in federal court over the contracts that brought those three parties together in what he called a “conspiracy to deceive the Indigenous of the former Newfoundland Colony.”
He said his desire is to work from inside the band so that legal and constitutional membership rules are applied to every applicant in the same manner.
“My number one priority is to redefine membership,” he stated in the release.
