Nov. 19, 2019

REGINA, SK: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation presented Charmaine Stick with the TaxFighter Award for her courageous struggle for accountability and transparency at the Onion Lake Cree Nation and in First Nations communities across Canada.

“Charmaine has courageously delivered a simple message: the people deserve leaders who tell them the truth about what’s happening with the community’s money,” said CTF President and CEO Scott Hennig. “The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is proud to stand with Charmaine and honour her with the TaxFighter Award.”

Stick went on a 13-day hunger strike calling for accountability from her band leaders in 2014.

The Onion Lake Cree Nation has consistently refused provide financial transparency. The federal government stopped enforcing the First Nations Financial Transparency Act in 2015. As a result, Stick teamed up with the CTF to take her leaders to court.

Both the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench and Court of Appeal ordered the band to published the required documents for 2015 and 2016. Stick and the CTF are now back in court because leaders at the Onion Lake Cree Nation are refusing to provide the most recent financial documents.

Stick has gone to Ottawa to testify to a parliamentary committee and deliver more than 30,000 petition signatures calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to enforce the First Nations Financial Transparency Act.

“I’m hoping we do get the answers we’ve been asking for and we finally see transparency and accountability within our community and leadership, not just in Onion Lake, but all over Turtle Island,” Stick told the media after going to court.

Previous TaxFighter Award winners include premiers such as Mike Harris and Ralph Klein; journalists such as Linda Leatherdale and Lorne Gunter; and, Irv Leroux who won a long legal battle with the Canadian Revenue Agency.

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For more information, please contact:

Todd MacKay – CTF Prairie Director – 306-582-7717 – tmackay@taxpayer.com