It’s that time again folks, when you get to choose your new fearless leader and live with that decision, good or bad, for the next four years now.
Yes it’s election time in Eeyou Istchee and at least two of the candidates have already announced their intent to run against the incumbent, Ted Moses.
The official date of the election is set for August 31 and it’s already shaping up to be at least a three-horse race.
In this issue we profile Paul Gull, the current Deputy Chief and Matthew Mukash, the former Deputy Chief, both of whom are hoping to end Moses’ reign atop the Cree world and lead the nation into a new era.
Moses hasn’t yet announced his intentions, but we here at the Nation think that it’s just a formality.
Which brings us to an interesting note on the funny things that happen during this crazy time in the north.
A brief news story appeared in the Nation, Volume 12, number 17, entitled “Grand Council calls for more Logging.”
This story stirred up much emotion within the Grand Council and caused them to send a terse letter in the form of a press release to defend their stance on the logging rights of non-natives in Eeyou Istchee and how their words in a press release on the issue had been taken out of context to make it look like the GCC supported more logging in Eeyou Istchee.
The last line in the press release, presumably but maybe not exclusively aimed at us, went like this: “We suspect the confusion entertained on this issue by some is related to the upcoming elections for the position of Grand Chief and Deputy Grand Chief this August.”
Our job as journalists is to report the truth in an unbiased fashion and as the author of said news brief, people should know that it’s never my intention to contort the facts or purposely get them wrong.
With that being said however, it happens to every journalist in the world. The nature of the job is knowing a little bit about everything and because of that, mistakes can sometimes be made.
I called Abel Bosum, a negotiator for the GCC and the author of the accusation to ask him what he was thinking when he wrote that line.
“There are some people that work for the Nation that strongly oppose the New Relationship Agreement and particularly have voiced a lot of opposition against Ted,” said Bosum, who wrongly assumed that that was the case in this instance.
Unfortunately I could not confirm what was right and wrong because I had thrown out the original press release. However I mentioned to Bosum that mudslinging is not what we should be doing here.
The Nation prints news stories and the truth, and if we were wrong in some of our facts, then he was also wrong by accusing us of funny business.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, I told Bosum, and if this election is going to start off with a fight over logging with us, it should add pizzazz to what is usually a pretty dull process.
Remember to go out and vote and make sure your voice is heard no matter whom you are voting for!
