Please help our readers Mr. Populi!
Good Day Folks:
The Public Eye, Blogmaster of the highly successful site Truth To Power (http://www.accesstoinfo.blogspot.com/; vicpopuli1@gmail.com) is also a practicing Canadian lawyer.
The Public Eye, Blogmaster of the highly successful site Truth To Power (http://www.accesstoinfo.blogspot.com/; vicpopuli1@gmail.com) is also a practicing Canadian lawyer.
Last Saturday Frank Godon (http://metisonline.ca) announced (www.derrylsanderson.blogspot.com - "Race For Manitoba Metis Federation Presidency Begins!") he was running in the 2010 MMF election - Mr. Sanderson had previously declared his candidacy for the Winnipeg Regional Office Board of Directors.
Since then, differing opinions have emerged regarding Mr. Godon's eligibility. Here's a sampling but other comments can be found attached to the article:
Anonymous said...
Hi,
Not to rain on Frank's parade but is he not ineligible to run? I thought you had to be a resident or living in Manitoba to be a member in good standing (or even just a member?) of the MMF?
Darcey (Jerome) said...
I brought up the same questions.
Article IX
1. Only members of the MMF who are residents of Manitoba are entitled to stand for election.
But then nothing else preceding the statement or after specifies any time or duration. He'll be back soon. What I find interesting about the whole MMF constitution is its almost complete focus on elections and power with no basic insight into what the rights of the people who elect them are.
Frank Godon said...
As to the residency question - due to visa restrictions I can't hold a residence in Russia and according to Revenue Canada and the Province of MB I am a resident of Manitoba. I had to have this all cleared up before due to qualifications of health coverage, taxes, etc. And as Darcey mentioned since there is no stipulation as to how long I must be a resident, if it becomes an issue I will be back after April as my contract with the university ends at this time.
The MMF's constitution ratified by the 40th Annual General Assembly September 14, 2008 can easily be found on www.mmf.mb.ca. Mr. Popul, could you please review the specific provisions of the Election By-Laws beginning with Article 1 page 8 to provide us with a legal interpretation of the appropriate provisions as noted in the above comments.
During the May 2000 election three Presidential Candidates were called before the Chief Electoral Officer of whom two were ruled ineligible. The third got wind of what was about to happen and quickly re-paid monies owed to the MMF thereby staving off disqualification.
Mr. Populi, we know you frequently read CyberSmokeBlog so on behalf of our readers we'd like to thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide in helping us interpret and better understand the situation.
Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk
posted by Clare L. Pieuk at 9:16 PM
1 Comments:
In my opinion, Frank is likely quite correct. His home ownership almost certainly would qualify him for residency under this provision, and in my opinion - subject to his satisfying all other eligibility criteria, as well as the important qualifications below - Frank is quite eligible to serve as a candidate for president. He can reasonably argue the Revenue Canada standard is a proper one to apply.
I use the weasal words "likely" and "almost certainly" because this is necessarily subject to prior precedential determinations concerning residency criteria. I am not aware of any precedents that have been generated in the past as a result of interpretations of the relevant by-laws. The above opinion that Frank is eligible assumes that there has been no prior determination that would exclude him.
Frank is smart to address this issue now. He can be sure that David Chartrand will be doing so in due course.
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