A northern Ontario First Nation must allow a banished woman to return, a human rights tribunal has ruled, saying the community’s leaders evicted the woman as retribution for her common-law partner’s political disputes.
Kamalatisit and her son, who had joined his mother in Sandy Lake a year earlier, were forced from the community in August 2012. They received letters on Aug. 30, saying that they had to leave or else they’d be charged with trespassing on a reserve. The following day, the chief led a contingent that included the deputy chief, seven of the eight band councillors, a Nishnawbe-Aski police officer and band security to the house that Fiddler and Kamalatisit shared.
Kamalatisit and her son were then medically evacuated to Thunder Bay, Ont., 600 kilometres southeast of the fly-in community they called home. Several disgruntled band members, Fiddler included, had circulated petitions and letters that accused Bart Meekis, who was chief at the time, and a band councillor of having extra-marital affairs while in office, Ulyatt wrote. Meekis is no longer chief and the councillor has since died.