[IPSM] Spending rules flouted in policing Kanesatake

[luvnrev at colba.net]

Spending rules flouted in policing Kanesatake
Budget tripled in 24 months, audit finds

JEFF HEINRICH

The Gazette

Monday, December 11, 2006

First the blame fell on the Mohawks and their financial managers. Now it's
falling on Ottawa.

Two big federal departments under the former Liberal government broke
Treasury Board rules in spending more than $4 million to police Kanesatake
between April 2003 and April 2005, according to a draft audit.

Prepared for Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, the audit details
financial irregularities before and after a botched Kanesatake Mohawk
Police operation in January 2004.

The money started flowing even though there was no proof of an
organized-crime wave that required extra policing in the community, says
the report by the Gatineau consulting firm Samson & Associates.

And the Jan. 12 raid went ahead despite warnings by the Surete du Quebec
and Quebec's Public Security Department that it was poorly planned and
would likely fail, it added.

Instead of being evaluated and approved beforehand, most of the payouts
were green-lighted even after the money had already been spent, the audit
also found.

Those kinds of practices contravened Treasury Board rules that stipulate
funds be approved before expenses are incurred - not after - and only if
there's a "reasonable expectation that the recipients will meet specified
objectives," the Samson audit says.

A preliminary draft "fact sheet" written by Samson last August put the
blame for financial mismanagement on Kanesatake's band council, led by
then-grand chief James Gabriel, and on the community's third-party
manager, the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The new, longer report - obtained by Radio-Canada and the CBC and aired on
their TV and radio newscasts last night - throws the net farther,
implicating Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and the aboriginal policing
directorate of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada.

Ottawa spent $4,266,000 on the Kanesatake Mohawk Police from April 1,
2003, to March 31, 2005, the study shows, while Quebec's Public Security
Department put in $1,248,000.

The money was meant to bring safety to a sparsely inhabited community of
1,300 people, but it didn't.

The raid ended with the burning down of Gabriel's house and a two-day
standoff with residents at the community's police station, where 67 native
police officers and special constables were holed up until they were
allowed out.

After that, they patrolled only outside, on the fringes of the community
50 kilometres west of Montreal. The SQ took over occasional patrols
inside, with day-to-day policing left to community "watch teams" with no
official mandate.

Despite its ineffectiveness, in the six months after the raid the
Kanesatake Mohawk Police grew to have more than 130 native officers,
auxiliaries and civilian staff on its payroll, many of them very well paid
- including some who made more than $200,000 a year, tax-free, according
to the audit.

The officers came from all over Quebec. The Mi'kmaq community of Listuguj
contributed the most: 26 were paid a total of $775,725 in 2004 and 2005.
Second was Manawan, with 23 officers and a total bill of $236,675.
Thirteen officers from Kanesatake racked up $327,231 in salaries, while
five high-ranking officers of Kahnawake's force, which helped end the
January 2004 standoff, billed $414,176.

Those costs - as well as purchases of police vehicles and weapons, hotel
bills and meals - made Kanesatake's policing budget triple in just 24
months. Normally set at $1.3 million a year, it shot up to $2.2 million in
2003-04 and up again to $3.3 million in 2004-05.

When the first Samson report was leaked to the media in October, Gabriel
defended the expenses, saying they had all been approved by Quebec and
Ottawa. Since then, he and and his former chief of police, Terry Isaac,
have hired an Ottawa law firm to threaten the government and media with
legal action for airing the matter publicly.

Three weeks ago, they sent notices of defamation to the government as well
as the CBC and The Gazette, objecting to the first draft report and its
discussion on Parliament Hill by Day - who said he was "very disturbed" by
the alleged mismanagement of funds - and by the media.

The Gazette has obtained a copy of the expanded version of the audit,
which is dated Nov. 8 and was sent out for comment to several players in
the file, including Gabriel. After review, a final report is expected to
be made public by Day early in 2007, before a possible federal election.

jheinrich at thegazette.canwest.com
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2006