First Nations agency defends Hawaiian meeting

Oh I doubt that, looks like they did quite well.
Wonder if they kept the hulas.

Holy crap on a stick. That is the definition of conflict of interest. Oh hell why am I surprised?

Feeding time for the pigs.

Nice to know the money was well spent.

Samanani said Hawaii was the same cost or cheaper than meeting in Canada or somewhere else, partly because they could get the meeting space for free through the board member. He also said that family members who came along paid their own way.


1st; How many of you's take your kiddees with you to important/any business/work conferences /meetings? Raise your hands.


That many! I thought so!

So, it's cheeper to fly 2 doz or so peeps to Hawaii than it is to fly one person to Edmonton! Again, I am !

I'm beginning to think that in Canada, anything that has a First Nations, nomenclature is bound to be beset by fraud, corruption or grand larceny.

Actually I have(about half a dozen times) and I know several people who have done working holidays with their families. While you or the wife are in a conference/seminar, everybody else does the tourist thing. The company or university paid for me, and my wife and I paid for the rest. it really is quite common, but I don't buy that the meeting was cheaper to hold in Hawaii, because board member lived there.

Must be nice to be able to afford a trip to Hawaii.


-J.

Why on Earth would they hold it outside of Canada? Thanks for the tourism dollars though.

I've been there a few times. The first time was on the government dime....by sea.

The same in the States.

This was in our paper yesterday but the trials have been going on for years.
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Appeal court cuts term for fraud
The Canadian Press
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
TORONTO � Ontario�s highest court has reduced the fraud sentence for the wife of Fort William First Nation Chief Peter Collins.
Susan Collins was sentenced in 2009 to 16 months for her role in a welfare fraud scheme at Fort William.
Collins was also ordered to make restitution of $96,000 to Ontario Works for her role in a scheme that saw the provincial welfare program defrauded of nearly $1.3 million through the creation of false client files.
In a ruling published Tuesday, the Court of Appeal for Ontario reduced Collins� sentence to 10 months to be followed by two years� probation. The court kept the restitution order.
The appeal was heard on Jan. 21.
Collins � one of 12 people charged in the scheme � used the money she got from the fraud to feed her gambling addiction. The money was either lost at the local casino or used to conceal gambling losses from her husband.
Collins, who was charged in 2006, had pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000.
When she was sentenced, Superior Court Justice Patrick Smith noted her difficult upbringing and her lack of a criminal record. She has four children, one of whom is physically and developmentally disabled, having suffered a stroke shortly after birth.
However, Smith also pointed out that the crime was serious and well-organized, and that Collins was an active participant, finding and supplying false identities which allowed for the opening of false files to accommodate issuing and cashing fraudulant cheques.
Collins was one of the first to get involved, not stopping until the scheme was broken up by police, and she didn�t co-operate with investigators, Smith said.
The appeal court ruled that the sentencing judge had not properly taken into account systemic factors affecting Fort William First Nation and background � such as Collins� disabled daughter � that led her into the fraud.
�I would also give more weight than the trial judge to the impact on the appellant of being separated from her disabled daughter,� Justice Marc Rosenberg wrote on behalf of the panel in the reasons for reducing the sentence.
�It is one thing to be away from that child for a few hours a week spent gambling than to be completely removed from her for a period of months,� Rosenberg said.
�It is not just the impact on the child; the wrenching experience imprisonment would represent for a mother who has devoted the past 18 years of her own life caring for her disabled child must be considered.�
The appeal court said it �reluctantly� concluded that a conditional sentence would not be appropriate given the serious nature of Collins� crime.

Yea being Native and having a disabled daughter made her committ fraud so she could gamble it all away.

So many injustices ignored because of political correctness.