Ousted AFN head seeks feedback on attending annual meeting

The ousted national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) said Thursday she is undecided if she will attend the organization’s annual general assembly next week in Halifax.

“I haven’t made a final decision, I’m leaving it open,” RoseAnne Archibald said during a Facebook Live. 

Archibald said she will be sending the more than 600 chiefs represented by the AFN a memo asking for their feedback. 

“I will wait for the direction from the chiefs,” on whether to attend, said Archibald. 

Archibald asked her supporters to register to participate in the meeting. 

“I believe we need to get mobilized,” she said. 

Archibald has not spoken to the media since she was removed by a non-confidence motion during an AFN virtual assembly on June 28. But this was the second video she recorded in her car in North Vancouver and posted to her Facebook page this week. 

Nearly 500 people watched the Facebook Live on Thursday. 

Archibald repeated her calls for a forensic audit of the AFN, saying the organization is “corrupt” and that its regional chiefs “ganged up” on her for her removal. 

“There is a great injustice and a great deal of unfairness, and a great deal of lateral violence of what happened to me,” said Archibald. 

That meeting was called to address the finding of an investigation into five workplace misconduct complaints filed against Archibald last year, which found she harassed two staffers and retaliated against all five.

In Thursday’s video, Archibald called the investigation a “distraction” for “what is really going on at the AFN.” 

She has called on her supporters to tell their respective regional chiefs and councils to reinstate her as national chief and to call for a forensic audit of the AFN.

“I don’t want to be reinstated because of my ego. I want to be reinstated because I have a sacred responsibility that I have to fulfil,” she said in the video posted Monday. 

AFN is the largest Indigenous advocacy organization in Canada, representing more than 600 First Nation communities. 

Archibald became its first female national chief after winning a two-day, five-ballot election in 2021. 

She is now the first national chief to be voted out of the office mid-term.