Isabel Mosseler
Tribune
Nipissing First Nation (NFN) has a new Chief/Gimaa. Cathy Bellefeuille-Stevens was elected to lead a council of 8 members on July 5, 2024 and officially took office on August 1st, with an official ceremony of inauguration at the Teaching Lodge held on August 22nd. The Electors Report indicates that just 1478 of the 2749 qualified electors chose to vote, splitting their support broadly among the six candidates for Chief. Incumbent Scott McLeod received 354 votes to Chief Bellefeuille-Stevens’ 391, while candidates Thomas Lambert earned 269 votes, Marianna Couchie, 234, Darlene Gingras, 118, and Rodney Commanda, 105. The council members serving alongside Gimaa Bellefeuille-Stevens are Brian Couchie, Eric Rick Stevens, Joan McLeod Shabogesic, Yvette Bellefeuille, Samantha Stevens, Priscilla Goulais and Jason Laronde.
Chief Bellefeuille-Stevens may be a new face to many of the residents of West Nipissing but is very familiar to her own community. “I’ve lived on Nipissing First Nation my entire life,” she says. “I grew up on the [North Bay] end of the First Nation and have been living in Garden Village for about eight years.” She is a lawyer, a mother and grandmother, has served on council before, and at age 58 assumes a new position to carry on the work of her forebears. In fact, her grandfather Ernest Couchie served as Chief for 6 separate terms between 1916 and 1958.
She says of her reason for putting her name forward, “I was wanting to move the community forward in a more holistic way, community-minded way. There were community members that approached me and wanted to see a different direction for the community to go in. Honestly, I never paid a whole lot of attention to community politics because I was busy with my law practice.” Bellefeuille-Stevens moved her practice into her home during COVID. She works mainly in the area of child protection and is still working as a children’s lawyer in the Child Protection Court, but with a dramatically reduced caseload.
Bellefeuille-Stevens notes of her election that it was a good confirmation although, “It wasn’t like an extraordinary large win. I think that the other candidates (…) there were a few of them that were still pretty strong. But I led in the polls enough (…) In my campaign and speaking with the community members, I felt pretty confident going into the election.” Bellefeuille-Stevens holds the former chief Scott McLeod in high regard. “I wasn’t immediately sure that I should run. I had hesitation (…) because I worked well with Scott. I had been on council with him before and knew him in the community and always thought he was a fine leader.” However, she came to realize that the community wanted a change. As she campaigned, many people spoke to her candidly that they wanted a shift in direction. “It was something that was really new to me, because I’d never seen the community like that.”
There was a lot of discussion prior to the election about the $10-billion settlement for 21 First Nations in Robinson Huron Treaty (RHT) territory, which was finalized with Canada and Ontario earlier this year after a lengthy court battle over annual treaty payments. Those payments had remained frozen at $4 per person since 1875. But Bellefeuille-Stevens doesn’t think the shift was attributable to the RHT Annuities’ internal discussions on payouts, which were at times acrimonious. “I don’t think it was grounded in the RHT. I think what the community really wanted was for somebody to be there to work within the community and for the community at the community level.”
She acknowledges that her predecessor had a large profile off-reserve and accomplished a lot. “I respected that. I still respect that. There’s still a place for Scott, because he was very confident negotiating and meeting at the provincial levels, the federal levels. He’s a very good public speaker, and he’s very knowledgeable in those areas; he’s strong in the issues when it comes to the Métis Nation and their movement.” But, she adds, the community has issues they want addressed.
Chief Cathy Bellefeuille-Stevens thinks people responded to her because of her ground-level advocacy. “I live in the community, and I’m in the community every single day and I’m pretty knowledgeable as far as the community level issues. I think those are the things that people see as the most important right now, but I don’t want to lose sight of the good work that Scott’s done at those levels that are beyond our borders. (…) I have respect for Scott and I want to have him remain as a positive workforce for us, for the nation. (…) We want to utilize those valuable traits that he has developed. We want to maintain that movement forward at all levels, and I think he still remains to (…) do some good work for us. He’s still going to be on the regional chiefs for the Anishinabek Nation (…). I am confident in his work.”
One quickly gets a sense of why her electors describe Chief Bellefeuille-Stevens as a kind person, especially when kindness is not something very apparent in political arenas. She acknowledges that kindness is one of her standards. “I try my best to be that. I have a different approach to things, and it’s always about the community first,” she affirms.
Outlining her immediate term priorities she adds, “We do have some immediate concerns throughout the Nation. When I did my campaigning, there was concern about the substance abuse and the addictions that are going on in the community and all of the issues that stem from that. That’s a priority for us right now, to try to find a way to help our community members that are suffering and (…) get a little bit tougher with the people that are coming into our community that are trafficking drugs (…) What are the sources and how do we work on that? (…) We have brazen drug trafficking.” She notes that this is a global issue, but as part of their Community Wellness Plan, her council wants to tackle it. “My feeling is if we become complacent about that, then we’re not doing any service to our Nation. We should be looking after what’s going on within our Nation.”
Asked to address the conjecture that the annuities payments might compound the risks for addicts, Chief Bellefeuille-Stevens takes a completely opposing stance, insisting that poverty compounds the risks while providing people with hopeful futures is uplifting. “We’ve been very, very fortunate in that with the RHT funds that have already been distributed, it’s been three weeks now. Knock on wood, I don’t think we’ve had any deaths because of receiving RHT money (…) The RHT has done so many good things, there’s an endless list of so many good things that have happened for community members. And to be honest, we’ve had lots of community members that have died because they did not have the money (…) not having that equality in financials, and not having that treaty money. If it would have been in place long ago, things may have been different. It’s a shame that we have people that have to resort to measures that are below standard because they just don’t have the money (…) So it’s nice to see now (…) they have the money to do those things that they could only have dreamed of before.”
The chief speaks to the challenges of living in a community affected by inequity, the long term effects that have hampered personal and community life, and how even after receiving their dues the community still lags behind. “It’s still going to be a while, but it’s a nice feeling (…) There are so many people that are telling me, “We paid off our mortgage, I don’t have a house payment anymore, we bought a new car, a safe vehicle that I can drive my kids to school in and I can get myself to work’. Those kinds of things are happening. It’s incredible. There are people that say, ‘I want to start a business’.”