SIX NATIONS – Ontario Justice R.A. Lococo has been assigned the class action case against the HDI and lawyer Aaron Detlor on behalf of members of the Men’s Fire and Six Nations people at large. The date is yet to be set; however, Mr. Justice Arrel has assigned the case to Justice Lococo, who is this region’s only class action justice.
Contrary to reports elsewhere, the class action case is not dead and is in fact making its way through the courts. When the case is opened by Lococo, lawyer Aaron Detlor and financial advisor Elvera Garlow will be cross examined on statements made earlier in discovery regarding the affairs of the Haudenosaunee Development Institute which Detlor was instrumental in establishing on behalf of the Confederacy Chiefs.
For several years since its inception at around the same time as the Caledonia standoff, Six Nations band members have been trying to get answers from the HDI relative to specific financial arrangements it has made with developers and energy companies. But more so, about who is making what from the HDI deals, including Detlor’s retainer agreement with the HCCC, the money paid to Turtle Island News publisher Lynda Powless’ to act as HDI’s media person. They also want answers about any other unspecified salaries or funds paid to individuals.
Frustrated with stonewalls, Wilfred Davie and Bill Monture launched a class action suit on behalf of the community. The men themselves insist they are not seeking any kind of personal financial reward, only that the HDI become transparent with the people they are supposed to represent.
It has been the HDI’s stance that they work for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council and not the people, per se. As such, they believe a forensic investigation of the HDI’s finances is in order.
The court agreed and moved the case on to Justice Lococo to determine if the HDI will be ordered to reveal certain aspects of their operation that until now, which the Men’s Fire and others allege have been kept secret from the Six Nations public at large.
