Two men standing at the front of a hall. A Canadian flag is unfurled to the left of them and a podium with the words Fighting for you, Aaron Gunn' to the right.
Politics

The Klahoose ‘Elder’ and other embarrassing aspects of Aaron Gunn’s visit

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About 60 Cortes Island residents turned up at Mansons Hall, on Thursday, April 9, to hear from their MP, Aaron Gunn, and his colleague, MP Jacob Mantle. Gunn gave a presentation, which was followed by answers to written questions. However, the event was marked by several logistical glitches—the most significant involving a Klahoose Cultural Protocol Representative who was invited to open our meeting and give a land acknowledgement – only to find he was not welcome to do so.  

As a reporter, I am expected to be objective. In fact we usually speak in the third person – which seems ludicrous but I still refer to myself as ‘Cortes Currents.’ In this case, I was definitely involved. I helped ‘enable’ this event.

To backtrack a bit, in early February Gunn’s office manager, Samantha Storife, reached out  to see if it was possible for them to have a town hall meeting on Cortes Island. Over the course of the next two months, I recruited a few others and we helped Gunn’s team set the meeting up. We didn’t do this because we are Conservatives – only one of us is – but it seemed worthwhile to hear what our MP had to say and to let our community voice their views.

After digesting the events of the past few days, I still believe that. I appreciated the opportunity to come into contact with Gunn’s staff and basically found them to be decent people. That said, this meeting was a train wreck of conflicting expectations and two Cortes residents were among the ‘casualties.’   

There have been many public meetings on Cortes. The format has essentially been the same. The Liberals, NDP and Green Party all respected it. Gunn’s people probably would have as well, if we had known their procedure. Apparently, if we had paid for the hall they would have come as guests rather than hosts.

We primarily dealt with a staffer. It would have helped if either she or I were more ‘with it.’ I went over the meeting’s format with her on a number of occasions: we would supply the MC; Aaron Gunn would speak; and then there would be a question period. She has since apologized for not making our expectations clear to her superiors. Gunn also apologized, adding that he would be addressing the lack of communication within his team at their weekly meeting on Monday, April 13.    

Mike Moore was to have been our MC. He had hosted community meetings with candidates during the recent election and is a well known teller of Cortes Island stories.  Mike really was looking forward to welcoming Gunn and to give him a brief introduction to Cortes Island. Because questions are often complex and can turn into long statements, we decided to implement a two-minute limit on them. Duane Hanson agreed to provide the Klahoose greeting and land acknowledgement.

Everything changed 24 hours before the meeting. First, we were informed that all questions had to be in writing as ‘the team’ found this to be more efficient. Then, at 2:29 PM on the day of the meeting, the staffer we had been communicating with emailed that she was sorry ‘for any inconvenience’ but Gunn’s office manager, Samantha Storife, would be the MC.

When Samantha arrived at Mansons Hall, she seemed genuinely shocked to hear what we had expected. A compromise was eventually struck: Duane would still give ‘his’ acknowledgement (that ‘his’ sounds a little patronizing), Mike would say a few words about Cortes, and then Samantha would introduce Aaron Gunn and his colleague. Samantha assured us she had the authority to make this decision, but she was to be overruled.

Aaron Gunn learned about these matters a few minutes before the meeting was to begin. He subsequently informed me he does not handle surprises well.

I pressed the record button on my recorder when Samantha approached the podium, but she didn’t speak. About 6 seconds into the recording, you can faintly hear me ask, “Are you starting?” To which she replied, “Sorry?” 

When Mike came forward to MC the meeting, he was told to speak with MP Aaron Gunn. The black thing beside Samantha’s elbow is my recorder.

Amidst the clamour of voices that followed, Mike can be heard mentioning Duane’s name (photo at top of page). A coherent sentence followed. It was Mike telling Aaron Gunn,  ”I am quite disappointed that I’m not going to be able to speak about this community because it is quite a different community than you guys … (unclear segment) You guys will get some sense of that.” 

Aaron Gunn responded, ‘I will be here as late as possible, if you just want to talk about Cortes.’ He proceeded to describe how his team holds events. 

Someone in the audience started clapping and the beat was picked up by others. They wanted the meeting to start.

Many of the seats were still empty when the meeting began. Duane Hanson (wearing a hat) is in the back of the row to the left.

Duane Hanson sat in the back of the room. He was among those who stood to sing the national anthem and quietly left at some point after that. 

During the next hour and a half, two people made references to the land acknowledgement that a Klahoose ‘elder’ was supposed to make. 

(Duane is not an ‘elder.’ While elders are honoured members of the Klahoose First Nation, they are also older. Duane Hanson is a Klahoose Cultural Protocol Representative and a former Chief.)

Gunn replied,  ”We just open every meeting with the national anthem. We hold them across the country. I’m happy to chat with them. That’s just our policy. Thank you.” 

His apology came a couple of days later. Gunn has also offered to let us conduct the opening of the meeting when he returns this summer. Mind you, we would also need to rent the hall. 

A number of people have mentioned their opinion of Aaron Gunn improved because of the meeting, the most colourful being someone who said ‘he isn’t such an a______ after all.’ I agree with that sentiment, albeit in different words. 

(Added the next day) I’m also hearing complaints about the way Gunn’s written question format curtailed discussion.

Would I want to offer Aaron Gunn a platform again next summer? 

I don’t know. I did find it of great value to meet Aaron and his team and hear some of the rational behind their positions, but this meeting was so one sided. I would really like to move beyond being someone’s platform to real discussions which can hopefully lead to resolution on some level. 

How do we do that? 

Links of Interest:

Top photo: Photo taken moments before the meeting started. Aaron Gunn telling Mike Moore (our intended MC) that he couldn’t speak – All photos by Roy L Hales

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One thought on “The Klahoose ‘Elder’ and other embarrassing aspects of Aaron Gunn’s visit”

  1. Thank you for this Roy🙂

    When Aaron Gunn asked everyone to rise and sing Oh Canada I was transported back to my Catholic elementary school days in the 70s where we had to do this every single morning (we also had to recite the Lord’s Prayer).

    Singing Oh Canada was a first for me in our community hall!

    But no land acknowledgement? Also pretty unusual.

    Land acknowledgements became common in BC after the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, which highlighted the need for recognizing Indigenous rights and histories. This practice has since been integrated into various public events and gatherings across our province.

    I have no issue with singing Oh Canada, but to skip over a land acknowledgement for this important event in our community means Gunn and his party are out of touch. The whole event underscored the Conservative’s lack of understanding on many issues including Canadian Indigenous land rights.

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