Jerry Fontaine is an
Anishinaabe
The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawatomi, ...
politician in
Manitoba
Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
, Canada. He was chief of the
Sagkeeng First Nation
The Sagkeeng First Nation (also known as Sagkeeng Anicinabe) is a Treaty-1 First Nation in the Eastman Region of Manitoba, Canada, that is composed of the Anishinaabe people indigenous to the area at or near the Fort Alexander Indian Reserve #3 (o ...
from 1989 to 1998, led the
First Peoples Party The First Peoples Party (FPP) was a short-lived political-party in Manitoba, Canada.
History
The FPP was created following a 1993 resolution by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, endorsing a political party to focus on aboriginal issues."Aboriginal ...
in the
1995 provincial election, and was an unsuccessful candidate to lead the
Manitoba Liberal Party
The Manitoba Liberal Party (french: Parti libéral du Manitoba) is a political party in Manitoba, Canada. Its roots can be traced to the late 19th century, following the province's creation in 1870.
Origins and early development (to 1883)
Origina ...
in 1998. He was the director of Indigenous Initiatives at
Algoma University from 2004-2008.
Fontaine is the nephew of
Assembly of First Nations
The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is an assembly of Canadian First Nations (Indian bands) represented by their chiefs. Established in 1982 and modelled on the United Nations General Assembly, it emerged from the National Indian Brotherhood, wh ...
leader
Phil Fontaine
Larry Phillip Fontaine, (born September 20, 1944) is an Indigenous Canadian leader. He completed his third and final term as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations in 2009.
Early life
Fontaine, an Ojibwe, was born at the Sagkeeng Firs ...
.
Early career
Fontaine received a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree from the
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.[Legislative Assembly of Manitoba
The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba (french: Assemblée législative du Manitoba) is the deliberative assembly of the Manitoba Legislature in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly at provincial gener ...](_blank)
in the
1986 provincial election, contesting
Lac du Bonnet as a Liberal. The Liberal Party was a weak electoral force in Manitoba during this period, and Fontaine received 959 votes (11.33%). The winner was
Clarence Baker of the
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic:
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Sagkeeng chief and FPP leader
Fontaine became chief of the Sagkeeng First Nation three years later, and led the community until 1998. During his tenure as Chief, Sagkeeng developed the First Nation's constitutional declaration. This declaration facilitated the Manitoba Hydro Accord, a process that enabled the community to mitigate erosion damages caused by Hydro development and enforce its jurisdiction over its traditional territory. The constitutional process mandated the First Nation's Law-Making Assembly to pass two important pieces of legislation in relation to the Hydro Accord: the Process Law and Conservation Law. He was a supporter of local gambling rights, and launched a private prosecution against the
Pine Falls pulp mill in 1995 for violations of the Water Rights Act. By his own admission, he destroyed his Liberal Party membership in 1994 when the
Canadian government
The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-in-C ...
of
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003.
Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...
relaxed anti-pollution standards in the area near his community. Fontaine became a prominent spokesman for Manitoba's
First Peoples Party The First Peoples Party (FPP) was a short-lived political-party in Manitoba, Canada.
History
The FPP was created following a 1993 resolution by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, endorsing a political party to focus on aboriginal issues."Aboriginal ...
(FPP) later in the year and was generally recognized as the nascent party's leader, although it is not clear if he held an official position.
The FPP was created following a 1993 resolution of the Assembly of Manitoba chiefs that advocated a political party focused on aboriginal issues.
["Aboriginal party in Manitoba would be open to all", '']Financial Post
The ''Financial Post'' was an English Canadian business newspaper, which published from 1907 to 1998. In 1998, the publication was folded into the new ''National Post'',"Black says Post to merge with new paper". ''The Globe and Mail'', July 23, ...
'', 30 November 1994, p. 6. The party argued that all native peoples in Canada have an inherent right to self-government and that the country's traditional political parties were not addressing aboriginal concerns.
Fontaine emphasized that the FPP was open to all Manitobans, not simply those of aboriginal background.
The party ran three candidates in the
1995 provincial election, all of whom were defeated. Fontaine ran a credible campaign in the vast northern constituency of
Rupertsland, but received only 541 votes (12.22%) for a fourth-place finish against New Democrat
Eric Robinson, who is also aboriginal. The FPP ceased to exist after the election.
In 1998, an investigation by the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
raised allegations that a separate aboriginal-issues party called
Independent Native Voice Independent Native Voice, also known as Native Voice, was a short-lived political party in Manitoba, Canada. It was created in 1995 to address aboriginal issues, and ran three candidates in the 1995 provincial election. Native Voice was not regis ...
(INV) had been set up by
Progressive Conservative organizers to take votes from the New Democratic Party in marginal constituencies. A commission led by Judge
Alfred Monnin Alfred Maurice Monnin (March 6, 1920 - November 29, 2013) was a judge in Manitoba, Canada.
He was appointed to the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench in 1957 and to the Manitoba Court of Appeal in 1962. In 1983 he was appointed Chief Justice of Mani ...
ruled that these organizers had induced at least one candidate, Darryl Sutherland, to run. The FPP was not implicated in this scandal. In the year the scandal broke, Fontaine informed the media that Sutherland had approached him late in the 1995 campaign to acknowledge that Conservative organizers provided him with funds. He encouraged Sutherland to take his story to the press, although Sutherland rejected this advice at the time. Fontaine has asserted that "the Tories took advantage of Aboriginal individuals who weren't all that involved in political issues or political life", and argued that the incident was symptomatic of the way aboriginal voters are sometimes treated by mainstream parties.
Liberal leadership campaign
Fontaine rejoined the Manitoba Liberal Party after the FPP's dissolution, and became a candidate for the party's leadership in 1998 following the resignation of
Ginny Hasselfield. He was 42 years old at the time. His candidacy was organized by Ernie Gilroy, and won support from figures such as
Terry Duguid
Terry Duguid (born 1954 or 1955) is a Canadian politician who has served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Winnipeg South since 2015. He has campaigned for elected office at the municipal, provincial and federal levels, and served as a city ...
and Graham Dixon. Fontaine emphasized that he was not a protest candidate, and his campaign did not focus exclusively on aboriginal issues. Initially regarded as the frontrunner, he lost to former
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
Jon Gerrard
Jon Gerrard (born October 13, 1947) is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a Member of Parliament (Canada), Member of Parliament (MP) from 1993 to 1997, and was a secretary of state#Canada, secretary of state in the government of Jean Chr ...
by 1336 votes to 832 in a mail-in ballot open to all party members. He was not a candidate in the
1999 provincial election.
Wing Construction
During the 1998 leadership contest, Fontaine was served with a $100,000 lawsuit from Wing Construction Limited, which had previously received a contract for school construction in Sagkeeng. Wing Construction argued that the Sagkeeng council had not turned over promised funds, and asserted that the company was left to sustain a loss of three million dollars. The federal government later determined that the Wing contract had not been formally approved by the
Department of Indian Affairs
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
, and the company was forced into bankruptcy protection in 2000. Fontaine characterized the personal lawsuit as "frivolous", and was later described as saying that the company had overstated the value of its work. Others have disputed this, and Alan Isfeld of the
Waywayseecappo First Nation
The Waywayseecappo First Nation ( oj, Wewezhigaabawing) is a First Nations band government whose reserve is located twenty miles (32 km) east of Russell, Manitoba, Canada. The First Nation's reserve is 10,059 hectare (24,856 acres) and is located ...
argued that the collapse of Wing Construction created a potentially destructive precedent for aboriginal/non-aboriginal partnerships in Canada.
Separate from the Wing Construction controversy, some members of the Sagkeeng first nation accused Fontaine of inadequate on-reserve housing in 1998. He resigned as chief following a series of protests, saying that he needed to devote all of his attention to the leadership contest. He later defended his financial record against what he described as a "continued siege by government and media alike".
Since 1998
From 1998-2003, Fontaine served as Senior Advisor to the
Pine Falls Paper Company. During this period he facilitated negotiations between the Pine Falls Paper Company (PFPC) and participating
Anishinaabe Nations in the development of a partnership agreement between the PFPC and Anishinaabe Nations.
During the period, 2003-2005 Fontaine became active in the development of the Treaty 1 Protection Office that included the following
Treaty 1
''Treaty 1'' (also known as the "Stone Fort Treaty") is an agreement established on August 3, 1871, between the Imperial Crown of Great Britain and Ireland and the Anishinabe and Swampy Cree nations. The first of a series of treaties called the ...
First Nations (
Brokenhead,
Long Plain
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music mensur ...
,
Peguis,
Roseau River,
Sagkeeng
The Sagkeeng First Nation (also known as Sagkeeng Anicinabe) is a Treaty-1 First Nation in the Eastman Region of Manitoba, Canada, that is composed of the Anishinaabe people indigenous to the area at or near the Fort Alexander Indian Reserve #3 ( ...
,
Sandy Bay and
Swan Lake
''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoye ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, link=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failur ...
). Treaty 1 was signed August 3, 1871.
In 2005, Fontaine served as an adviser to AFN leader Phil Fontaine and promoting education within Canada's aboriginal communities. He has argued that aboriginal communities should have control over First Nations post-secondary institutions.
He was chosen as interim president of the
First Peoples National Party of Canada
The First Peoples National Party of Canada (FPNPC) was a registered federal political party in Canada. It intended to advance the lives of the Indigenous peoples in Canada getting involved in the federal electoral process, engage the public on ...
, a federal party similar to the FPP, in 2005. He continues to serve as FPNP president as of 2006. Fontaine was an administrator at
Algoma University, where he worked as Director of Indigenous Initiatives.
Algoma University: Administration
, accessed 11 March 2007.
While in the capacity of Director, Indigenous Initiatives, Fontaine also served as Sessional Lecturer. (Algoma University, Laurentian University
Laurentian University (french: Université Laurentienne), officially the Laurentian University of Sudbury, is a mid-sized Bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, incorporated on March 28, 1960. Lau ...
and Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig
''Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig'' is an Indigenous led institute, with Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie as one of its main partners. Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig is one of nine Indigenous Institutes in Ontario's post-secondary system and colla ...
)
Fontaine received a Master of Business Administration
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
(MBA) from (European University
EU Business School is a private business school with campuses in Geneva and Montreux (Switzerland), Barcelona (Spain), and Munich (Germany). It is a member of OMNES Education Group since 2022.
History
EU Business School was established in ...
, Paris, France) (2000), Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
(MA) from the (University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.[Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...](_blank)
in Indigenous Studies
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
(Trent University
Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Trent is known for its Oxbridge college system and small class sizes. , Peterborough, Ontario
Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...
).
Electoral record
All electoral information is taken from Elections Manitoba
Elections Manitoba (french: Élections Manitoba) is the non-partisan agency of the Government of Manitoba responsible for the conduct and regulation of provincial elections in Manitoba.
Its responsibilities are to operate free of political influe ...
. Expenditure entries refer to individual candidate expenses. Fontaine was elected Chief of the Sagkeeng First Nation
The Sagkeeng First Nation (also known as Sagkeeng Anicinabe) is a Treaty-1 First Nation in the Eastman Region of Manitoba, Canada, that is composed of the Anishinaabe people indigenous to the area at or near the Fort Alexander Indian Reserve #3 (o ...
in 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1997.
Footnotes
All electoral information is taken from Elections Manitoba
Elections Manitoba (french: Élections Manitoba) is the non-partisan agency of the Government of Manitoba responsible for the conduct and regulation of provincial elections in Manitoba.
Its responsibilities are to operate free of political influe ...
. Expenditures refer to individual candidate expenses.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fontaine, Jerry
Algoma University faculty
Candidates in Manitoba provincial elections
Indigenous leaders in Manitoba
University of Manitoba alumni
Ojibwe people
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Sagkeeng people