Innu women fired after speaking out

Two women in an Innu community in northern Labrador have lost their jobs because they spoke out against the band council's plan to use a legacy fund for housing.

Agathe Rich and Rose Pokercirculated a petition that claimed the chiefs in Natuashish and in Sheshatshiu, in central Labrador, wanted to use $25 million in the Teshipitakan trust fund to pay for new houses. The fund wasset up with revenues from the Voisey's Bay nickel mine.

The band council In Natuashish backed away from usingthe money, but not before firing the two women.

"I don't know why," said Rich, who worked at the safe house in Natuashish and sits on the board of directors of the Innu Nation.

"We're doing that after hours, while we were not working," she told CBC News.

Chief Simeon Tshakapeshsent a letter to the womenlast week, statingthe band council cannot tolerate "political behaviour contrary to the interests of the duly elected chief and council," and that people who criticize the band council cannot work for it.

The community's health director followed through on Monday with letters of termination.

Poker, who worked for the local health commission, said she was astonished to seeTshakapesh suggest that she and Rich were trying to provoke violence in the community.

"Your petition in misrepresenting the facts in this matter runs the risk of even inciting people to violence if its contents are accepted as true," Tshakapesh wrote in a Feb. 3 warning letter.

"We don't want violence, we just want people to know about what both band councils [wanted to do with] that fund," said Rich, referring to a similar move by the Innu band council in Sheshatshiu, in central Labrador.

Tshakapesh was travelling on Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.