A Saskatchewan First Nation has been found in contempt-of-court. Onion Lake Cree Nation has 30 days as of July 24th to publicly release its 2017 and ’18 financial statements or face a $10-thousand fine.

Onion Lake activist Charmaine Stick won a decision in Queens Bench and the Court of Appeal to have the 2015 and 2016 statements released, but when she requested the latest documents, she was refused and told to call her lawyer.

The Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation has joined Stick in her court battles. Prairie director Todd MacKay says because the court decisions had previously been made for the first set of documents, they didn’t have to go through it all again. The judge ruled Onion Lake Cree Nation in contempt.

MacKay doesn’t believe this is a fight that Stick should have to be pursuing. He says the federal government should be enforcing the First Nations Financial Transparency Act for the few bands that refuse to comply.

When the first statements were released publicly they showed that the Chief at the time, Wallace Fox, made $123-thousand in 2015 and received a raise of over $27-thousand for a total of over $150-thousand. The average income on the Cree Nation is around $17-thousand-500. Documents also showed the band invested $1.4-million in a technology partnership and a technology corporation, and the next year the investment was written down to a value of a dollar each.