Court battle brews between FSIN and former election officer

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A woman hired to run the 2021 Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) election is defending her claims of voting irregularities.

The FSIN and its then-Chief Operating Officer Dawn Walker filed a defamation lawsuit against Myrna O’Soup on Mar. 11, 2022, one week after O’Soup allegedly sent an email to Chiefs and published a Facebook post saying she had learned new information that “seriously compromises the integrity” of the election results and calling on the RCMP to investigate.

The lawsuit alleges O’Soup defamed the organization and Walker by claiming there was a conspiracy to conceal irregularities and to keep the electoral officer quiet. Walker currently faces unrelated criminal charges.

Last month, O’Soup filed her defence.

She says that, even if proven untrue, her statements about the election were made in good faith, and that she never spoke about Walker directly. She also denies publishing any statements about the election on Facebook.

O’Soup was hired in Sept. 2021 to run the October election for the FSIN, which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan. According to documents filed by both FSIN and O’Soup, the organization’s governing body called for the election to be conducted through online voting that year due to COVID-19.

In a submission to the Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench in August, O’Soup’s lawyer claims she was never given access to the online voting platform, and that she was “prevented by FSIN employees” from supervising ballots or confirming the eligibility of voting delegates.

Walker and two IT staff were the only people at the polling stations with access to the online voting platform, in violation of the organization’s election act, the defence alleges.

When she was given temporary access to the voting software and electoral log following the election, O’Soup says she discovered that Walker and the two IT staff could see every voter’s ballot choices, contrary to what FSIN told its members.

She claims several chiefs of the FSIN’s member nations told her they were signed up to vote under temporary emails using an FSIN domain — @fsin2021.emails — rather than the one they used to register to vote.

O’Soup also alleges some of the voting credentials were leaked.

“At least four Chiefs of FSIN reported to O’Soup that they were emailed access to five (to) 10 delegates’ voting credentials (FSIN email and password),” her lawyer writes.

According to the statement of defence, the same IP address was used for multiple votes, with one address accounting for 69 votes in total, based on the electoral log from the voting software.

When O’Soup discussed her concerns with the irregularities after the election, and told FSIN she would take the matter to the RCMP, she says she was threatened by Walker.

O’Soup is looking to get the defamation suit thrown out, and seeking compensation for damages to her reputation and career.

The FSIN did not return CTV News' request for comment.