The mayor of Quesnel was forced to publicly denounce the actions of his wife, after actions in her private life reflected on the city’s public institutions.
The Lhtako Dene Nation - on whose unceded lands the Quesnel community was built, and whose members were typically interned at the St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School west of Williams Lake - issued a letter to Quesnel city council demanding corrective actions be taken.The issue was first brought up for discussion by councillor Tony Goulet, who is also an elected School District 28 trustee, and of Indigenous ancestry.
“It was very disturbing. I was just appalled that this would be circulating within the community,” Goulet said. “It’s just very, very, very traumatizing; very, very, very disrespectful to an Indigenous community…And my dad, going to residential school, it brought up a lot of stuff, let me tell you….Those things are real. They did actually happen.”
“I need to know and the community needs to know: do you agree with what your wife has been doing?,” said Elliott.Paull took two actions of his own, during the meeting. He issued a statement that outlined examples of his personal support for Indigenous reconciliation, and he proposed a motion to co-appoint himself as a City of Quesnel official liaison for First Nations matters. Currently, that position is solely the portfolio of councillor Laurey-Anne Roodenberg.