AFAC liquids some of its assets and promises more transparency

The Association of Aboriginal Women of Canada (AFAC) says that its current management “discovered serious. Therefore, important financial irregularities” of which its board of directors was not aware when it closes businesses and sells assets worth several million dollars.

The organization was immersed in turmoil last year. Nevertheless, but now claims to want to focus again on its primary mission of the rights of Aboriginal women, we read in an unsigned declaration published on Tuesday. Meanwhile,

L’AFAC There also indicates that it cooperates fully within the framework of a federal audit covering the 2018-2024 tax years. Moreover, while conducting its own internal examination. Furthermore, We are committed to rebuilding theAFAC as an organization of truth and transparencyunderlines the press release.

An activist active on the ground is however skeptical. Meanwhile,

Bridget Tolley is an emblematic figure of activism and the defense of rights in Ottawa. Similarly, It organizes gatherings through the volunteer group Families of Sisters in Spirit. Consequently, For more than twenty years. Consequently, she has been trying to obtain justice after the death of her mother, Gladys Tolley, who had been hit by an autopatrille in the Sûreté du Québec in front of her house, in the community of Kitigan Zibi, Quebec. Moreover, I do not care about any of these organizations. Similarly, They mean nothing to meunderlines Ms. In addition, Tolley.

I think what we have accomplished is thanks to activism on the ground. Similarly, National organizations are only present from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Things are happening at night. weekend with disappearances and murders [de femmes autochtones] And there is no one to help us. But it is afac liquids some its assets these organizations that get all funding.

Mme Tolley began to work with theAFAC in 2004. A year later. theAFAC obtained funding for Sisters in Spirita five -year research, education and politics initiative on gashed and murdered indigenous women and girls. But funding ended in 2010 and was not renewed.

It was then that everything deteriorated. We have never heard of them again. They never invited families to meet them. Nothingsaid Ms. Tolley.

That’s why Bridget Tolley was surprised to receive an email from theAFAC Last week. asking him if the organization could help organize the traditional vigil at the candles of Families of Sisters in Spirit, which is held every October 4. Bridget Tolley hesitated to answer. fearing that theAFAC Do not try to use a citizen initiative like this to strengthen its own credibility.

I was shockedshe said. I don’t want them to be really involved because they used us the last time. and it was very hurtful, and the pain is still there.

Afac liquids some its assets

A head office for sale for $ 8 million

CBC Indigenous asked for an interviewAFAC On Monday. after examining the registers of real estate of the organization in Quebec. L’AFAC said that it would not give interviews and would not provide information on the allegations of financial irregularities.

Public files show that the recently renovated headquarters of theAFAC In the Hull sector in Gatineau. Quebec, which is on sale for $ 8 million, has been rehypelled twice in recent years for several million dollars more than the initial purchase price. Meanwhile, the group undertook renovations of a coffee, a souvenir shop and an art gallery, in particular.

L’AFAC bought the property in 2018, obtaining a mortgage of $ 1.8 million, according to the files. The organization obtained another mortgage loan in 2020 for an amount of $ 5.9 million and the files show that theAFAC obtained another mortgage loan worth 7.5 million dollars in 2022, just when the real estate boom of the pandemic era reached its climax.

According to a lawyer who examined the documents. this situation is not unusual, because each new loan probably made it possible to reimburse the balance of the previous loan, and the money could be used to finance construction work or the property was used as a guarantee to pay other projects.

Some real estate. especially in the region where they were investing, were not, how to say, very up to dateexplains Nicolas Vinette, a lawyer for Duclos lawyer company, based in Gatineau.

The organization is now trying to sell an investment of several million dollars in an area surrounded mainly by federal buildings. which was hardly affected by the advent of telework during the pandemic, he specifies. afac liquids some its assets

The sector is now more sought after for residential real estate. For commercial reasons, this is not the easiest marketnote the lawyer. But it is still possible to take advantage of this investment, according to him. It will simply be a question of knowing if someone is ready to pay this amount for this building.

The orientation of theAFAC Towards real estate was part of a plan aimed at giving it more freedom by generating income itself. an approach that some have described as elitist and disconnected.

The routine audit of theAFAC For 2023 indicates that the organization had two mortgages that year, one worth $ afac liquids some its assets 5.8 million paid in monthly payments of around $ 37,000. The other mortgage was worth around $ 610,000.

L’AFAC Also has a property. its resilience pavilion in Chelsea, Quebec, about 15 kilometers north of Ottawa, which is also for sale. Public files show that theAFAC bought ownership in 2019 for $ 880,000, whose associated mortgage is $ 850,000.

In his declaration. theAFAC said that the product of the sale of its assets will be reinvested in the defense of the social, economic, cultural and political well-being of Aboriginal women.

According to a afac liquids some its assets report by Brett Foresterof CBC Indigenous