Jerry Fontaine - Sagkeeng Chief and FPP Leader

Sagkeeng Chief and FPP Leader

Fontaine became chief of the Sagkeeng First Nation three years later, and led the community until 1998. During his tenure as Chief, Sagkeeng developed the First Nation's constitutional declaration. This declaration facilitated the Manitoba Hydro Accord, a process that enabled the community to mitigate erosion damages caused by Hydro development and enforce its jurisdiction over its traditional territory. The constitutional process mandated the First Nation's Law-Making Assembly to pass two important pieces of legislation in relation to the Hydro Accord: the Process Law and Conservation Law. He was a supporter of local gambling rights, and launched a private prosecution against the Pine Falls pulp mill in 1995 for violations of the Water Rights Act. By his own admission, he destroyed his Liberal Party membership in 1994 when the Canadian government of Jean Chrétien relaxed anti-pollution standards in the area near his community. Fontaine became a prominent spokesman for Manitoba's First Peoples Party (FPP) later in the year and was generally recognized as the nascent party's leader, although it is not clear if he held an official position.

The FPP was created following a 1993 resolution of the Assembly of Manitoba chiefs that advocated a political party focused on aboriginal issues. The party argued that all native peoples in Canada have an inherent right to self-government and that the country's traditional political parties were not addressing aboriginal concerns. Fontaine emphasized that the FPP was open to all Manitobans, not simply those of aboriginal background.

The party ran three candidates in the 1995 provincial election, all of whom were defeated. Fontaine ran a credible campaign in the vast northern constituency of Rupertsland, but received only 541 votes (12.22%) for a fourth-place finish against New Democrat Eric Robinson, who is also aboriginal. The FPP ceased to exist after the election.

In 1998, an investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation raised allegations that a separate aboriginal-issues party called Independent Native Voice (INV) had been set up by Progressive Conservative organizers to take votes from the New Democratic Party in marginal constituencies. A commission led by Judge Alfred Monnin ruled that these organizers had induced at least one candidate, Darryl Sutherland, to run. The FPP was not implicated in this scandal. In the year the scandal broke, Fontaine informed the media that Sutherland had approached him late in the 1995 campaign to acknowledge that Conservative organizers provided him with funds. He encouraged Sutherland to take his story to the press, although Sutherland rejected this advice at the time. Fontaine has asserted that "the Tories took advantage of Aboriginal individuals who weren't all that involved in political issues or political life", and argued that the incident was symptomatic of the way aboriginal voters are sometimes treated by mainstream parties.