The former chief of Peguis First Nation claims he was manipulated into receivership by the man who beat him to the top job in his community.
Louis Stevenson said he has been unable to make loan payments on his gas bar and convenience store because Chief Glenn Hudson cancelled all gasoline purchases.
"There are three gas bars on the reserve," Stevenson said. "(Hudson) didn't cut off purchases from the other two, he only did that to mine."
Stevenson's business, the LJS gas bar and store, was placed into receivership last week by the Tribal Wi-Chi-Way-Win Capital Corporation (TWCC), an aboriginal financial institution, after Stevenson did not make a loan payment since November.
TWCC sent a receiver to take over the store last weekend and run it until the store can be sold. However, the gas bar was overrun by Stevenson supporters Monday morning, who chased away the receiver's staff.
Stevenson has refused to surrender the store and TWCC is back in court today to have the receivership enforced.
Meanwhile, the Peguis band rescinded an order it had passed Monday banning the receiver from the reserve.
Hudson said the band council resolution was only a temporary measure to restore peace in the community. He said if the resolution remained in place, it would jeopardize other reserve residents getting loans from TWCC in the future.
Stevenson claims he has been losing $15,000 a week in revenue since Hudson ordered the band administration to stop buying fuel from his gas bar. He suggests the move was a blatant attempt to bankrupt him. But Hudson said the band was only buying a fraction of that amount from Stevenson's store.
Stevenson was chief of the Peguis reserve for 26 years, but lost the 2007 election to Hudson.
Hudson denied he was carrying out a vendetta against Stevenson, adding that Stevenson's gas bar was frequently closed last fall and band staff and members were unable to use purchase orders to buy fuel from LJS when they needed it.
TWCC legal counsel Grant Stefanson said Stevenson's gas bar was put into receivership only after all attempts to get him to resume his loan payments were unsuccessful. Stefanson said Stevenson owes several hundred thousand dollars in missed loan payments.
Stevenson said he repeatedly asked TWCC to renegotiate the amount of his loan payments to something that he can afford, but they refused.
"I wanted a new arrangement that is reasonable and practical and doesn't set me up for failure in a couple of months," Stevenson said.
He said he'll oppose the receivership order, arguing that the Indian Act states only an Indian or an Indian band can seize property on reserve from another Indian. Stevenson said that while the TWCC is an aboriginal organization, it is simply an incorporated body.
Peguis council lawyer Norm Boudreau said if the court upholds the TWCC receivership today, then the Peguis council will not take any action to stop TWCC from seizing the store.
Boudreau said that when Stevenson accepted financing from TWCC in 2000, he signed a document stating he would not invoke the Indian Act to prevent TWCC from seizing his property if he defaulted on the loan.
aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca
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