The First Nations University of Canada operating crisis from 2006 to 2010 left shattered careers strewn about its three campuses like dead bodies at the end of a Shakespearean tragedy. Another one went down today, as Stevenson pleaded guilty to one count of fraud in Regina Court of Queen’s Bench. Ironically, I covered this story for the Aboriginal Multi Media Society of Alberta when he planned this trip to the Orkneys.
In retrospect, the most stupid thing about Stevenson’s actions was trying to do this while Morley Watson’s board of governors were waiting for any excuse for FNUC’s administration to step out of line. They didn’t need any justification to do what they did to FNUC (and, in any other institution, Wes would probably have been quietly shown the door and little more would have been said). Instead, he set the ball rolling for five years of the most devastating attack on aboriginal education Canada had seen since the residential school system was dismantled and discredited.