Kwanlin Dün cautions candidates about 'questionable tactics'

The Kwanlin Dün First Nation says it's concerned about "questionable tactics" that may be being used by election campaigners in the First Nation's Whitehorse subdivision of McIntyre.

The First Nation has sent a letter to all three candidates in the Mountainview riding, saying it's received "numerous" complaints about unethical behaviour in getting its citizens to vote.

"We have been made aware that intoxicated people may have been taken to the polls and may not be in a position to cast their vote with a clear mind," the letter states. "We request all parties refrain from this practice."

"We want to ask that all candidates and election workers exercise the utmost respect when dealing with KDFN citizens."

The letter goes on to instruct the campaigns "DO NOT tell KDFN citizens 'it's voting day' when in actuality it is not."

Election day in Yukon is Nov. 7. People can vote now by special ballots.

Kwanlin Dün member Nolan Charlie told CBC he was taken to vote one day over the Thanksgiving weekend. He says he was drunk and walking down the street, when he was offered a ride.

"These two women in a vehicle came [and] asked me just to go vote. And I said OK," Charlie said.

"I was drinking. I was not normal — I was drunk. And then, yeah, they took me down towards Westmark [Hotel], I think, to vote ... and then I stayed downtown."
    
Charlie can't say exactly where he cast his ballot, but does say it was at a hotel.

He also recalls who he voted for — Yukon Party candidate (and leader) Darrell Pasloski.

"They said, 'go vote for Darrell Pasloski, and so I went. They were white girls, white women. They asked me, and so yeah, I went."

• RIDING PROFILE | Mountainview — Jeanie Dendys, Darrell Pasloski, Shaunagh Stikeman

'Not thinking clearly'

Another Kwanlin Dün citizen — who wants to remain anonymous — claims in a statement that she and her friends were approached and offered a "ride downtown and back, if maybe we can vote for [Pasloski]." 

"He said if we do that, he would do us a favour and give us a ride."

The woman says she did vote, but was "really hungover, and not thinking clearly and too shaky to do anything."

She says after she voted, she and her friends were given a ride downtown, where they went to a pawnshop, then a nearby liquor outlet. Then she says they were driven back to McIntyre subdivision.

Currie Dixon, campaign chair for the Yukon Party, calls the allegations "patently false."

"We offer rides if people need them. However, we would never provide a ride to somebody who's intoxicated and we would never do so with misdirection, and we would never use mis-truths or non-truths about whether it's voting day or not," he said.

Dixon says the Yukon Party has its own concerns about the conduct of other parties, but would not provide more detail. He says the party has raised them formally with Yukon's chief electoral officer.