Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs votes to remove suspended Grand Chief Arlen Dumas

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs voted to remove suspended Grand Chief Arlen Dumas from office at a special general meeting in Winnipeg on Friday.

Dozens of Manitoba chiefs gathered at Assiniboia Downs for a vote of no confidence to officially remove Dumas from office.

Dumas was suspended in March pending an investigation into allegations that he was sexually harassed in the workplace and sexually assaulted an employee, who at the time was unnamed. The employee filed a police report, but no charges were laid.

In response to the allegations, the assembly ordered a third-party investigation, which found that Dumas had engaged in sexual harassment at work.

Shauna Fontaine later came out publicly as an employee who filed the complaint and expressed her disappointment with the AMC and the police response to her report.

Earlier this week, Dumas announced that he would seek trauma-based treatment to « begin to heal not only from the events of the past five months, but also from a lifetime of trauma, » he said in a Press release.

Fontaine’s allegations are not the first time Dumas has been accused of sexual misconduct. In 2019, a 22-year-old employee, Bethany Maytwayashing, alleged that he sent her inappropriate text messages.

He denied the charges and later took time off to « heal ».

Dumas was first elected grand chief of the CMA in 2017 and was re-elected last summer.