SADDLE LAKE – More than 60 people registered to observe Federal Court proceedings for a hearing involving the leadership of Saddle Lake Cree Nation on Aug. 6 but were unable to do so.
In an e-mailed statement, a spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Justice of the Federal Court said, “every effort is made to accommodate the public.”
“Unfortunately, only a small minority of those who registered did so “at least 24 hours in advance of the hearing” as encouraged by the Court in its June 20, 2025 Amended Consolidated General Practice Guidelines and as indicated on the Federal Court website. That period of time is necessary to notify the Registry so that it can adjust the format of a virtual hearing to accommodate the number of observers.”
“Unfortunately, in this matter, there were also considerable internet connection problems at the beginning of the virtual hearing which made it necessary to keep only the parties and their lawyers.”
Lakeland This Week was among the observers removed from the virtual court room. The federal court did make a copy of the audio recording of the proceedings available the following day to facilitate coverage of the proceedings.
Held via Zoom, the hearing was scheduled for three and a half hours to determine the next steps in the ongoing dispute between Chief Dale Steinhauer and a subgroup of the elected council of Saddle Lake Cree Nation.
In an order dated Aug. 8, the federal court re-instated Steinhauer to her position as chief and confirmed there will be no general election in Saddle Lake at the end of September. The order also gave direction for how chief, council, and staff should operate in the interim until the merits of Steinhauer’s request for judicial review are determined at a future court date.
