SADDLE LAKE - Former Saddle Lake Chief and council member Eric Shirt is calling for a new election, citing the disenfranchisement of “thousands” of members and the narrow margin the chief and council were elected by.
According to the 2025 election results released by Saddle Lake in June, Dale Steinhauer, John E. Large, James R. Steinhauer, Glen J. Whiskeyjack, Eddy Makokis, Charles A. Cardinal, Kevin A. Delver, Kenton F. Cardinal and Arthur C. Steinhauer were elected to the band council on June 11.
Dale Steinhauer was elected Chief on June 18 and re-instated to the position by the federal court on Aug. 8. The court also gave guidance for how chief and council should operate until Steinhauer’s application for judicial review is resolved.
“Saddle Lake Cree Nation’s leadership is determined through a custom electoral system rather than by the election rules contained in the Indian Act. The Department has no role in how the community’s leadership is selected, or how governance disputes are resolved,” said Jennifer Cooper, a spokesperson for Indigenous Services Canada.
The election code used in Saddle Lake is from the 1950s. It prohibits “Red Ticket Indians” (people whose Indian status was restored by bill C-31 and their descendants) from voting, but that specific prohibition was struck down by the federal court in 2023.
According to the application by Eric Shirt and Nipin Kisik Shirt dated July 18, 2025, and citing the 2023 decision, anyone who was a member of Saddle Lake Creen Nation and 21 years of age or older should have been able to vote in the 2025 election.
“Nipin Kisik Shirt, is a member of the SLCN that tried to vote in the SLCN Election and was denied her right to do so,” reads the application.
Approximately 1,100 of the 11,817 members voted in the 2025 election.
“This remarkably low voter turnout is directly attributable to the SLCN’s conduct of denying eligible voters their right to vote. The Council election was decided by approximately 10 votes. Given that thousands of SLCN members were disenfranchised and not permitted to vote, the results of the election clearly would have been different,” reads the application.
Eric Shirt served on council for two terms in 2019 and 2022, and ran for re-election in the June 2025 election but was unsuccessful. Shirt was elected chief in June 2019 and subsequently removed at a band meeting in October 2020, following his support of a forensic audit of the Nation’s finances.
He applied for judicial review, and the federal court reinstated him as chief in March 2022. Eric Shirt was then re-elected as a member of the band council in June 2022.
The audit was not completed, as Indigenous Services Canada determined it was not necessary.
