National Citizens Inquiry addresses hostile takeover attempt

National Citizens Inquiry lead counsel Shawn Buckley has publicly alleged the NCI is facing a politically-motivated "hostile takeover" attempt and has publicly posted evidence to support his allegations.On the NCI's "transparency" webpage, Buckley alleged that the Conservatives have tried to ground further work by the inquiry through an affiliated not-for-profit corporation named Citizens Inquiry Canada (CIC).According to Buckley, the "sole purpose" of the CIC was to collect and disperse funds for the NCI board and the board maintained "managing authority" of itself and the CIC. He alleges that this interpretation was undisputed until last Decmeber.The allegations were laid out in a memo by lead counsel Shawn Buckley sent to the NCI Board of Directors and updated February 25."In my opinion it will be clear after a reading of this memo, that the current take down of the NCI is a direct result of a political meeting of four Conservatives on December 19, 2023," Buckley said."Early in the NCI’s history, because of Preston Manning’s involvement, there were 'conspiracy theorists' saying the NCI was run by Conservatives. I disagreed with this as my experience was all of us working together to get the project done without any political discussions until the timing of the Alberta hearings came up. When Brian Peckford was saying the NCI was flawed, I thought he was not being fair. Maybe Mr. Peckford knew things that we are now just discovering."On December 13, 2023 former NCI board chair David Ross was voted off the board. On December 15, Ross transferred ownership of the website to the new board chair Ted Kuntz. Ross also sent an email to Ches Crosbie and Ted Kuntz that urged that the NCI board would confirm Litvinjenko and TAAG Law as corporate lawyers to restructure the NCI and CIC.On December 19, Crosbie emailed Kuntz to say the four had met earlier that morning as a board. "Efforts must be made to clean up the financial side, obviously. A resolution is under consideration," Crosbie explained.The resolution called for "Reorganization of the structure and purposes of CIC, prior to or at the next Annual Meeting of the members, upon the condition that a new slate of directors satisfactory to the current Board is nominated and appointed."Further, "If a new slate of directors for CIC, capable of moving the organization and the work of the NCI forward, cannot be agreed upon, and/or current internal disagreements continue to detract from the distribution and promotion of the work of the NCI, the current directors of the CIC will take steps to wind up the organization."Crosbie said the goal for the reorganization was "to enable the inquiry mission to proceed with the confidence of all those who wish to make a substantial contribution. If this object cannot be attained, then the way would be open for others to reconstitute the organization."Buckley, however, suspects other motivations."Every director of the CIC which is attempting to get control of the NCI is connected to the Conservative Party. The current directors are: David Ross, regular director; Ches Crosbie, regular director; Preston Manning, director emeritus with voting rights, and Andrej Litvinjenko, director emeritus with voting rights," Buckley explained.In his memo, Buckley pointed to past comments by CIC members to suggest political considerations could be clouding their decisions. According to notes taken by NCI organizer John Graff in Saskatchewan, Ross told him in 2023, "The most important thing is to get Danielle Smith elected, NCI is not as important as keeping Notley out because she would destroy the economy of Alberta which is the driver of Canada."On the Lavigne Show February 2, 2024 Crosbie said at the 11:22 mark, "I think that, personally, and I think many would agree with me that we don’t want the National Citizens Inquiry need to become an open ended, ongoing, you know, inquiry into the state of government in Canada."The Western Standard reached out to Crosbie but did not hear back before publication.The articles of the CIC said its purpose is "to support civil society efforts that uphold public accountability, transparency, and the rule of law." On January 17, the NCI discharged the CIC and incorporated a new not-for-profit corporation named National Citizens Inquiry.However, the CIC is still claiming jurisdiction. On February 7, Ross sent an agenda for the March 1 CIC annual meeting that called for a restriction on activities that CIC would support, specifically that, "No further hearings involving sworn testimony taken before Commissioners shall be held, except as may be desirable to receive testimony from public officials who failed or refused to answer summonses to testify at the hearings held during 2023."All CIC members prior to December 13, 2022 were appointed on September 9, 2022: Andrej Litvinjenko, David Ross, Jonathan Bower, Kari Simpson, Preston Manning, Ryan Penn, Scarlett Martyn, Shawn Buckley, and Ted Kuntz.A flurry of new appointments have come of late. On December 19, 2023, Crosbie and Dale Anderson were added. On January 29, 2024, Garrett Melee, Josiah Martinoski, Michelle Leduc Catlin, and Philippe Meloni were added. Jerry Manegre was added February 5. Buckley did not approve"Four of these are former contractors for the NCI that likely are now being paid by the CIC for services using funds belonging to the NCI. This creates a conflict of interest," Buckley wrote."In my opinion, all seven of these new members will side with David Ross and Ches Crosbie in the management dispute with the NCI Board. Because of this I view these appointments as a clear tactic to prevail in the dispute with the NCI Board."Buckley said in May of 2023 a planning committee was formed to determine whether there should be more hearings. They agreed unanimously and communicated this to the board by email along with a list of restructuring items required so more hearings could be held.According to Buckley, Ross controlled the board meeting agenda and continually put off more hearings as a discussion issue on the agenda. Buckley also alleged Preston Manning was brought in with Dave to suggest a task force should be created to decide what the planning committee already had.Buckley said the removal of Ross allowed new hearings to be facilitated."We should be proud that since December 13, 2023, we have already organized for three sets of hearings in 2024. The one starting in May in Regina and the BC and Ontario hearings. This has happened because we are no longer being internally blocked from holding hearings," Buckley said.Below, Kuntz gives his own account of the internal politics of the NCI.

National Citizens Inquiry addresses hostile takeover attempt

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