Crupi Consulting, a Northern Ontario consulting company, has stolen $2.6 million dollars from one of the most impoverished First Nations communities in Canada.
This unthinkable act of theft took money out of programs designed to feed 400 hundred elementary school children and lined the pockets of the owners.
The company denies the mismanagement of money and is refusing to pay it back, choosing instead to fight Health Canada in court. Crupi Consulting must be held accountable for this horrific theft and breach of trust.
Sign the petition today to demand Crupi Consulting pays back all the money stolen from Kashechewan First Nation.
Kashechewan is a small Cree community on the James Bay coast in Northern Ontario. It has been experiencing ongoing health crises including a youth suicide crisis and sanitation crisis. Health Canada hired Crupi Consulting, for several multi-million dollar contracts, to administer programs and resources to help with child poverty, sanitation and mental health - key financial support to combat these crises. However, most of the money never got to the people of Kashechewan.
Crupi Consulting is denying any wrong-doing, despite a clear paper trail indicating misuse of funds and a criminal trial of one of the previous managers, who has been charged with fraud and laundering proceeds of a crime.
In a time when reconciliation is on the minds of so many Canadians, this theft is just another reminder of the awful effects of colonialism on First Nations communities.
SumOfUs has a long history of supporting First Nations in their fights against corporations. Tens of thousands of members like you stood up to Malaysian gas giant Petronas when it was trying to build a huge LNG project on Lelu Island despite the protests of the Gitwilgyoots tribe living there. We know that it takes huge public pressure to force corporations to do the right thing and you can help today to ensure that Crupi Consulting is held accountable for its heinous deeds.
Will you join me in signing the petition to tell Crupi Consulting to pay back all $2.6 million to Kashechewan?
More information
The National Post. 20 September 2016.
The National Post. 12 October 2017.