Quest Health is an Indigenous-led health and wellness entity based in downtown Winnipeg. Photo: Questhealth.ca
Critics fear a former grand chief in Manitoba could do more harm than good as the head of a downtown medical facility in Winnipeg.
Arlen Dumas, who was forced out of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) in August 2022 because of workplace harassment, is now Health Services director at Quest Health Clinic Inc.
The clinic is part of Quest Health, an Indigenous health and wellness centre run, in part, by four Cree Nations from northern Manitoba.
A bid to expand into addictions treatment netted a $10-million funding promise from former premier Heather Stefanson during the recent election campaign. A recovery centre in Winnipeg would serve Indigenous and non-Indigenous patients while outreach workers would attend partnering First Nations, explained a release from Stefanson’s Progressive Conservatives.
Clarence Easter, the managing director of Quest Health and chief of one of the four Cree Nations – Chemawawin – said in the release the service would help vulnerable people heal.
“Unfortunately, part of the legacy left to us after Residential Schools was a disproportionate amount of our people suffering from addictions,” Easter said. “We know that the trauma and tragedy we faced has led to generations of our people suffering and we need to reach out and help. We need to now focus on the living, and this is a good place to start.”
Easter did not respond to a request for comment from APTN News.
But Ken Bighetty, a contract family enhancement worker in northern Manitoba not employed by Quest, questions how hiring Dumas fits into the organization’s trauma-informed focus.
“There’s our sacred laws of respecting people in the community and how we think – and then we think of the victim,” he said. “Then we don’t go and say, ‘OK, I’ll help you (Dumas). Here’s a job. I hope you’ll feel comfortable.’
“It should be the other way. That’s what Quest Health does.”
Dumas did not respond to a request for comment APTN sent to his Quest email address. However, Winnipeg lawyer Josh Weinstein contacted APTN on Dumas’s behalf.
“Mr. Dumas will not be providing any further comment given the current civil litigation matter before the Court,” Weinstein said in an email.
Weinstein was referring to a civil suit filed Aug. 30 in Winnipeg by a former AMC employee that seeks $425,000 in damages. A woman alleges Dumas sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions between January and March of 2022.
The woman also filed a complaint with the Winnipeg Police Service in March 2022 that did not result in criminal charges. Her complaint to the AMC led to an internal investigation that concluded Dumas committed workplace harassment.
Another woman came forward with concerns prior to the internal investigation alleging Dumas sent her inappropriate messages on Facebook Messenger. Dumas said his communication style was misinterpreted.
Advocates for Indigenous women wrote letters and protested AMC’s handling of the Dumas affair for months until a non-confidence vote was called.
The chiefs who comprise AMC voted to remove Dumas as grand chief part-way into his second term. The then-acting grand chief issued a verbal apology to both of the women.
New role
Bighetty, a member of Mathias Colomb First Nation (Pukatawagan) where Dumas was chief before becoming grand chief in 2017, says he learned of Dumas’s new role after seeing a business card shared on Facebook. It surfaced in September after Dumas attended an international Indigenous health conference in Vancouver.
“That got me upset,” he said. “I’ve worked with Quest Health as an emcee when they work in the northern communities for trauma. I worked with them in the community where … we talked about all the men standing up and being the fathers and standing up for women.”
Bighetty feels it sends the wrong message to hire Dumas at a facility that deals with mental health and trauma.
And he wonders how Dumas would handle a complaint against an employee accused of sexual harassment or worse.
“We’re standing up against the kind of stuff and Quest Health is doing the opposite?” he said, noting he couldn’t find Dumas’s name listed on the Quest website. “It’s not good.”
None of the allegations against Dumas have been tested in court.
