House arrest for daughter who swindled residential school settlement money from elderly mother

CTV’s Nick Paparella with the sentencing decision in the Ursula Doxtator case, a woman who stole her mother’s residential school settlement cheque.

While handing down his sentence on Friday, Justice Kevin McHugh took his time. He described how 56-year-old Ursula Doxtator ripped off her own elderly mother to the tune of $150,000.

“This was an egregious breach of trust...and the fraud was significant,” the judge said.

Doxtator was power of attorney for her mother Caroline, who lives in the United States. In September 2023, Doxtator got a hold of her mother’s residential school settlement cheque after a class-action lawsuit was settled with the Canadian government.

Instead of informing her mother of the full amount, she deposited the cheque in her own bank account and in a matter of weeks the money was all but gone.

Eleven months ago, Doxtator, a former Oneida Nation of the Thames band councillor, was found guilty of one count of fraud over $5,000 and one count of uttering forged documents.

When speaking about the victim, McHugh said, “This offence has significantly impacted her, adding, “The victim in this case was elderly and vulnerable...she trusted her daughter would handle everything with care.”

At the sentencing hearing last week, Crown Attorney Jeremy Carnegie asked for a two-year custodial sentence.

However, defence lawyer Karen Simpson argued that the sentence should be stayed due to a delay in getting a Gladue report completed in a timely fashion. It is a report that investigates the history and background of an Indigenous offender prior to sentencing.

Even though McHugh agreed that there was a substantial delay of several months in getting the Gladue report, he called this a serious case that required a sentence to be handed down.

He then sentenced Doxtator to 15 months house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor along with two years probation.

Doxtator was also ordered to give a restitution order to pay back the Bank of Montreal more than $88,000.

In the end, the court heard that Caroline Doxtator will be compensated for any loss from the residential school settlement cheque.