Sayisi Dene First Nation has declared a state of emergency amid increasing violence and a drug addictions crisis in the remote northern community.
One council member was recently attacked, a news release said.
“In the last month, we’ve had an increase of violence and violent situations in our community, leaving the chief and council in a state of not feeling safe to go to work at the band office,” Chief Kelly-Ann Thom-Duck said at a news conference in Portage La Prairie, Man., Thursday.
The community’s leadership has decided to ask for help after a recent outcry from community members about rising drug addictions and violence at an emergency band meeting on May 26 and the threats faced by band council members, the chief said.
Sayisi Dene First Nation was relocated to Tadoule Lake, about 325 km north of Thompson, in 1973.
Since then, the community of about 300 people has never had a dedicated police presence, band Coun. Jerry Tom said.
“It’s a safety issue for our members, and it’s also our right to have police protection and public safety,” Tom said.
The community relies on the RCMP for safety enforcement, who go to the community once a month, weather permitting, a news release said.
It’s ‘our right to have police protection and public safety,’ band Coun. Jerry Tom says. (Katie Lambe/CBC)
When there is an emergency in the community, residents are told they have to wait a day or more for help to arrive, Tom said. When officers do arrive, they are only there for a few hours, he said.
The RCMP were recently sent to the community in response to threats made to the chief and council, Thom-Duck said.
Mounties arrived two to three days later and issued warrants for arrest. Charges were laid, but the officers couldn’t take the people arrested with them because the charges weren’t serious enough, Thom-Duck said, adding there was no sense of urgency.
“We couldn’t even go to the band office without being yelled at or threatened with physical harm,” the chief said.
“Who knows if these people are going to honour the charges that were laid or the protection orders that were placed upon some members of council and our safety officers.”
Additional RCMP officers have recently been added to the Thompson detachment, allowing them to “scale up patrols” throughout the region, Manitoba RCMP said in an emailed response to CBC News.
RCMP expect to “increase the frequency and length of patrols on the Sayisi Dene First Nation in the next few months.”
Speaking at a scrum in Stonewall, Man., Premier Kinew said he has spoken with Thom-Duck and the province will “be there to continue to work with this community.”
The First Nation has two band constables but has hired four community members to help with security from “money we don’t have,” Thom-Duck said.
None of them, including the two constables, are trained police officers, Tom said.
Thom-Duck said she’d like to see the RCMP building in the community fixed up.
WATCH | Community declares state of emergency:
Sayisi Dene First Nation declares state of emergency over drug crisis
A remote First Nation in northern Manitoba has declared a state of emergency over an increasing addictions and violence crisis brought on by illegal drugs entering the community. Leaders say they’re having to deal with the situation, largely without the help of police.
“There’s no heat or water or anything in this building and no initiatives being taken to get it repaired so that we can have a space for the RCMP to be when they visit,” she said.
The chief also said they’ve had a number of conversations with Perimeter Airlines, which flies people and cargo to northern communities, about enhancing screening processes to help prevent the flow of drugs into the community.
Thom-Duck says they had set up a second layer of security for people landing in Tadoule Lake for about six months.
“They were still finding drugs and alcohol on people after they went through Perimeter Air,” the chief said.
Joey Petrisor, Perimeter’s president and CEO, says it’s doing everything it can to stop drugs from entering northern communities.
“We find stuff every day,” he said. “Folks are very creative on how to get illicit substances into communities.”
He says they’ve seen drugs stuffed inside frozen chickens and ground beef packets.
Petrisor says Perimeter has bought new X-ray scanners that will go into the new terminal at Thompson airport, which he expects will open next month.
“Passengers are being screened and baggage being searched and X-rayed for contraband, and we’ve been doing this for years,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s not 100 per cent, but we do catch the vast majority of it.”
The flow of drugs into the remote northern community has contributed to ongoing issues with addictions.
The chief says addiction facilities across the province are almost always full and private care homes cost “tens of thousands of dollars per person.”
The First Nation received a donation of eight trailers for mental health and addictions treatment in 2022 so that it wouldn’t have to send people out of the community, Thom-Duck said.
The trailers are not connected to water or sewer lines but are expected to become operational this summer, the chief said.
“We need more infrastructure in our community to house people to come in to help with addiction and mental health,” Thom-Duck said.
“We can only speak so much, but when there’s so little of us, there’s only so much that we can do.”
