Manitoba First Nation targets drug dealers after close call

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This article was published 17/05/2017 (3095 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A student’s attempted suicide, used needles discarded near the local school and a brazen Facebook post pushing “packets of meth while they’re hot” are propelling a Manitoba First Nation to ban drug dealers. Again.

“We’re looking at banishing drug dealers from the community to prevent drugs from coming in, and we’re looking at at the issue of drug testing,” Sandy Bay Chief Lance Roulette said by phone Wednesday. “We need to move in on some of these dealers and catch them red-handed with the substances.”

The chief and council of Sandy Bay, an Ojibway First Nation of more than 6,000 people, 165 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg took the first step last Friday by passing a motion — called a band council resolution — to ban drug dealers, institute routine drug testing for band employees, including elected leaders, and extend curfews at night.

Under the proposed ban, the community would have the authority to evict drug dealers arrested on the reserve and keep them out until they can prove they’ve been rehabilitated.

To be enforceable, such an action requires a bylaw police can act on, a process that will involve a community referendum, so the timeline for the ban is uncertain.

Community leaders began discussing a ban a couple of weeks ago after they became aware of social-media posts by band members selling or soliciting illegal drugs online. Then, security personnel turned in used needles found about 45 metres from the community’s school.

“It’s getting really scary out there, especially for our children. I have children, and it really frightens me to hear there’s that type of material near the school grounds. It could end up in the playground, and we want to eliminate that.

“There was a posting last week, Thursday, where one of our band members had pictures of packets of meth in his hand under his profile name, saying, ‘Come get them while they’re hot.’ A snap of that photo has been forwarded to the police,” Roulette said.

“And about 15 minutes ago, I got a text from one of our former principals. There was a suicide attempt last night, this young guy who tried this substance, meth. I believe he’s under observation right now. I haven’t had a chance to talk to his family. He’s a high school student on the reserve.” Roulette said.

Roulette said he’s been meeting this week with provincial justice officials to see how to pass an enforceable bylaw. The First Nation’s lawyers are also talking with federal justice officials because the reserve falls under federal jurisdiction with the Indian Act.

The idea is to arrest dealers trafficking drugs to children and teenagers on the reserve and banish them until they can prove they’ve been rehabilitated, Roulette said.

The First Nation has seen joint drug raids by the Dakota Ojibway Tribal Police and the RCMP in the past but the dealers keep coming back, the chief said.

First Nations have grappled with similar bans in the past in response to drug crises, with varied success. This spring, two First Nations in New Brunswick were reported to have passed bans in an effort to control drug trafficking. Two others, one in New Brunswick and another in Nova Scotia, are said to be eyeing similar measures.

Last year, Saskatchewan’s Makwa Sahgaiehcan was reported to have banned six non-band members and warned a dozen band members after a crystal meth problem. Three other Saskatchewan First nations also banished people in an effort to control crime. One of them, Muskoday First Nation held a referendum at the end of October and succeed in passing the first-ever banishment law on a reserve.

In 2012, the Samson Cree in Alberta, then known as Hobbema, voted to give community leaders the power to evict gang members.

In Manitoba, Norway House tried to banish troublemakers but in 2009, Indian Affairs in Ottawa overturned the ban, saying the First Nation didn’t have the power under the Indian act to enforce its bylaw.

Roulette said Sandy Bay also tried to evict drug dealers in 2011, but without the force of a bylaw, the effort withered. Now, they’re trying again.

“The immediate focus is on the hard drugs that are coming in — the cocaine, the meth, the ecstasy. We need to act now,” he said.

— with files from The Canadian Press

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca