GINOOGAMING — Why does Ginoogaming First Nation have security checkpoints with drug-detecting dogs?
Because “we have to do more,” Chief Sheri Taylor told Newswatch during the first week of the new protocol at the bridge into Ginoogaming.
The First Nation has contracted a Moosonee-based company to deploy highly trained drug-sniffing canines at the bridge connecting Ginoogaming to Longlac, and at a road entrance to the south.
A sign before the bridge warns that drivers may be asked to “present identification or verify business when entering the Ginoogaming First Nation homeland.”
It also says they may be subject to a search, and that “police will be notified” if illegal substances or weapons are found.
The community was shaken last Oct. 8 by the on-reserve shooting death of 27-year-old Ginoogaming member Sebastian Towegishig.
“And we have two Black males from southern Ontario that were picked up at the time, and they were being housed at a home here in Ginoogaming,” Taylor said. “Some of our members were habouring them.
“That’s an example of the impact drugs are having in our community.
“More recently,” she continued, “about three weeks ago, we ended up having a drug bust. An individual was arrested.
“He was again, a young Black male from southern Ontario. I believe the other two people that were involved at the time at that home were charged, too.
“So I got together with my council and I said ‘we have to do more.’
“We kind of took things into our own hands by putting together security groups, getting security in place to kind of help the community — help with reporting, you know.”
Incident reports were compiled and handed to local Anishinabek Police “so they could maybe make more drug busts,” she said.
But hired security “costs a lot of money,” she said, “and it’s money that the province or the federal government is not prepared to give. They only give you up to four weeks when you declared emergency, and that’s it, you have to find the money elsewhere.”
After the Towegishig homicide, the band contracted an Indigenous-owned security company from Thunder Bay.
“They report every day of things that are happening at night — and they’re only on at night,” said Taylor.
“They’re only on from 8:00 (p.m.) to 8:00 in the morning — because that’s when a lot of the action and the activity is happening, when we’re in bed sleeping. That’s when a lot of the young people and the people that are doing all this stuff are out and causing harm.”
But the extra security and the incident reports didn’t move the needle much, by the chief’s estimation.
“The reports are being done and sent in, but … I asked the question to the police, ‘what are you doing with the reports? You get the licence plates, we give you the description of vehicles coming in, names, where they’re going, how many times.’”
She said police say they review the reports but there doesn’t seem to be much action from the cops.
She and council decided more must be done, and noted how other First Nations have initiated checkpoints.
“So we set that up through a bylaw, we had legal do their work on it, and from there we had a community protection order bylaw.
“People are going to be charged if they come in and sell drugs in my community. That’s what my hope is.”
