Checkpoint targets drugs, booze

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/02/2018 (2255 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A northern Manitoba First Nation is building a permanent checkstop on the only highway into the community to combat the illegal drug and liquor trade.

“It’s like a border crossing and you’ll have no choice but to go through it. And if you don’t want to be searched, you’re not going to go in,” Norway House Chief Ron Evans said.

The small building next to Highway 373 looks a bit like a transport safety weigh station. As of this month, the Norway House Cree Nation Safety and Security Checkpoint will be open 24/7. Its official opening is scheduled for Feb. 24.

It will be staffed by unarmed constables with the power to seize contraband. Any motorist who wants to drive onto reserve land or visit the neighbouring Métis community will have to pull over, register and agree to have their vehicle searched.

Motorists who run the checkpoint risk a fine up to $1,000 under a bylaw the northern Cree nation passed a year ago. It carries the weight of federal law under the Indian Act.

This week, the community held an open-line radio talk show to explain how the checkpoint will work.

The plan has been in the works for years, as have discussions to get co-operation from the provincial government.

The province has erected three highway signs, including one on Highway 6, which is the main highway to the north, at the junction with 373. Two signs that inform motorists they have to stop at the checkpoint have been erected on the approach to reserve land.

Indigenous Relations Minister Eileen Clarke said the province’s policing contribution, its share of funding for local policing initiatives on Manitoba First Nations, includes $174,000 for Norway House this fiscal year. She said she expects that money will pay for checkpoint staffing.

“I spent three days up in Norway House Cree Nation three years ago and considerable time with Chief Ron Evans. He showed me (then) where they hoped to put this checkstop, and he relayed all the information on why he felt it was absolutely necessary to do so. I’ve been in conversations with him since then,” Clarke said.

The province paid $3,600 for new highway signs to alert motorists to the new security measure.

In return, Norway House leaders invited Clarke and Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler to attend ceremonies to celebrate the opening of the checkstop.

Norway House has a ban on alcohol. Prohibition is a common administrative tool that’s intended to limit the destructive effects of alcohol abuse. However, the measure opens up the community to a thriving bootlegging trade in liquor and home brew.

Evans said the checkpoint will make the community safer and protect residents’ well-being.

“With this security, we at least have an idea of who’s coming into the community, why they’re coming into the community, and we’re preventing a good portion (of contraband) coming into the community.”

“We’re not naive enough to think we’re not going to have any (contraband) coming into our community but at least with this, we’re taking active measures, putting them in place,” Evans said.

He also said there’s a shortage of law enforcement in the community even though the RCMP has 19 members at the local detachment. At any given time, there are about a dozen officers working.

The Métis community next door to the First Nation, which is also known as Norway House, issued a statement supporting the checkpoint.

Until now, there’s been no enforcement or active measures to stop any of that traffic on the highway.

‘We’re not naive enough to think we’re not going to have any (contraband) coming into our community but at least with this, we’re taking active measures, putting them in place’– Norway House Chief Ron Evans

Community leaders said they are satisfied there are adequate security measures involving flights in and out of the reserve.

Although RCMP could not make crime statistics available, a list of charges and arrests that Norway House released indicated there are hundreds of stops for impaired driving and calls about liquor violations every year.

Police can expect to be called to a disturbance daily and the vast majority of arrests and charges involve intoxicants, the chief said.

In 2016, RCMP took in 1,100 prisoners in a community of just over 6,000 people living on reserve.

The only other community with a similar initiative is Tataskweyak Cree Nation, which is at Split Lake, north of Thompson.

The province’s policy is to co-operate with Indigenous communities on measures such as this, Clarke said.

“We’re certainly hearing from First Nations, though not a lot of them, where they are trying to ensure their communities, their people are safe,” said Clarke. “They’re very concerned about drugs and in some cases, alcohol,” Clarke said.

“This is their initiative. We’re partnering up with them and doing what we can to facilitate it happening,” the minister said.

Ivan Keeper, the supervisor of Tataskweyak’s force of community safety officers said the first checkstop was during the Christmas holidays in 2016. Since then, other checkstops have been mounted on its only highway access and seizures turned over to the RCMP.

Tataskweyak doesn’t operate from a permanent building — although they’d like one — and it’s staged regularly but not 24/7.

Keeper provided photos of drug and alcohol seizures over a three-week period during the Christmas holiday as evidence the checkpoint works.

Hydro development at Keeyask opened the flood gates to illegal drugs and alcohol in volumes the community has been trying to hold the line on since construction started.

“Since they began Keeyask, more hard drugs have been coming in. There’s all kinds of new drugs community into the community,” the policing supervisor told the Free Press.

One photo Keeper provided shows a drug called Shatter, a potent cannabis concentrate seized over Christmas. It was packaged in a cellophane Ziplock bag, like rock candy. “I saw it, and I didn’t know what it was,” Keeper said. He’s pretty sure kids wouldn’t either.

“It sure does look like candy,” Keeper said.

Northern Grand Chief Sheila North said checkpoints signal a strong political will to fight the illegal traffic and the substance abuse that follows it.

“We’re not seeing this in just northern communities, but down south, (too): dangerous drugs and devastating consequences, from the stronger drugs that are out there,” North said.

“Two communities are taking matters into their own hands, and I don’t blame them. They’re sovereign nations and they have to do what they can to keep their people safe,” North said.

Norway House and Tataskweyak are among the 30 First Nations in the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak that North represents.

Critics who might question the infringement on civil rights are so far silent. It may be because the social and criminal costs of addiction are well publicized. It’s linked to suicide epidemics and the sense of despair on northern First Nations.

Legally, First Nations are on solid ground.

“This Norway House issue is a serious issue for First Nations across the country, regulating drugs and alcohol on reserve. It’s a difficult situation for them and it’s common to search when you come in by plane, into remote communities,” said Bruce McIvor, a Manitoba-born lawyer and constitutional expert who specializes in Indigenous law.

“I have clients who don’t have road access and they’ll have a curtained off area in the airport on reserve. People arriving by plane are subject to search. I’ve seen that on a regular basis,” McIvor said from his office at First People’s Law in Vancouver.

Under both the Indian Act and the Constitution, First Nations have jurisdiction over their land. The Indian Act lends authority on the basis of public safety, health, law and order and trespassing, McIvor said.

“Another part of this is it’s an exercise in sovereignty, too, “ McIvor said.

“If it’s within their territory, there’s an argument to be made, it’s part of self-government rights. They have their own Indigenous laws and they have the right to enforce their own Indigenous laws and to decide who’s allowed to use the road and who’s not,” McIvor said.

That means if a motorist has a suitcase full of prescription pills, it will be seized. Same with any amount of alcohol over and above duty-free limits at the border.

Once recreational marijuana is legal in Canada, a person will be allowed to carry 28 grams.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca