Lake St. Martin chief charged with sexual assault of child
Christopher Traverse also charged with possessing and making child pornography
The chief of Lake St. Martin First Nation in Manitoba is facing multiple charges in connection with an alleged sexual assault of a child.
Officers arrested and charged Christopher Rodney Traverse in February following an investigation, Winnipeg Police Service spokesperson Const. Dani McKinnon told CBC News.
Traverse is facing four charges: sexual assault, sexual interference, as well as possessing and making child pornography.
Court records show the alleged offences happened in Winnipeg on or about Dec. 29, 2023.
Police say the child was elementary school-aged.
Traverse maintained his innocence during an in-person interview with CBC News on Tuesday. He said he was released following his arrest earlier this year.
Winnipeg police declined an interview request, and they did not provide further details on Monday.
Traverse was elected chief in July 2022. He previously served as a councillor for the Interlake-area First Nation of nearly 3,000 people, located more than 200 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.
Traverse has previously said more than 1,000 community members were still displaced from flooding that devastated the First Nation in 2011. Most of them have been living in Winnipeg.
The entire community originally had to evacuate their homes due to the flooding, which a judge later ruled was at least partially the fault of the Manitoba government as it chose to divert water into Lake Manitoba to protect the city of Winnipeg.
'I'm concerned,' elder says
Traverse held a community meeting in a Winnipeg hotel last week.
Lake St. Martin Elder Florence Wood says community elders gave Traverse a letter that day, asking him to resign as chief "for the good of the community, for the good of the kids."
In the letter dated March 22, which was obtained by CBC News, the elders say the chief hasn't led the community in a productive and respectful way.
"I'm concerned," Wood told CBC News in an interview Tuesday. "This will affect our children, and it'll affect our grandchildren … it's affecting the community."
She added, "Our community should, you know, should have a chief that helps people … not step backwards."
Traverse told CBC News he would not resign as chief.
"It's up to him, but he's not going to be our chief. He can't," Wood said in response.
"Things can't just come to a complete standstill. Already we have a feeling that they have."
Wood said she wants the community to move forward.
If elders don't receive an answer to their letter within seven days, they've agreed to sign a petition under the First Nations Election Act to have Traverse removed as chief, Wood said.
Vancouver lawyer Aaron Christoff says Lake St. Martin's case is unusual. In his experience, elector-initiated petitions under the First Nations Election Act are far less common than in First Nations that have developed their own custom election codes.
"That probably has a lot to do with the fact that the FNEA is not really widely adopted and that, and again, it doesn't have any process really governing how the petition process is actually supposed to happen, so it's a bit unclear in that sense," said Christoff, who specializes in Indigenous law with Cochrane Saxberg.
Under the First Nations Election Act, a chief or councillor ceases to hold their seat if convicted of a crime and given a sentence of more than 30 days. They can also lose their seat in other ways, including through a petition.
The act doesn't outline the percentage of votes needed for a petition to succeed, Christoff said. However, it allows the governing council to make a regulation that sets out the percentage.
The threshold for petitions is usually higher than 50 per cent to make sure they aren't launched frivolously, Christoff said.
"If this person's been in office, they've … obviously been elected by a certain number of the members, so it becomes a question of, if you're going to remove them from office, it's got to be a pretty strong threshold. Now what that is, say, it kind of varies from nation to nation."
Meanwhile, the council of Lake St. Martin First Nation says it has no comment.
The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said it acknowledges Traverse's arrest and charges, but added it doesn't comment on ongoing legal matters, the organization said in a Wednesday news release.
AMC expressed its support for the people of Lake St. Martin, and said the organization is committed to working with the community's council to make sure supports are available to those affected.
Indigenous Services Canada says it's been in contact with Lake St. Martin to make sure residents are getting the community services they're counting on and that they're supported, ISC spokesperson Randy Legault-Rankin said in an emailed statement Thursday.
"The Government of Canada is deeply concerned by this troubling news, and we are taking this matter very seriously," the spokesperson said.
"This will be a very challenging time for the community, and we are ready to increase mental health supports if requested."
The Interlake Reserves Tribal Council, of which Traverse is a board member, is calling an emergency board meeting in the next week to add bylaws regarding member misconduct, IRTC chair and Lake Manitoba First Nation Chief Cornell McLean said Wednesday.
The IRTC might look to suspend Traverse once bylaws are in place, McLean said.
Lake St. Martin is a member of the Southern Chiefs' Organization, which represents 34 Anishinaabe and Dakota nations. A spokesperson for the organization said it wouldn't be commenting on the charges.
Traverse's next court appearance is scheduled for July 3.
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With files from Caitlyn Gowriluk