Nishnawbe Aski Police Service trains drug investigators while waiting for equitable funding deal to hire more

Nishnawbe Aski Police Service (NAPS) say it's stepping up the war on drugs in First Nations across northern Ontario as drug traffickers continue to target isolated communities that they know have fewer resources.

NAPS Deputy Chief Brad Duce said the battle is to stop drugs before they enter communities, noting traffickers are coming from urban centres such as Toronto and Ottawa in Ontario and across the Manitoba border from Winnipeg.

"Once drugs enter the community, they have the potential to expand exponentially," he said, as they spread from one house to another.

He said police currently rely heavily on community peacekeepers in First Nations and confidential sources to help police stem the flood of illicit substances.

But he said NAPS is making progress in training its own drug investigators, thanks to a $10-million grant obtained in 2022 from Public Safety Canada and the Ontario minister of the solicitor general.

Duce said seven officers have been recruited so far, with 11 left to go, but progress is slow because those specialty officers are promoted from the front lines, and he can't leave gaps in service in communities.

"That's the double-edged sword right there, is that if we want to do 18 at once, what happens is, it would be an extreme detriment to our frontline communities where we need to provide that frontline policing," he said.

Eventually, those 18 officers will staff three specialized drug units across northern Ontario; in Sioux Lookout, Thunder Bay and the Timmins area.

It's a plan that will get a significant boost once negotiations to reach a new deal on funding with the federal and provincial governments is complete that would put them on equal footing with non-Indigenous police services.

The negotiations are now in progress after the Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario won a human rights complaint, upheld in Federal Court, that Indigenous police are chronically underfunded by Ontario and Canada.

Individual First Nations have been doing what they can by working on bylaws and training community peacekeepers to search at points such as airports and post offices where drugs might be smuggled in.

Randy Cota is co-founder of a security firm, Creegonquin, that employs drug-sniffing dogs.

He's a retired OPP officer and lives in Moosonee.

"We have lost so many people," he said. "Myself alone, I know six people that I would say were associates or friends that have died to this monster."

He said he was hired by some James Bay communities and the company that ran the Wetum winter road last season to train peacekeepers to perform searches at checkpoints.

Cota said once drugs were identified, police would be called in to seize them and investigate.

He said he's currently working with Attawapiskat First Nation and plans to open an anonymous drug tip line to provide information to the authorities.

Earlier this year, Mushkegowuk Council representing Kashechewan, Fort Albany, Moose Cree and Attawapiskat First Nations approved funding to respond to the escalating illegal drug and alcohol crisis.

The money was to be spent on enhancing bylaw enforcement measures and establishing efforts to address drug and alcohol addiction issues within those communities.

Mushkegowuk Council said according to preliminary findings released by the Coroner's Office in December 2023, Mushkegowuk First Nations drug toxicity death rates for the period 2019 to 2023 were triple the Ontario average.