Ottawa Report

Page 2

If you want an example of some people who are fighting the good fight just look at what's going on in Big Trout Lake. Two years ago Big Trout Lake was like a lot of other Indian villages ? it had an alcohol problem. It doesn't have one now ? at least it's not as big as it used to be ? but the band has other problems because of the fight it's putting up to beat the bottle.

Here's the background: Big Trout Lake is an isolated place. It's 300 miles north of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Almost all of the 800 people who live there are Ojibway Indians. Their closest neighbors are 50 miles away.

The only way into Big Trout Lake is by air. That's also the only way that alcohol can get into the community. People smuggled it in on flights from the south.

The band leaders say that over the years, the community's drinking problem gradually got worse. Bootlegging was wide open and the drinking was out of control. As a result, families broke up. Parents neglected their children. Children vandalized the community.

It got worse. People died. They drowned. They froze to death. They killed one another.

Finally, the people of Big Trout Lake decided that enough was enough. ON December 18, 1985, they held a general band meeting. One hundred and thirty people showed up and all of them voted to prohibit the possession of alcohol on the reserve.

The problem, though, was enforcing the by-law because some band members didn't intend to obey it. The best way to keep people from having alcohol on the reserve is to stop them from bringing it in and the best way to do that is to search the people when they step off the airplane.

But the band council had two problems trying to do that. The first had to do with the airport itself. It's part of the community but it's not on the reserve. The band therefore has no legal authority at the airport, even though 98 per cent of the people at Big Trout Lake are Indians.

The band's second problem involved getting someone to search the passengers. A special police constable, an Indian, was posted in the village. But he worked for the Ontario Provincial Police ? not the band ? and he wouldn't search the passengers. Provincial regulations don't allow police officers to search anyone and everyone coming off an airplane.

The band was stuck. It couldn't stop the liquor flow and it couldn't begin to solve the problems caused by alcohol abuse despite community support. So last August, the band moved to enforce the band of alcohol. It hired two men as band constables. Their job was to maintain law and order on the reserve. But the band council also ordered them to search people coming off the planes and confiscate any liquor.

The searches paid off. Band leaders say there is less drinking and less vandalism now. School attendance has gone up. In short, Big Trout Lake has become a better place to live.

Everything was just fine ? until last November 21st. That night, the two band constables and the special constable from the Ontario Provincial Police went to the airport to meet a flight from Sioux Lookout. The band constables thought that one of the band members who got off the plane was drunk. They said he acted suspiciously when his luggage was unloaded. They searched his luggage and found three bottles of liquor hidden inside. The man objected to the search and a scuffle broke out involving the man, his wife and two band constables. When the dust had settled, the provincial police officer laid assault charges against the man's wife and the two band constables.

The band leaders were angry. They wrote to Ontario's Attorney-General Ian Scott. They told him, "If you make (our) constables powerless, you are condemning our community to the problems which have plagued us in the past." The band told Ian Scott to withdraw the charges against the two band constables. He refused. In his letter, the Attorney-General said the band constables were probably acting unlawfully becase they had no authority at the airport.

The conflict at Big Trout Lake hasn't changed. The band constables are still facing charges, they're still on the job, and they're still searching passengers. The band leaders say they know the searches violate the Chart of Rights and Freedoms. But they say the rights, the peace and the well-being of the community are more important than the rights of any one individual. The leaders of Big Trout Lake don't intend to give up the fight against alcohol and the problems it causes. There was a determined message in the last line of their letter to Ian Scott. It said, "WE will continue to enforce our laws and we are willing to face the consequences."