Security detail costing community

The Longlac-area community released the figure on Thursday, as it again took the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) to task for allegedly failing to provide adequate security.
“We have been left to handle a crisis on our own, while existing policing structures and jurisdictional barriers have failed to protect our community,” Ginoogaming Chief Sheri Taylor claimed in a news release.
Ginoogaming first declared a state of emergency over concerns about crime in 2024. In May this year, Ginoogaming and nearby Long Lake 58 First Nation declared a joint state of emergency over the same issue.
According to Ginoogaming’s news release, between June 22 and Aug. 13, Ginoogaming’s in-house security checked nearly 470 vehicles per day and dealt with more than 25 “drug-related incidents, with at least 42 items seized or recovered,” including one weapon that was handed over to the OPP.
Ginoogaming, which has an on-reserve population of about 230 residents, is currently policed by the Anishinabek Police Service and the OPP.
Anishinabek Police Service falls under the federal First Nations and Inuit Policing Program, “which has not yet classified First Nation policing as essential service,” the Ginoogaming news release said.
According to Ginoogaming, that has left it and other Indigenous communities “without the level of enforcement and support they need and deserve.”
Earlier this year, a regional OPP spokeswoman said jurisdictional issues don’t prevent OPP officers from responding to serious crimes or emergencies that may arise in Ginoogaming.
In a separate news release on Thursday, Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said the provincial and federal governments have both “failed to uphold their shared responsibility for public safety in First Nation communities.”
“If these events were happening in Southern Ontario, the response would be immediate and national,” Fiddler said. “For us, there is silence.”
“A longstanding source of frustration has been the inability of the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service (NAPS) to enforce community bylaws and control entry points,” the NAN news release added.
“(Nishnawbe Aski Police Service) must be given the legislative tools and resources to enforce community laws.”