theglobeandmail.com
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After leading charge against abuse, Innu chief wants to end alcohol ban
Oliver Moore
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published on Thursday, Mar. 18, 2010
Simeon Tshakapesh remembers well the devastation of substance abuse in Davis Inlet – he shot the shocking video of gas-sniffing children that brought the troubled Labrador community to international attention.
He was a young native police officer in 1993 when he recorded those gas-addicted Innu children screaming that they wanted to die. By 2002 he was chief of the band council, and the entire community was moved, at a cost of $200-million, to a spot that would allow clean water, indoor plumbing and a proper wharf and airstrip. Social problems persisted, though, and two years ago the town voted narrowly to ban alcohol. It was an attempt by one of his successors to bury the town's demons for good.
Now Mr. Tshakapesh has been elected again as chief – and he wants to end prohibition.
It's a sharp reversal for the 41-year-old, who has championed alcohol bans in the past. Critics say it was a cynical way to gain power by playing on people's weakness.
But he argues that he must respect the wishes of voters and that the amount of bootleg booze in the community showed the ban wasn't working.
Everyone admits that, in spite of the ban, the place never was fully dry – an alcohol-fuelled fracas last week is just the latest proof of that. Residents say that liquor continued to flow in spite of police laying hundreds of charges. A 40-ounce jug of cheap rye cost $350 on the black market.
Still, advocates of the ban say that school attendance went up and crime dropped during prohibition. Gas-sniffing by youths was reduced, they say, because parents became more responsible and children felt less need to escape a grim reality. Now they're worried that easier access to alcohol will push residents back into their old habits.
Davis Inlet children sniff gas in 2001, the year before Simeon Tshakapesh first headed the band council.
“It's scary. I think it's going to be the way it was before,” said Rosemary Poker, an addiction counsellor at the local healing lodge. “In the past there was a lot of people drinking and neglecting their kids.”
Mr. Tshakapesh counters criticism by saying that his victory shows how residents feel about prohibition.
“My philosophy is people have to stop on their own,” he said. “You can't force people to stop drinking.”
He plans to hold a public meeting next week on the issue but says that, as far as he is concerned, the ban is effectively over.
Police insist that it remains in effect until the proper bureaucratic procedures have been followed. Undaunted, Mr. Tshakapesh says he will go through whatever legal process is necessary to cement the change.
“The prohibition, it's been suspended,” he said. “It doesn't exist.”
And Mr. Tshakapesh, who has had several run-ins with the RCMP including an alcohol-related charge to which he pleaded not guilty, had harsh words for what he characterizes as police meddling.
“I want to warn the RCMP, I want to caution their tone,” he said. “They're on Innu land and if they want to play politics they should do it somewhere else.”
Sergeant Wayne Newell, the RCMP's spokesman in Newfoundland and Labrador, said the force looks forward to working with the new chief. But he said that until the full process of changing the bylaw is complete, police will continue to enforce it.
“Obviously we have been quite vocal for the ban and we will continue to support it,” he said. “We've always supported the ban and feel that the numbers speak for themselves.”
Statistics from the RCMP show that overall calls for service dropped 33 per cent during the ban. Disturbance-related calls plummeted by 59 per cent and crimes against persons dropped 37 per cent.
The community of about 725 residents is policed by six RCMP officers. Sgt. Newell said that during the ban officers were able to operate more proactively, going to talk to school children about the dangers of substance abuse, instead of “being reactive and running from one call to another.” |
