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Labrador reserve to vote on alcohol ban
Last Updated: Wednesday, March 24, 2010
CBC News
Residents of Natuashish are set to vote Friday about whether they should continue a ban on alcohol. Residents of Natuashish are set to vote Friday about whether they should continue a ban on alcohol. (CBC)
Residents who live on Labrador's Natuashish Innu reserve will be given an opportunity to vote Friday on whether to keep an alcohol ban that has been in place for two years.
One resident who wants to keep the ban, Gregory Riche, worries what will happen if alcohol is allowed back into Natuashish. He admits to being drunk when his five children died in a house fire in Davis Inlet 17 years ago.
The children were huddled around a hot plate trying to stay warm when the curtains caught on fire.
Riche, who has since stopped drinking, fears more alcohol-related tragedies if the booze is lifted.
"If they lift the ban, this will happen, eventually something bad will happen to one of the parents, or one of the kids. That scares me," said Riche.
A public meeting to discuss whether the ban should be lifted was held in Natuashish Tuesday.
It was called by the band's Chief Simeon Tshakapesh, who was elected in early March.
The ban has been divisive since it was first enacted. The vote at that time was held in public at the community gymnasium, with supporters standing on one side of the room, and opponents on the other. In the end, the ban passed by a narrow margin.
Tshakapesh said the more than 725 residents of Natuashish will be given an opportunity to vote Friday on whether to keep the alcohol ban.
Police in the area said crime has dropped dramatically since the ban was imposed.
Substance abuse has been a chronic problem for Natuashish residents for many years. The community was founded in 2002 after residents left Davis Inlet, a village that became internationally notorious after images of children from the community sniffing gas were broadcast around the world. |
