The band council of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam wishes to banish the drug dealers

Photo archive
Me Jean-François Bertrand

Alexandre Cantin

Tuesday, February 27, 2018 12:48

UPDATE
Tuesday, February 27, 2018 12:48

Look at this article

The band council of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam on the North Shore wants to hunt drug traffickers on its territory. To get there, it will test its new policy before a judge in April.

The goal of the initiative is to counter the trafficking of narcotic drugs, which cause multiple problems, and who has been identified as a source of distress by the coroner, Bernard Lefrançois in its report on the five suicides that occurred in the innu community in 2016.

The band council wants to exclude from its territory for a year, any individual found guilty of drug trafficking.

In April will be held at the palais de justice de Sept-Îles representations on penalty of a man of Uashat, who has admitted his guilt of such a crime last November.

The lawyer mandated by the band council will attempt to intervene before the judge in order that this individual, in addition to the sentence that is imposed, may not set foot in the community for a year.

Me Jean-François Bertrand will invoke an aboriginal right.

“Among the Innu, this is what we will demonstrate, it was a custom. I am convinced that in other nations, there was this custom which applied. And even white people, as France and other countries had this measure in international law to ban an individual from its territory for crimes committed “

A woman met her in Uashat, Doris Fountain, welcomes this attempted eviction of drug traffickers one of which was his neighbor.

“I am very happy. Just in front of us, he was selling drugs. There has been a descent. Now, it is. I was tired of living in front of people who sell drugs “

The band council of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam is currently preparing a written policy with a series of measures to counter the sale of drugs.