St. Mary’s FN: Community Safety Update, Sept 7

Press Release

September 7th, 2023

Sitansisk Chief and Council recently enlisted services from Garda Security, a security and risk management organization with experience in assisting Indigenous communities. The security gates returned on August 25, and have been supplemented with assistance from Garda starting August 30, 2023.

Since then, incident reports with security have reduced and overall traffic through areas of concern has gone down. Security, in collaboration with Sitansisk Band Administration, continues to adjust the schedules, positions, and security team patrol routes throughout the community to remain responsive to feedback and observed traffic of concern.

We thank the community for its continued support and patience as we handle this issue. Additional thanks go to community members who have taken the time to report incidents and concerns to security and Garda personnel.

For the immediate future, overnight gates will continue to be in place from 10 p-m. until 6 a.m. Additionally, cameras placed throughout the community continue to be actively monitored by a member of the security team to assist in identifying and recording illicit activity for follow-up. This strategy continues to remain adaptive and is updated on an ongoing basis to prioritize the elimination of the illicit drug trade in the community.

We remind citizens they can contact mental health services any time by calling the health centre or after hours by contacting the on-call mental health worker at +1 (506) 688-3721.

Woliwon for your cooperation and continued patience, Sitansisk Band Administration, Chief and Council.

IHT4