Funding ending soon for Indigenous-led crisis response team in Elsipogtog

The crisis response team for a First Nation community in New Brunswick is calling for help with its funding set to expire.

Indige-Watch is an Indigenous-led crisis response team in Elsipogtog First Nation that works alongside RCMP officers to attend calls and de-escalate situations. But the program's funding runs out in a matter of weeks.

This comes after a fatal police shooting of an Indigenous man in another First Nation in New Brunswick last week.

Indige-Watch executive director Patrice Dedam said in an interview with Information Morning Fredericton the recent death of Bronson Paul in Neqotkuk First Nation has “reopened deep wounds” for the community of Elsipogtog. 

Her cousin, Steven (Iggy) Dedam, a 34-year-old Mi'kmaw father and fisherman, was shot and killed by an RCMP officer after calls about an incident unfolding at a home in Elsipogtog, about 90 kilometres north of Moncton, on Sept. 8, 2024.

An independent police watchdog agency ruled that shooting was not a criminal offence. The same agency, the Serious Incident Response Team, is currently investigating the shooting of Bronson Paul and has shared few details. 

The Indige-Watch program is funded by Indigenous Services Canada's Pathways to Safe Indigenous Communities Initiative through March.

Dedam said the funding for Indige-Watch, founded in May 2023, is non-renewable, and the community has been looking for funding alternatives but has been unable to find any so far.

CBC News reached out to Indigenous Services Canada to ask if funding could be renewed. A spokesperson said in an email statement they would not be able to respond in time for publication. 

Dedam said the program was set up following the police shooting deaths of Chantel Moore in Edmundston and Rodney Levi of the Metepenagiag Mi'kmaq Nation, both in 2020.

“We hope to create a team or a task force that would build the bridge between these colonial agencies in which our people do not rely on or trust because of the systematic injustices amongst our people,” Dedam said. 

She said Indige-Watch responds to crisis events in a large part of the First Nation's traditional territory beyond the Elsipogtog reserve boundaries. The team also helps with search and rescue operations, she said.

While Dedam declined to speak to specific examples of how her team has responded to incidents with police, she said there are some legal reasons the RCMP cannot have them accompany certain calls.

When Steven "Iggy" Dedam was shot and killed in September 2024, Indige-Watch told CBC News at the time they were only called after the events that took his life has transpired.

Dedam said everyone on staff is Indigenous and from Elsipogtog.

“So I believe that having somebody the same colour as you, the same language as you might even know you personally, it just de-escalates situations a lot easier," she said.

Even hearing the Mi’kmaw language could help calm someone down, Dedam said.

“It brings you back to an elder sort of telling you how to behave. It grounds the person,” she said.

“I have somebody here who knows me, who's lived the same experiences as me. And they're here with me while I'm with the colonial agency who doesn't really understand me, but I have somebody here with me.”

As the program grapples with a funding challenge, Dedam said she wants to share the importance of it.

“We need the support, especially from the governmental officials. There's only so much that our bands can do,” she said.

“We need people that understand us, that are with us in our most vulnerable situations. We need our own, right?”