First Nation leaders in northern Ontario say vulnerable community members targetted after treaty payouts

Within weeks of Robinson Huron Treaty settlement money landing in people’s bank accounts, police in several northern Ontario First Nations say something else arrived too: drug traffickers, financial scammers and a surge in violent crime.

The $10-billion settlement stems from a legal ruling that found Ontario had failed for more than a century to properly increase treaty annuities tied to resource revenues. 

Under the agreement, Ontario and Canada each paid half, with money distributed to the 21 Robinson Huron Treaty First Nations and their members starting in August 2024.

First Nation leaders say the long-overdue compensation brought real benefits for many families, but also made vulnerable residents targets of crime at a time when they say Indigenous police services remain underfunded. 

Some Indigenous leaders say they flagged provincial and federal governments about the problem. But the governments didn't provide any extra support.

The case of Wikwemikong documented by police chief

“It took about two months for anything to change,” Ron Gignac, Wikwemikong Tribal Police Service Chief said. Gignac said his service, which serves the Wiikwemkong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island, saw a sharp increase in crime shortly after per-capita payments were distributed to members.

“In October 2024, we started to see a rapid increase in calls for service. In particular for drugs, things like abduction, clandestine activity.”

Gignac conducted a year-long study comparing police data from before and after the payout. 

His findings show a 22 per cent increase in incidents and a 65 per cent jump in charges laid.

“Many of those charges were due to the drug trafficking and increased activity in domestic violence, assaults, and assaulting police officers. We had an officer stabbed and almost killed, he was fighting for his life,” Gignac said. 

Charges against adult males rose 77 per cent, while charges against adult females increased 73 per cent, for a total of 1,103 charges, according to the study.

Organized crime groups were aware of the per capita distributions and capitalized on the fact that illicit narcotics are sold for more money in northern Ontario compared to southern Ontario, Gignac said.

He also described how officers were increasingly pulled into time-consuming investigations, repeated search warrants and court proceedings straining already limited resources.

“We're dealing with so many drug dealers and traffickers and we're executing search warrants sometimes two to three a week, arresting 15 people in one house that were involved in the illegal trafficking of narcotics here in the territory from different jurisdictions all throughout Ontario,” Gignac said. 

Traffickers enter clandestinely at night

Sagamok Anishnawbek Chief Angus Toulouse said his community experienced similar patterns, with traffickers coming from southern Ontario and exploiting limited police capacity.

"Before the settlement came came out, we did see a lot of the the trafficking originating from the Greater Toronto area and arriving in our small community," Toulouse said.

Anishinabek Police Service serves Sagamok Anishnawbek along with 15 other First Nation communities.

"Police services have confiscated, have charged, have certainly removed those individuals that are not wanted in the community. But they are replaced as quickly as they are removed."

Toulouse said traffickers sometimes enter the community by boat or snowmobile at night, relying on vulnerable residents to shelter them.

"They were doing their trafficking in the middle of the night. People got to understand signals and the signal is that they would have fireworks, which would signal that shipment has come in. And that's how the traffickers notified the vulnerable folks," he explained.

Chiefs say treaty annuity has overwhelmingly positive benefits

Both Toulouse and Mississauga First Nation Chief Brent Niganobe stressed that the settlement has had overwhelmingly positive impacts for most families.

Toulouse said many community members used the money to travel, renovate homes, purchase vehicles and invest in their children’s futures.

"[Families] could travel the world, be it Australia, be it the UK, be it South America. They got to experience as a family what they never would have experienced, maybe dreamt about, but they got to do that," he said.

He said youth who are minors will receive their funds later, with interest, giving them support to enter post-secondary education or the workforce.

But Toulouse said vulnerable residents struggling with addiction were also put at greater risk.

"The negatives I'm talking about is those vulnerable folks in our community that have an addiction issue, they are are really struggling to find that wellness plan," he explained.

Niganobe said the compensation itself was long overdue and rooted in fairness.

"This was something that was fought for, for a long time," Niganobe said. "It was about sharing resources and it was successfully argued. A majority of the people benefited from it. It is a positive thing."

‘We were left without that help’

Niganobe said his community experienced increased pressure after the payouts, including scammers approaching residents and what he described as a growing presence of suspected drug dealers.

“We actually had somebody going door to door who wasn’t from our community,” he said. “We know who’s from our community, who’s not. And there was definitely an increased presence.”

Mississauga First Nation has a two-man dedicated police force that works in tandem with Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

Niganobe explained that community leadership tried to prepare for the fallout, warning both Provincial and Federal governments that vulnerable residents could be targeted. But additional resources never came.

CBC reached out to Indigenous Services Canada for comment on Niganobe’s concerns but said Public Safety Canada was best suited to provide a response.

“Our police force is already underfunded and now the governments talking about ending some of those agreements for policing. We don’t have policing that’s to the level of every other police force or the OPP,” Niganobe said.

“We don’t have drug units. We’re not afforded any of that, that the rest of Canada has and that’s supposed to be equal in this country.”

Toulouse said First Nations policing is still not recognized as an essential service.

“To us in the First Nation community, it is an essential service and the government has to recognize it as such and provide the necessary resources like any essential service that’s out there, like the OPP and RCMP and other forces that provide security to many of the other communities across this province and country,” he said.

Those concerns come as the federal government proposes limiting spending at Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada to two per cent annually, a reduction that would total nearly $2.3 billion by spring 2030. 

Niganobe said the cuts could affect policing agreements and other essential services in First Nations.

"The Government of Canada recognizes the concerns raised by First Nation leaders and police services regarding increased crime following the distribution of Robinson Huron Treaty settlement funds. Sudden financial changes can bring significant adjustments for communities, and we understand the profound impacts these changes can have," reads a statement from a spokesperson at Public Safety Canada.

The statement did not address concerns surrounding potential future budget cuts and instead pointed to hundreds of millions of dollars invested in First Nation policing in the last five years. 

"Budget 2024 committed an additional $267.5 million over five years, plus $92.5 million ongoing for the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program, and $200 million over five years for the First Nations and Inuit Policing Facilities Program," reads the statement.

Public Safety Canada said those investments have helped stabilize First Nations police services and support specialized units, but acknowledged additional funding will be needed, “and we are  actively working with provincial partners to address these gaps.”

“We’ve gone through the process of assessments and other things that they’ve asked us to do. And each time it shows the need for a police force of our own. I feel like it’s been ignored,” Niganobe said.

“That can’t be something that’s done because we’re finally getting equality in this country and now we’re being pushed down to second class citizens.”