WHITEHORSE — A First Nation of fewer than 300 people in Yukon’s north has used a law it created during the COVID-19 pandemic to bar a convicted sex offender from being sent to its community.
The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation in Old Crow issued a declaration under its Community Emergency Act banning Christopher Schafer from the fly-in community nearly 800 kilometres north of Whitehorse for at least the next 90 days.
Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm said Yukon’s territorial court decision to allow Schafer to live in Old Crow came via fax to the local RCMP detachment 24 hours before he was scheduled to arrive and was made without consulting the First Nation, which has limited supports available with only two RCMP officers and no clinical health staff.
“This action shows that although we may speak about reconciliation in this country, and we may feel it’s important, the work is left to our communities, (which are) understaffed and under-supported,” he said at a news conference Tuesday.
Tizya-Tramm said when news hit the small community that Schafer, whom the First Nation called a “repeat violent sex offender,” may return, “the emotions and the pain were visceral.”
He said the emergency declaration was the only tool available to “slow this process down.”
“I’m not here to pass judgment on Mr. Schafer. I’m here to deal with the systematic problems in our justice (system) that does not allow our people ΓǪ a modicum of influence in the larger cogs of the justice system, which is continuing to fail Yukoners and our Indigenous women across the country.”
He said the community has previously attempted to reintegrate Schafer into Old Crow and provided the court with details of what supports would be required.
The chief said he is in contact with Schafer’s family and there is a willingness to work on another plan, but the community needs more time and support.
For now, Schafer remains in the Whitehorse jail and will appear in front of a judge Wednesday to continue discussions about his future.
Doris Bill, chief of the Kwanlin Dun First Nation in Whitehorse, said similar situations have happened in other small communities where people are released from jail without proper supports or reintegration plans.
“It has to stop. We have to give the communities the proper resources, in order to deal with these cases,” she said.
“They cannot be left out there to fend for themselves and to take care of these individuals without the proper expertise and the resources in place.”
Such a mixture of thoughts and feelings. At first, I was ready to jump on this…these people and shat they are doing to this man. I’m glad I did not, as this is a more nuanced situation.
It shows the colossal differences between a Nation, in this case Canada, that at least makes attempts to address this issue with humanity and hope for reintegration of those convicted, and America. America seems only to be interested in what it can get away with. No concern whatsoever about necessity, value, results, needless pain, anguish and destruction regardless of who is impacted. If you can do it, do it..as big and as long as you can get away with it! Don’t care about anything other than making sure you can keep doing it!
I feel for both this man…and this. community. However, while this situation is…complex and difficult, I have some hope it can be resolved, humanely.
What’s interesting is that you actually have a native tribe making their own rules, in regards to a covid emergency, or deciding whether or not a sex offender can live on their land. It may not seem right, but at least they have the choice. That’s totally different than tribal nations of the US where the feds try to run everything and cram SORNA regulations down their throats