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.

“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.