Lake St. Martin chief charged with sexual assault of child
CBC
The chief of Lake St. Martin First Nation in Manitoba is facing multiple charges in connection with an alleged sexual assault of a child.
Officers arrested and charged Christopher Rodney Traverse following an investigation, Winnipeg Police Service spokesperson Const. Dani McKinnon told CBC News on Friday.
Traverse is facing four charges — sexual assault, sexual interference, as well as possessing and making child pornography.
Court records show the alleged offences happened in Winnipeg on or around Dec. 29, 2023.
Police say the child was elementary school-aged.
Traverse maintained his innocence during an in-person interview with CBC News on Tuesday. He said he was released following his arrest earlier this year.
Winnipeg police declined an interview request, and they did not provide further details on Monday.
Traverse was elected chief in July 2022. He previously served as a councillor for the Interlake-area First Nation of nearly 3,000 people, located more than 200 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.
Traverse has previously said more than 1,000 community members were still displaced from flooding that devastated the First Nation in 2011. Most of them have been living in Winnipeg.
The entire community originally had to evacuate their homes due to the flooding, which a judge later ruled was at least partially the fault of the Manitoba government as it chose to divert water into Lake Manitoba to protect the city of Winnipeg.
Traverse held a community meeting in a Winnipeg hotel last week. Lake St. Martin Elder Florence Wood says community elders gave Traverse a letter that day, asking him to resign as chief "for the good of the community, for the good of the kids."
"I'm concerned," Wood told CBC News in an interview Tuesday. "This will affect our children, and it'll affect our grandchildren … it's affecting the community."
She added, "Our community should, you know, should have a chief that helps people … not step backwards."
Traverse told CBC News he would not resign as chief.
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