BURNT CHURCH NOT ALONE IN FIGHT

BURNT CHURCH FIRST NATION - Members of a recently formed anti-drug
group in Burnt Church First Nation aren't alone in their fight to
clean up the community.

In fact, the group has been in contact the past couple of months with
Eskasoni First Nation in Cape Breton, N.S., a community currently
dealing with a similar crisis.

The reason, according to Burnt Church Band Councillor Curtis
Bartibogue, is the success Eskasoni has seen in their venture.

In November 2008 the Nova Scotian First Nation community of
approximately 4,000 people launched an anti-drug campaign
highlighting community marches and dry community events.

Now, only five months after the fact, Vincent Stevens, manager of
addictions services for Cape Breton, said Eskasoni has seen a
significant drop in the amount of drugs on the streets.

"I think there's less traffic in terms of the selling of alcohol and
drugs," Stevens said. "We've been hearing there's been no drugs (on
the streets) at certain points."

He added the community has introduced penalties for those caught
trafficking drugs including losing their band rights and their home.

Like Burnt Church First Nation the Eskasoni group started small, made
up mostly of concerned parents in the community.

But over time it grew.

Today the group holds weekly meetings at the Band office, hosts dry
community events, supports youth activities and is even considering
expanding into other nearby First Nation communities.

These are all goals Bartibogue said he'd like to see reached in his community.

"They had a crisis very similar to what happened here, but even more
serious," Bartibogue said. "They got all the leadership on board.
Everybody was on board to come up with a solution to fix things. I
thought we could do the same thing here."

However, it wasn't an easy progression.

"It was hard because we had a lot of suicides," Stevens explained.
"That was another thing we had to go through since November. But the
parents are involved and there's more awareness out there now."

Stevens said the reason for the group's success was the positive
support from band council.

"The leadership has taken a positive stance in supporting our group,"
he said. "I've been in this business for 25 years...before November
we had a lot of problems with prescription drugs. We started on a
small scale and we ended up on a bigger scale and really turned our
community around. We have more eyes out there than we did before.
There's a lot of awareness that you can have fun without alcohol and drugs."

As for whether or not an anti-drug campaign could be successful
elsewhere, Stevens said it could be, but it would take a lot of effort.

"Get some of the leadership to bring (the problem) out in the open,
get people on your committee, get the RCMP involved," said Stevens.
"There's a lot of people that were involved (with us) that had a lot
of experience with organization...it was the whole community taking action."

Easier said than done, said Bartibogue.

He said while there are roughly 70 people involved in the group so
far, he's having a hard time getting more leadership involved.

"There's a problem with our leadership," Bartibogue said. "It's our
leadership that has to come forward and so far they haven't. I'm on
band council, but without the support of the chief, it's hard getting
over all the barriers."

Stevens said while he works in Cape Breton, he's visited Burnt Church
First Nation. He said while he understands the community has to work
with their leaders, he stressed that Eskasoni took a major step
forward in its fight against drugs after the most recent election
when the reserve saw a change in council.

The group in Burnt Church First Nation recently banded together to
fight the growing drug problem in the community.

To date, they've had two meetings and have organized marches outside
suspected drug dealers homes.

The group has a number of initiatives planned including anti-drug
billboards and a community newsletter to help raise awareness. They
continue to meet Saturdays at the Burnt Church School.