CHEAM TAKE DRUG FIGHT TO COMMUNITY LEVEL

Imagine finding out your nephew, who lives just a few doors away, is
making or selling drugs.

That's the challenge close-knit aboriginal communities face as they
battle the spread of drugs.

On Monday, Cheam chief Sid Douglas and his councillors are being
"stood up" in a ceremony organized by the Sto:lo Tribal Council to
honour the band's decision to take up that challenge.

"We would like to show them that not only do we appreciate what they
are doing, we also thank them for their dedication in cleaning up the
community," says Tyrone McNeil, STC vice-chair. "This cleanup also
affects many of our communities as some drugs were coming into ours
and now the distributions are being impacted."

Lt. Gov. Steven Point has been invited to the ceremony, but could not
attend due to scheduling conflicts. He has sent a statement instead
that will be read at the gathering, which is expected to include
First Nations leaders from around the province. The dinner, open to
the public, starts at 5 p.m. at the Cheam community hall.

Not only native communities, but surrounding non-native communities
stand to benefit from the actions taken by the Cheam.

Thanks to an improved relationship with the police, a major drug lab
located on the Rosedale was busted in July by the RCMP.

Cpl. Chris Gosselin says the lab was large enough to supply drug
markets here in the Fraser Valley, and clear across Canada.

"The Cheam really have taken (the fight against drugs) beyond what
other communities have done," he says. "Cheam has set the bar
extremely high."

Two houses on the reserve were recently seized for drug offences by
band officials and police, and a four-plex once riddled with drugs is
now a community health centre and an elders' gathering place.

Dianne Garner, a community development worker, says the Cheam have
taken a leading role among First Nations in the fight against drugs,
beefing up security on the reserve and including youth in
decision-making.

It's the only local reserve where the youth have put up signs warning
all who enter that the community has a zero tolerance for drugs, she
says.

"They don't stop. They don't give in - and they listen to the youth,"
she says about the Cheam. "Cheam think of their future generations,
and they do want to turn things around."

Gosselin says the police relationship in the past with the Cheam was
"not the best ... but on this drug issue, we're really working
together to be open to each other's concerns and ideas on how to deal
with this on a social, economic and even cultural
perspective."

"We're seeing more and more people willing to contact us about drug
traffickers ... where in the past they refused to call the RCMP," he
says.

McNeil says the isolated reserves, "relatively closed" to the public,
are seen as ideal locations by drug-makers for their illegal activities.

And aboriginal people especially vulnerable, he adds, to the lure of
drugs because of the "weakened state" they have been left in due to
the abuse suffered in residential schools and by national
assimilation policies that stripped them of their language and identity.

Drugs are also a source of income for "impoverished" band members who
see no other economic opportunities open to them, he says.

The STC has organized three public forums, well-attended by native
and non-native people, to develop community strategies to combat
drugs, especially crystal meth.

Gosselin says the Monday ceremony to honour the Cheam is a chance
celebrate a victory, to turn around the negative sterotype that has
grown around the band and to renew spirits to continue the battle.

"It's a chance to celebrate the wins ... it rejuvenates you," he
says. "It tells you, you're going in the right direction."