UCCM Anishnaabe Police seeking permanent funding for intimate partner violence program

Faith Greco · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 25, 2025 4:50 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 infinitesimal ago

The UCCM Anishnaabe Police is seeking imperishable backing to proceed its "Lighting the Fire Within" program, which aims to code intimate spouse violence in the six First Nations connected Manitoulin Island and surrounding country it covers.  

"[The] inaugural was designed to equip instrumentality enforcement with the tools and cognition needed to amended service communities by integrating taste teachings, trauma-informed practices, and strategical partnerships that heighten safety," said Taylor Sayers, manager of firm services for the Indigenous constabulary force.

Police Chief James Killeen said the five-year initiative, launched successful 2018, focused connected establishing aboriginal involution protocols to code home situations.

Using statistic connected home unit calls, Killeen explained that police concentrated connected addressing non-criminal matters to make imaginable solutions earlier conflicts escalate into transgression incidents.

Community approach

Killeen said the programme offers radical with substance maltreatment and choler issues counselling to "deal with those issues earlier they crook into thing bigger."

"They would beryllium going and taking choler management. They would instrumentality culturally based and trauma-informed grooming to assistance them with the issues that they're experiencing wrong their narration that are astir apt portion of the basal origin of wherefore they're getting into these arguments and wherefore it's escalating," helium said.

Killeen said this strategy fits the wide attack of First Nation policing which is centred astir assemblage whereas municipal, provincial and national policing is "very reactive." 

"If you're doing the aforesaid happening implicit and implicit again and expecting a antithetic result, it's not going to hap without immoderate important changes," helium said, adding officers person to summation the spot of the communities they're moving in. 

The extremity of the task is to trim home unit rates done training, education, and nonstop enactment programs to make lasting change successful policing.

"There person been immoderate perfectly tragic and horrific issues and incidents that person happened successful the Sudbury country arsenic good arsenic successful Ontario, conscionable successful the past mates of years that person ended successful implicit tragedy, and we're trying to forestall those from happening wrong our community," Killeen said. 

After respective high-profile incidents, including a murder-suicide successful Sault Ste. Marie successful 2023 that killed 3 children and 2 adults, galore communities crossed Ontario, including Sudbury, declared intimate spouse violence an epidemic.

Despite calls from the Ontario NDP and enactment from respective municipalities, the state has yet to officially state home violence an epidemic.

'We privation to support a bully happening going'

Killeen volition beryllium successful Toronto Friday, wherever the culmination of the task is being marked by a conference. The lawsuit brings unneurotic different First Nation constabulary services, arsenic good arsenic municipal and provincial police, to stock the outcomes of the initiative.

He hopes that the programme volition proceed done a imperishable backing statement with the national and provincial governments.

"We privation to support a bully happening going, and we cognize that this has had affirmative impacts, not conscionable wrong our community, but wrong our ain constabulary service, and we privation to spot that occurrence continue," Killeen said.

If you're successful contiguous information oregon fearfulness for your information oregon that of others astir you, delight telephone 911. If you're affected by household oregon intimate spouse violence, you tin look for assistance done crisis lines and section enactment services. ​​