Provincial Police have returned to Pikangikum, after the community expelled OPP over “serious misconduct allegations.”
They were kicked out of the community for six weeks.
A statement from the First Nation says it reached an agreement with the OPP this past Tuesday, and officers returned to Pikangikum on Wednesday night.
Part of the agreement requires Provincial Police to work with the new Pikangikum Peacekeepers who were trained in response to what the community calls its “policing and nursing crisis.”
It also includes a promise to provide the training needed to establish auxiliary constables and set up a stand-alone Pikangikum Police Service.
Community leaders say the situation opened their eyes to several gaps in policing, health care and first response services in Pikangikum.
While police were gone, government nurses were also flown out of and into the First Nation every day, which officials say raised concerns about residents’ safety.
