Friends, it seems the Covid-19 is not the only thing we have to worry about in our northern communities.
A rather disturbing situation came up recently in my hometown of Radilih Koe/Fort Good Hope.
An RCMP constable, Randy McKay, was sent back out, after it was revealed that he had a past record, even pleading guilty, of sexual assault.
The incident happened while McKay was stationed in Buffalo Narrows, Saskatchewan, in May 2015.
After an internal investigation he was suspended with pay and put back on duty a year later, after probation.
According to Chief Danny Masuzumi of Fort Good Hope, the constable had already been in Fort Good Hope for almost a year before his past record caught up with him.
As if we don't already have enough to worry about in these trying times, the same people who are supposed to be in charge of running things have these skeletons in their closets!
Chief Masuzumi also wonders how these persons of authority end up in the North.
Given the larger issue of the catastrophic number, 1,200-plus, of our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, you'd think the RCMP would at least think twice about putting an accused sexual offender anywhere near the public with orders to serve and protect.
The idea of a police force with the power to judge its own members should be under review, too.
We need an impartial board to address this problem.
About his own state of mind, Chief Masuzumi says he is in a 'kind of despair', about not knowing 'who we're going to get next'.
The People look up to their Chief in a small Northern community. He can't be expected to know everything else going on there.
Northern Band Councils, being on an equal footing as the federal government, and the RCMP, for that matter, should be in a position to at least have a say on a screening process, for background checks, on who is allowed to exercise the law on their lands. Mahsi, thank you.