A First Nation of fewer than 300 people in Yukon’s north has used a law it created during the COVID-19 pandemic to bar a convicted sex offender from being sent to its community.
The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation in Old Crow issued a declaration under its Community Emergency Act banning Christopher Schafer from the fly-in community nearly 800 kilometres north of Whitehorse for at least the next 90 days.
Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm said Yukon’s territorial court decision to allow Schafer to live in Old Crow came via fax to the local RCMP detachment 24 hours before he was scheduled to arrive and was made without consulting the First Nation, which has limited supports available with only two RCMP officers and no clinical health staff….