NEWS RELEASE
SAGAMOK ANISHNAWBEK
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SAGAMOK ANISHNAWBEK - Sagamok Anishnawbek is pleased to welcome the Anishinabek Police Services to its new home in one of the community’s main residential areas. The new APS Detachment officially opened its doors with a ribbon-cutting ceremony during an open-house barbecue event on May 19.
On hand to open the event were Gimaa Angus Toulouse, APS Police Chief Jeff Skye, APS Inspector Mark LeSage, Detachment Commander Vern Macumber and Sagamok Officers. The opening ceremony featured a prayer by Elder Grace Manitowabi and a smudge ceremony provided by Fire Chief Bruce Southwind.
Elder Grace invited Sagamok’s Aunties and Grandmas to join her as she shared the group’s reasons for first coming together for the safety of the families in the Sagamok community. She says that the group promotes the view that a safe community involves everyone in the community.
“The police can’t do it alone. We have to work with them to make sure our community is safe,” says Elder Grace. “We have to help one another and keep reminding ourselves that it takes a community to raise a child and that families depend upon strong bonds of support.”
APS Police Chief shared these sentiments, saying that the APS officers serving the Sagamok community are very committed to the Sagamok community and want to be there when they are needed.
With recent additions to the local detachment that has seen its complement jump to five officers and one sergeant in the past year, the Sagamok APS was in need of a new space in the community. Since first providing services to the Sagamok community, the APS was first housed in the Multi-Educational Centre in 1994 before moving to the Millenium Centre in 2000.
Sagamok, Garden River, Curve Lake and Saugeen First Nations were the first indigenous communities to welcome the Anishinabek Police Services into their communities back in 1994 after the founding of the new police service in 1992. Today, the APS serves 16 indigenous communities.
The new detachment building features two holding cells, a sally port entry garage, hard and soft interview rooms, a family room, a conference room, as well as a fingerprint room and IT/Guard Monitoring Room. There are also four pod units for officers to use when not on duty, allowing them to stay in the community between shifts rather than commuting each day. These pods are furnished bedroom units with access to on-site kitchen and laundry facilities.
APS Police Chief Jeff Sky says that the pods make it easier to provide around-the-clock police coverage of the Sagamok community much more easily than previously. They will cut down on travel time for the officers and, with it, unnecessary risk on the highway as they commute. “Our officers are much happier.”
Gimaa Angus Toulouse looks ahead to building stronger partnerships within the community with service providers like the Anishinabek Police Services. Acknowledging his community’s Protocol Agreement with the APS, Toulouse says that the community is engaged in updating a community-based policing strategy that seeks greater cooperation with the APS in pursuing Sagamok’s policing objectives.
That relationship involves a shared appreciation of the culture of the Sagamok community and how our people need to be understood, especially in relation to the ongoing opioid crisis impacting families locally and beyond, says Toulouse.
“We want to make sure we can help people who are struggling, ensuring that they have a recovery plan and the services are here to assist them in succeeding in their recovery plans. APS keeps us all safe as we try to work with the vulnerable segments of our community."
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