Globe and Mail – For the past two weeks, during a global pandemic, Pikangikum First Nation – a Northern Ontario community of nearly 3,600, located along the Berens River near the Manitoba border – has operated without a fully equipped police service or access to proper medical care…On March 19, Chief Owen and the band council expelled the community’s 10-member Ontario Provincial Police force after misconduct allegations surfaced against officers, including claims of sexual and physical assault of women who had been brought into custody. An investigation into the allegations is now being conducted by the Special Investigations Unit, the body that investigates Ontario’s police.

But when the police left Pikangikum, the nurses there were also forced to leave, as per instruction by Indigenous Services Canada, or ISC. They were uprooted from their homes and patients, told to grab their bags and head out.