Latest news with #ChrisGoogoo
CTV News
03-08-2025
- CTV News
Protest held at a Nova Scotia RCMP detachment over Indigenous-owned cannabis stores
An RCMP epaulette is seen in Edmonton, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson Organizers behind a protest held at a Nova Scotia RCMP detachment say police action against Indigenous-owned cannabis dispensaries represents a continued attack on Mi'kmaq sovereignty. Thomas Durfee said a crowd of more than 100 people gathered at the RCMP detachment in Millbrook First Nation to protest Thursday after Mounties executed a search warrant at a cannabis store in the community and arrested one man. Durfee said in an interview Sunday the peaceful protest involved free lobster, music and speeches from matriarchs in the community. 'We're just here to assert our rights... It was very emotional to see a lot of the women in our community come and speak out. We had all the clan mothers there, the water protectors... many prominent voices in our community,' Durfee said. Millbrook First Nation council member Chris Googoo told the crowd Thursday it's important to rally behind the shop owner who he says is operating a Mi'kmaq 'truckhouse,' which is a traditional trading post. Googoo said the community has asked the RCMP not to enforce the Cannabis Act as it works to develop its own independent regulations for selling cannabis. 'We're here to support our band member here who exercises his rights by having a treaty truckhouse, which is constitutionally protected because we have a right to trade,' Googoo said, referring to the term used for trading posts in treaties signed by the Mi'kmaq and British Crown in the 1700s. The RCMP said in a statement that police executed a search warrant at 'an illegal cannabis storefront' on Wednesday and seized a quantity of cannabis and unstamped tobacco. Police say the one man who was arrested was released and will not be charged, but that investigators anticipate others will face charges as evidence is collected. Charges are also pending against other people related to the investigation. The RCMP statement also noted that 'a small group of protesters gathered outside without incident' while police were on site. 'The RCMP reminds residents that the only legal way to purchase cannabis in the province is at licensed locations,' police said. Durfee, who operates five truckhouses that sell cannabis alongside local art, disputes that Indigenous-owned and operated cannabis sales can be considered illegal given the historic treaties. 'We have all these treaty protections so that we can go and come as we please, and trade to the best of our abilities,' he said. 'They talk about setting precedents, they talk about regulations, they talk about getting permissions, they talk about this being illegal. But that's really a huge defamation of our culture that the Canadian government and the RCMP is continuing (to perpetuate),' Durfee added. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 3, 2025. Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press
CBC
21-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Millbrook First Nation councillor acquitted of illegal tobacco charges
A prominent First Nation councillor in Nova Scotia has been acquitted of charges linked to the 2022 seizure of a large amount of illegal tobacco, after a judge ruled Thursday the evidence in court did not prove he was the owner of the small shop selling the products. On its surface, the decision is at odds with the public advocacy of the Millbrook First Nation councillor, Chris Googoo, who has asserted the Mi'kmaq have the treaty right to sell tobacco and cannabis outside of federal and provincial regulations. In an interview outside the provincial courtroom in Dartmouth, N.S., just minutes after he was found not guilty, Googoo openly acknowledged he owns High Grade Trading Post in Cole Harbour, N.S. He is willing to raise constitutional challenges, he said, but the system as it's set up means he must go through a trial first and he believed it was important to test the prosecution's evidence against him. "Yeah, I got acquitted," he said. "But that's due to the Crown and the authorities not doing their due diligence and getting their full facts in order. We have our full facts in order on our side of things." The scenario is similar to another decision involving High Grade Trading Post from last spring in which another judge acquitted Googoo of cannabis charges after ruling the Crown had not proven the store was under his control. Googoo is the founder of the Micmac Rights Association, a group he said now includes roughly 260 members. Its advocacy has focused on asserting the "sovereign rights" of Mi'kmaq, particularly around the sale of cannabis, both on and off reserves. In Nova Scotia, the provincial government only allows cannabis to be sold through the Crown corporation Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation, while the sale and taxing of tobacco is regulated. "We have a right to an economy just like any other person," Googoo said. "And it's not about selling tobacco or cannabis. In my eyes, they're both legal products, and the government sells it and we should be able to partake in those industries as well." Revenue Act charges In Thursday's court case, Googoo faced seven charges under Nova Scotia's Revenue Act, including possessing tobacco on which tax has not been paid and selling tobacco that didn't have the mark required by law. In her decision, Judge Amy Sakalauskas said officers with the fuel and tobacco unit of Service Nova Scotia filled at least 10 garbage bags with cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products they seized on Oct. 5, 2022, from the store on Millbrook reserve land in Cole Harbour. The sign outside said "Cheap Tobacco," the judge said, and inside cartons of cigarettes were selling for $60, easily half the price of those sold in the legal market. The store, she said, was "pretty loaded with inventory." Googoo, however, was not at the scene when the authorities raided High Grade, and the judge said a crucial part of the case hinged on whether the prosecution could prove he was the owner and operator of the shop, which at the time was housed in a trailer. Proving identity Googoo's lawyer, Jack Lloyd, did not call any defence evidence and Googoo chose not to testify, which meant he was not questioned in court about whether he owned High Grade Trading Post. The prosecution tried to prove he did. One officer testified a man who identified himself as Millbrook councillor Chris Googoo called him the day after the raid and confirmed he owned High Grade. The officer also obtained records from Nova Scotia Power that showed the electricity account for the trailer was under the name Christopher Googoo. Another officer combed Googoo's Facebook page and those of his wife and High Grade. The judge said it was a circumstantial case, one where various pieces of evidence when put together were close to proving that Googoo was the owner of High Grade. But she said it was "an odd investigation" because the officers failed to take the needed extra steps. The names Christopher and Googoo are not uncommon in Nova Scotia, she noted. The photos on the Facebook pages were grainy and poorly reproduced, the judge said, and she couldn't determine if they showed the same man who was sitting in court, even though an officer who served Googoo his court papers testified it was the same person. She said the officer who received the call didn't investigate whether the number on the caller ID was actually associated with Googoo. The records from Nova Scotia Power had only a name, she said.
