Manitoba First Nation enforcing community-wide curfew

WINNIPEG — A Manitoba First Nation announced on Monday that it will start enforcing a community-wide curfew for the next two weeks.

Beginning April 6 and ending on April 20, there will be a curfew in Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

According to a statement from the First Nation, it’s possible this curfew will be extended depending on whether COVID-19 cases in Manitoba and throughout the north continue to rise.

“This decision was not made lightly,” said the office of the Onekanew mena Onuschekewuk (O&O) in the statement.

“As your leadership, we are in a position to think about the entire community and the safety of our citizens that choose to call OCN home.”

The First Nation is reminding people that the curfew impacts everyone, noting it has security and volunteers that will be keeping track of people and cars that leave their homes between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

“The more we do our part now to ‘flatten the curve’ the faster we can get back to the normalcy we once knew,” it said.

“We understand these are frustrating times and can often feel lonely. We understand that as humans, we all do not like being told what to do. What we ultimately want is for people to challenge their normal thinking and to do better, not only for the sake of today, but for the future of OCN.”

Opaskwayak Cree Nation is located near The Pas, about 627 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.