Walpole Island officials are advising non-members that the First Nation is not a "safe haven" for gatherings during the province's stay-at-home order.
Director of Operations James Jenkins told Blackburn News that two non-members were charged on Saturday with failure to comply with the stay-at-home order after they were unable to provide a valid reason as to why they were there.
Jenkins was unable to specify where the two people were from but said they were each issued a ticket of $750.
The Ontario government issued a stay-at-home order which came into effect on January 14 at 12:01 a.m.
A statement posted by the First Nation Council said non-members would be allowed on the territory to make retail purchases, deliveries, and service calls during the stay-at-home order. Whereas band members would still be able to participate in activates such as hunting and fishing but only with members of their own household -- with an exception to those who live alone.
"We know the stay-at-home order is being enforced outside of the First Nation so we did meet and we made the decision to implement a stay-at-home order within Walpole Island," said Jenkins. "The reason we did that is we didn't want the community to become a sort of safe haven where people knew it was permissible to get together because that could potentially bring a lot of risk into the community and that's the kind of thing we want to avoid."
Jenkins said this incident marks the first time Walpole Island police have laid charges under the stay-at-home order.
"It was important to make sure we were being proactive and that there are consequences for not complying with the order on the First Nation," he said.
There are currently three active cases of COVID-19 on Walpole Island.
