Thefts may have sparked vigilante action on Deer Island

The possible vigilante action late July 11 on Deer Island appears to have been in response to the large number of thefts occurring on the island during the past few years, with islanders blaming a group of people who were staying at an abandoned house near Fairhaven. The lack of any police presence on the island or of any action by the RCMP over the thefts has frustrated islanders. The vigilantism may have included burning the abandoned house, heavily damaging a vehicle at the ferry landing to the mainland and sending those in the vehicle off the island.
Of the thefts on the island, Diane Bustin of Fairhaven says, "It's been happening and been happening and been happening, and nothing seemed to be done."
"The lobster fishermen were being stolen from big time," she says. Thefts included gas and batteries from boats, and one fisherman lost a couple of crates of lobsters. "The fishermen work hard, and they were stealing $700 or $800 of stuff a day out of the boats."
She says the thefts began about six years ago "since those people" came to the island, referring to a group that was staying at the abandoned house and in tents on the property. While at first the son of the owner was at the house with his girlfriend, Bustin says they later started bringing their friends to the island -- "there's eight or 10 of them." When it was just the two of them, the thefts were minor, but "when the crowd came it was big stuff."
As for the sense of safety living on the island, Bustin says, "I've lived here 36 years and never started locking my door or taking the keys out of my car until they moved here." She notes that there are quite a few older women who are widows living on the island, "and they were scared to death."
An RCMP officer hasn't been based on the island for several years, although they used to come over for a weekend "but they don't even do that anymore."
"I don't know how to solve the problem," she says. "Those people have a real bad problem. Society has to look at it, because it's just going to get worse." Of their being sent off the island, she says, "I hope they don't come back."

Creative policing response needed
Increased police presence does deter crime, Fundy The Isles Saint John West MLA Andrea Anderson Mason contends. She also argues for "creative" responses to policing following the apparent vigilante action. The St. George RCMP had responded to a report of a disturbance at the ferry landing on the island shortly after 11 p.m. on July 11. A vehicle suffered heavy damage, and Coastal Transport, which operates the Deer Island ferry service, confirms that it made an extra run shortly after midnight at the request of the RCMP to take a carload of people to the mainland where officers met them. Shortly after midnight the RCMP received report of the fire at the abandoned residence, and at 10:30 a.m. the following morning the RCMP received a report of a theft of fuel at the ferry terminal on Deer Island. Coastal Transport says the stolen fuel did not belong to the company.
Anderson Mason calls these incidents "similar but different" to events on Grand Manan on July 22, 2006, when local people stormed a house on Cedar Street, fought with people inside, gunshots were fired and the house burned.
She thinks the response on Deer Island was frustration to the recent thefts, "whereas Grand Manan was more ... with respect to illicit drugs."
She has heard "a plethora of stories" from islanders who reached out to help people living in tents at the abandoned house, now burned, but the arrival of the tenters seems to have coincided with "an increase in thefts in the area, and there has been frustration by residents" who "questioned the ability of [the Department of Justice and] Public Safety to adequately deal with the problems on the island," the MLA says.
The RCMP stopped having officers stationed full-time on Deer Island in 2020, partly due to work safety issues, especially with backup not immediately available for an officer working alone on an island.
She disagrees with the statement she has heard "that having police more visible in the community doesn't make you safer but it makes people feel better." She and her husband both slow down "as soon as you come up over the knoll" into Blacks Harbour, "thinking of the real possibility of a police officer sitting there waiting for you," Anderson Mason says.
As for the perception of a lack of policing on Deer Island, she says, "I think we have to be more creative. I don't know that I really have a solution, but I think one possibility could have been to have a dedicated force that could have gone on the island for a period of time. We knew that these thefts were happening."
She planned to speak with representatives of the National Police Federation, bargaining agent for RCMP officers, "because we can come up with solutions from where we sit, but they may not necessarily be the best solutions once you look at all sides of the story." She also said she would reach out to the Department of Justice and Public Safety, responsible for policing in New Brunswick.
Anderson Mason, a lawyer, shies away from blaming anyone for crimes still under investigation, but says society should deal with "root causes" of homelessness.
She contends that there have always been homeless people in Charlotte County but that "it looks different" now, more "overtly visible" than in years past. "Is it because of the economy? Is it because of lack of work? Does addiction play a role?" she asks, adding, "People, for the most part, don't choose homelessness as an option so, you know, part of the conversation is about policing, but part of the conversation is how did people get there in the first place, and why are we seeing homelessness to the extent that we are." She says that a public meeting on policing and crime would draw a far bigger crowd than a gathering focusing on literacy, for example.
"It's a multi layered conversation," she says, adding, "Is it a lifestyle choice chosen by the individuals? I doubt it."
"Usually there are other issues behind it. Is it the economy? Do people find themselves in these situations because of unfortunate circumstances? Are they victims of abuse or are they victims of mental health and addiction and unable to reach services, or at a place in their lives where they are not interested in reaching services? Because there is the issue of availability of service, but we also know that you can lead a horse to water but can't force them to drink. Some people are not ready to deal with those issues, so it is a much bigger issue. It is not as simple as policing," Anderson Mason says.
However, she agrees that policing is part of the solution. She understands, for example, the frustration of someone who wakes up to find the gasoline missing from their vehicles, but joins the RCMP in the appeal against vigilante justice. "Absolutely, I do. You know, I'm the mother of young drivers," she says, explaining, "When they go out in the middle of the night and knock on a neighbour's door, I would like to think that they would still be met by the friendly neighbour they are used to, not someone with a rifle in their face." She adds, "We can't allow this to change our culture."

RCMP need to better engage with community
Cpl. Stephane Esculier, spokesman for the New Brunswick RCMP, says the incident is still under investigation and no further updates have been released.
However, the RCMP do need to do better engaging with the community, CBC quotes West District RCMP Commander Superintendent Andy LeClair in an interview. According to CBC, LeClair says that police driving through town does not necessarily make a community safer but does "make the public feel safer."
"When they see a police officer they know, 'OK, great, they're there, they have our back.' And so that is important," LeClair said. LeClair says police and people need to work together, and he encourages people to always report crimes, adding that vigilantism is not acceptable.
LeClair says rural areas will get some of the 80 new RCMP officers coming to New Brunswick, but he did not give exact numbers, CBC reports. He says the deployment will be based on crime statistics and other data.
The RCMP get about 50 complaints a year from Deer Island, with a population of about 700.