A Lake St. Martin chief has been charged with sexually abusing a child

The chief of Manitoba's Lake St. Martin First Nation is facing multiple charges of sexually abusing a child.

After an investigation, officers arrested and charged Christopher Rodney Travers, Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Dani MacKinnon told CBC News on Friday.

Travers is charged with four counts of sexual assault, sexual intercourse, and possession and production of child pornography.

Court records show the alleged offenses occurred in Winnipeg on or about December 29, 2023.

Police say the boy was in elementary school.

Travers maintained his innocence in an interview with CBC News on Tuesday. He said he was released after being arrested earlier this year.

Winnipeg police declined to be interviewed and did not release additional details Monday.

Travers was elected chief in July 2022. He previously served as a councilor for the Interlake First Nation, a region of about 3,000 people more than 200 kilometers northwest of Winnipeg.

Travers previously said more than 1,000 community members are still displaced from the 2011 floods that devastated the First Nation. Most of them live in Winnipeg.

The entire community was initially forced to evacuate their homes because of the flooding, which a judge later ruled was at least partly the fault of the Manitoba government because it chose to divert water into Lake Manitoba to protect the city of Winnipeg.

“I'm worried,” says the elder

Travers held a community meeting at a Winnipeg hotel last week. Lake St. Martin Elder Florence Wood said community elders sent Travers a letter that day asking him to step down “for the good of the community, for the good of the children.”

“I'm concerned,” Wood said in an interview with CBC News on Tuesday. “It's going to affect our children and our grandchildren … it's going to affect the community.”

He added: “We need a leader in our community to help people … not take a step back.”

Travers told CBC News that he will not be stepping down as superintendent.

“That's up to him, but he can't be our boss. He can't,” Wood said in response.

“The law cannot be completely suspended. We have a feeling they have.”

Wood said he wants the community to move forward.

If the elders did not receive a response to their letter within seven days, they agreed to sign a petition to remove Travers as superintendent, Wood said.

Under the First Nations Electoral Act, a chief or councilor can cease to hold office if they are convicted of an offense and sentenced to more than 30 days in prison. They can also lose their seats in other ways, including petitioning.

The Lake St. Martin First Nation Council says it has no comment at this time.

Lake St. Martin is a member of the Southern Chiefs Organization, which represents 34 Anishinaabe and Dakota nations. A spokesman for the organization said it would not comment on the allegations.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said it was not available for comment, and CBC News had not heard back on Tuesday from the Interlake Reserve Tribal Council, where Travers is a board member.

His next court hearing is scheduled for July 3.