Judge agrees to shut down First Nations smokeshop in Manitoba

Thursday, May 31, 2012  

A judge in Manitoba ordered the closure of a First Nations-owned smokeshop.

The judge granted a temporary injunction to the province, which has raided the Dakota Chundee Smoke Shop several times since it opened last November. The province says the store is operating illegally because it doesn't have a license to sell tobacco.

The Canupawakpa First Nation, the Dakota Plains Wahpeton Nation and the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation operate the shop. It receives tobacco from Rainbow Tobacco, a company based on the Kahnawake First Nation in Quebec.

"We ask the province to produce legal documentation that Dakotas agreed to be under provincial jurisdiction," Canupawakpa Chief Franklin Brown told CBC News. "It's been eight months now. They haven't produced legal documentation."

Get the Story:
Manitoba granted order to close native smoke shop (CBC 5/30)

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