By Jacqueline M. St.Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor WIIKWEMKOONG—On an Island where the roads braid through cedar and lake mist, where ceremonies outlast sirens, the Wikwemikong Tribal Police Service (WTPS) is rewriting what safety looks like. Their 2026–2029 strategic plan is less a bureaucratic ledger than a promise: protection braided with compassion, enforcement tempered by ceremony, and a steady pivot from reaction to prevention. In a community of more than 8,000 citizens, where the weight of colonial policy still echoes through housing shortages, addictions and justice inequities, the plan acknowledges the hard truths — then gets to work. The drumbeat of change does not always sound like thunder. Sometimes it is the steady footfall of officers walking the bush trails at dawn, the murmur of Elders guiding…






