‘This is an epidemic’: Retired OPP sergeant channels grief into action

By Marissa Lentz-McGrath, Local Journalism Initiative, TimminsToday.com ​After losing their 15-year-old nephew to a drug-related killing, Randy Cota and Betty Sue Crawford couldn’t stand by any longer. The married couple — he a retired OPP sergeant, she a band representative for Attawapiskat First Nation — channelled their grief into action. In 2022, they launched Creegonquin, an Indigenous-owned K9 security and community wellness business based in Moosonee. Their mission is to stop deadly drugs like fentanyl from reaching remote First Nations communities. “About three years ago, our nephew was murdered in Moosonee. He was stabbed to death over the drugs that were being brought in,” Cota told TimminsToday. That tragedy set the couple on a path that now has their drug-sniffing dogs — each trained and certified in Canada and the…

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