{"id":93117,"date":"2025-06-03T09:15:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T13:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=93117"},"modified":"2025-06-03T09:15:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T13:15:31","slug":"this-is-an-epidemic-retired-opp-sergeant-channels-grief-into-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/03\/this-is-an-epidemic-retired-opp-sergeant-channels-grief-into-action\/","title":{"rendered":"‘This is an epidemic’: Retired OPP sergeant channels grief into action"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Marissa Lentz-McGrath, Local Journalism Initiative, TimminsToday.com \u200bAfter 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 \u2014 he a retired OPP sergeant, she a band representative for Attawapiskat First Nation \u2014 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. \u201cAbout three years ago, our nephew was murdered in Moosonee. He was stabbed to death over the drugs that were being brought in,\u201d Cota told TimminsToday. That tragedy set the couple on a path that now has their drug-sniffing dogs \u2014 each trained and certified in Canada and the… <\/p>\n

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By Marissa Lentz-McGrath, Local Journalism Initiative, TimminsToday.com \u200bAfter 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 \u2014 he a retired OPP sergeant, she a band representative for Attawapiskat First Nation \u2014 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. \u201cAbout three years ago, our nephew was murdered in Moosonee. He was stabbed to death over the drugs that were being brought in,\u201d Cota told TimminsToday. That tragedy set the couple on a path that now has their drug-sniffing dogs \u2014 each trained and certified in Canada and the... <\/p>\n

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Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"\n'This is an epidemic': Retired OPP sergeant channels grief into action - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/03\/this-is-an-epidemic-retired-opp-sergeant-channels-grief-into-action\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'This is an epidemic': Retired OPP sergeant channels grief into action - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Marissa Lentz-McGrath, Local Journalism Initiative, TimminsToday.com \u200bAfter losing their 15-year-old nephew to a drug-related killing, Randy Cota and Betty Sue Crawford couldn’t stand by any longer. 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