'Years of history': Who is the former drug dealer banished from Haida Gwaii?

Scared neighbours. An atmosphere of "fear, mistrust and continual disruption." People "upset and anxious and worried in their own homes."

As she listed Frank Young's impacts on her small Haida Gwaii community, a Skidegate band councillor told a B.C. provincial court judge in 2020 that the First Nation wouldn't rule out banishment if the system couldn't protect residents from the harms caused by his drug dealing.

Michelle McDonald gave a community statement on behalf of the Skidegate Band Council at Young's sentencing in November 2020 for a drug-related offence.

"Elders, youth and families are fearful of the accused and the type of people that are at the home. They fear retaliation when they speak out. They do not want contact with offender," McDonald told provincial court judge David Patterson.

"They fear for young people who visit, that they will be exploited or preyed upon in the context of drug use or trading favours for drugs. The community doesn't see that there is a consequence for the behaviour ... that continually happen[s], and mistrust that the justice system will protect them."

'This is nothing to do with him'

Young was sentenced to a year in jail and two years of probation in 2021 after pleading guilty to possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. Roberta Young — his wife at the time — was also convicted of the same charge, drawing six months in jail and two years' probation.

The couple — along with other family members — are now among eight people banished from Haida Gwaii, sparking reactions across northern B.C. from communities trying to rid themselves from the corrosive impact of toxic drugs.

WATCH | Homes destroyed, community members banished in wake of hit and run: 

The banishment was initiated after Frank Young's 32-year-old son Tyson was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Luke Pearson, who was killed last week in what RCMP have described as a targeted hit and run.

The case has ignited a conversation about the thin line between righteous indignation from frustrated citizens and vigilantism.

As social media tracked the Young family's outcast journey from town to town Thursday, Haida leadership urged people to get off their devices and stay calm, while RCMP warned against behaviour that bordered on criminal harassment. 

According to provincial court documents, Frank and Roberta Young had possession of two neighbouring houses in Skidegate in 2021. They lived in one with their daughter, while one of their sons lived in the other. 

Patterson said Tyson Young was on the couch in his dad's home when Frank Young was arrested in February 2019, after police got a search warrant based on surveillance that showed a steady stream of "comings and goings that were consistent with drug buying customers."

"At some point during or after the arrest of Mr. Young, he pointed at his son and said 'this is nothing to do with him,'" the judge said.

The raid turned up cocaine, pills, cannabis, a scale and "hundreds of empty small plastic baggies, what are commonly referred to in the drug vernacular as 'dime baggies,'" Patterson said.

The judge said Young "denies that his family members are drug dealers. Rather, Mr. Young says that while his wife and children did not approve of his drug dealing, they put up with it."

WATCH | Young has history of tension with community leadership: 

'A community service'

At his 2021 sentencing, Frank Young claimed he'd been dealing drugs in Skidegate since 2015 — trafficking in order to support his own addiction.

He came before the court claiming to be a sick man, hoping to avoid incarceration as he struggled with heart disease and lung cancer. But the judge said he appeared without remorse for the harm he had inflicted on his neighbours — seeing "drug dealing as a community service."

"Mr. Young apparently holds the view that he was simply providing drugs for people that were in search of drugs," the judge noted.

"Mr. Young views his customers as adults making a decision that is theirs to make. Mr. Young maintains that he does not seek clients; his customers find him, and he provides a service for a demand."

Young claimed he didn't sell to children — a claim refuted at sentencing by Trent Moraes, deputy chief councillor for the Skidegate Band Council, who said "high school students are known to be customers."

Moraes claimed "most, if not all, members of Mr. Young's family are active and willing participants in the drug trade" and that "Young is the patriarch of one of the major trafficking families in Skidegate."

'We have tools of banishment'

Frank Young's stepfather was Indigenous, but his biological parents were not. According to the court records, he moved to Skidegate with his family when he was around 12 in the early 1970s.

At sentencing, Frank Young said he self-identified as Indigenous, but the judge said there was nothing in his circumstances that would have allowed him to benefit from the considerations afforded Indigenous offenders.

On behalf of the Skidegate council, Coun. Michelle McDonald told the judge they wanted it known that "Frank Young is not a band member." She said the community wanted to see him receive jail time and treatment.

"There has been years of history with Mr. Young and his family that jeopardizes the health and safety of our membership. And we want to make sure that he gets help," she told the judge.

"So — and being in our community, he will not get help if he has not proven in the past that he has tried to reach out for help before. So we worry that he will continue just doing what he is doing to make a living. And it will keep jeopardizing our people."

WATCH | B.C. AFN chief describes crisis moment for First Nations over drug deaths, violence: 

McDonald said the First Nation was trying to be "proactive" and "doing things with procedural fairness."

"We have tools of banishment in our ... kits and we have used it in the past," McDonald said in 2020.

"I can say that this is not something we have discussed, but these are the tools that the band has in their — if we feel that health and safety to our people will be jeopardized."

Judge David Patterson said he was one of two judges who regularly sits in Haida Gwaii, and as such was "aware that the introduction of illicit drugs to Haida Gwaii is another negative product of, and ongoing symptom of, colonialism."

He thanked MacDonald for reminding the court of the ongoing issues drug dealing and addiction have caused before ordering Young jailed for a year.

"Drug dealing interferes with the ability of community members to live a peaceful life," he said.

"The long-term effects of drug dealing are a drain on the community. Vulnerable addicted individuals use funds they need for rent, food, and bills to purchase drugs. The cycle of poverty and addiction is playing out endlessly."