RCMP escalate their violent campaign of treaty breaking by unlawfully raiding Top Shelf Treaty Truck House in Millbrook First Nation with hands on guns.
By Dispensing Freedom Staff
MILLBROOK FIRST NATION – On July 30, 2025, officers from the Millbrook and Bible Hill RCMP detachments raided the Top Shelf Treaty Truckhouse located at 878 Willow Street. The officers intimidated a Mi’kmaw staff member and kept him detained in a police vehicle for approximately 30 minutes as they seized van loads of product, but they ended up making no arrests. Claiming to be acting in accordance with the Cannabis Act the officers, were in fact violating the terms of the Treaty of 1752, Section 89 of the Indian Act and Section 35 of Canada’s Constitution Act. The raid occurred without any notification or support from Mi’kmaw authorities, and took place in a context in which treaty truckhouses and the governance and sale of sovereign Mi’kmaw cannabis and tobacco products have widespread support throughout the Millbrook community – including from the Band Council – and are being self-regulated by the Micmac Rights Association.
Video surveillance released by Top Shelf shows RCMP constable Terry Brown entering the business shouting “Police!” and “RCMP!” with his hand on his sidearm. Another officer, who when asked, identified himself as “Merchant” can be seen on store surveillance with his hand on his firearm as he approached the Top Shelf staff member he had backed into a corner – despite there being no sign of threat or resistance.
Dispensing Freedom spoke with the Mi’kmaw staff member at Top Shelf who was arrested. According to the staff member, the raid “happened quickly, they were trying to intimidate me. They had their hands on their guns and they were shouting orders and demanding that I tell them my name. It looked like he [the officer] was willing to kill someone over weed, like he was ready to pull out his gun and shoot me.”
The staff member added that “[RCMP Constable] Terry Brown told me I was under arrest but he didn’t tell me what for. It was kind of fucked. He had me arrested in the cop car for approximately 30 minutes but they didn’t charge me with anything.” The staff member, who wishes to remain anonymous, added that “Millbrook cops were involved, they were helping to run plates on the cars” and were otherwise assisting the RCMP officers from the Bible Hill station.
RCMP raids on treaty truckhouses have consistently involved racist acts of gratuitous violence against Mi’kmaw exercising their rights. In a raid in Millbrook on June 1st, 2023, Provincial tobacco officers assisted by the local RCMP officers assaulted a Mi’kmaw woman. In that same raid, another officer assaulted Micmac Rights Association executive member Mattew Cope who was peacefully observing and filming their actions.
In February of 2025 four RCMP officers raiding treaty truckhouses in Gold River assaulted pregnant Mi’kmaw woman Shana Joudrey and dragged her to the ground. At the treaty truck house at Gaspereau Lake, MRA member Brandon Dorey was assaulted by RCMP officers and pushed into a snowbank until he couldn’t breathe. At the raid in Bear River, Matthew Curry nearly had his arm broken by the RCMP and officers traumatized his dogs and stole his truckhouse.
On March 10th, 2025, members of the Micmac Rights Association organized a large peaceful protest at the Macdonald bridge in Halifax. Two days later, the RCMP carried out yet another raid, this time in Eskasoni where baton wielding officers tasered a Mi’kmaw man and terrorized onlookers.
RCMP Officer who carried out the raid responsible for shooting up Onslow Fire Hall in 2020
RCMP constable Terry Brown who entered the truckhouse with his hand on his gun, has a history of reckless behaviour involving firearms. In 2020 – in the midst of the man-hunt for Gabriel Wortman, a suspected RCMP informant who murdered 22 Nova Scotians while impersonating an RCMP officer – Brown and fellow officer Melanson opened fire with their carabines on David Westlake, the emergency management co-ordinator for Colchester County.
Survivors of the massacre in Portapique, where Wortman had killed 13 people the night before were gathered for their safety in the Fire Hall in Onslow while the killer was on the loose. Westlake was wearing a high-visibility yellow and orange safety vest, and was fired upon by Constable Brown as he approached the fire hall to enter it. According to CBC coverage of the inquiry, “Westlake testified that “I never heard ‘police’ or ‘show your hands.’ I heard ‘get down.’ And I am adamant to this day this is what I heard,” Westlake said in his interview.
“I remember a shot that sounded like a sonic boom and then another one that was really loud and I’m moving at this time.” Brown fired four rounds and Melanson fired one, inquiry documents show.” Westlake hid inside the building with frightened evacuees and fire staff for over an hour, while RCMP Constables Brown and Melanson left the scene within five minutes of discharging their guns.
The CBC reported that the RCMP volley of bullets caused close to “$40,000 worth of damage, including to one of the fire trucks, a monument and an electronic sign at the end of the parking lot near to where they fired.” Greg Muise, the fire chief, and Darrell Currie, the deputy chief, previously told CBC they hid in terror behind tables for an hour after hearing the shots outside their hall, thinking the actual gunman was outside and having heard someone banging on one of the hall’s doors.”
According to the CBC, the fire chief “said they felt like “hostages.” He said things would have been different if the Mounties had identified themselves and relayed the group was safe. “You know, ‘We’re RCMP, we’re here, we’re sorry, what’s going on in there, we’ll be back to talk to you.’ Nothing. We had nothing, just like we were shoved under a rug somewhere and left,” he said.”
According to the firemen, “no one from the RCMP has ever apologized or explained why shots were fired.”
“Hand on gun is a step away from lethal force”
This is the first time that the RCMP has raided a Treaty Truckhouse selling cannabis in Millbrook First Nation since the Band Council invoked self-government and requested consultation with the RCMP over “all matters related to cannabis involving Millbrook members” in 2022.
The latest RCMP raid in Millbrook First Nation is a continuation of the RCMP’s violent history, and puts Indigenous community members at risk from trigger happy cops who are violating Canada’s own laws and constitution in raiding Mi’kmaw treaty truckhouses.
According to TJ Wilson, legal counsel for the Micmac Rights Association, “Even if the shops were suspected to be in violation of the cannabis act, the police are treating people who are trying to engage in treaty rights like they are dangerous criminals. There is no justification for the large scale raids and use of force that the police are engaging in, if they’re looking to just collect evidence for what they think may be a crime. They can simply do that.”
Wilson added “Hand on gun is a step away from lethal force. These officers should be using strategies of de-escalation when they’re dealing with Mi’kmaw people in any case, but especially when we are involved in a non-violent practice of our rights.”
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