ManitobaA northern Manitoba First Nation’s five-year banishment order against a community member has been rescinded after it was challenged in federal court.Terry Francois to continue federal challenge of NCN’s banishment, checkstop lawsOzten Shebahkeget · CBC News · Posted: Oct 18, 2025 9:49 AM EDT | Last Updated: 41 minutes agoTerry Francois was handed a five-year banishment order by Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation last June, after he pleaded guilty to resisting a peace officer. The northern Manitoba First Nation rescinded that order on Tuesday. (Prabhjot Singh Lotey/CBC)A northern Manitoba First Nation’s five-year banishment order against a community member has been rescinded after it was challenged in federal court.Terry Francois, 54, pleaded guilty to two counts of resisting a peace officer in May. He was arrested by RCMP after driving away from a checkstop by his home community of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation on Dec. 30, 2024, a federal application for a judicial review filed in July says.Surveillance footage showed Francois’s vehicle strike a First Nations safety officer, who suffered a fractured finger, while the vehicle narrowly missed another safety officer, Manitoba RCMP said at the time.Francois was forced to move to the city of Thompson, about 65 kilometres east of Nisichawayasihk, after RCMP officers told him he couldn’t live in the First Nation with pending criminal charges. He was ultimately fined $600 for charges involving resisting a peace officer. Other charges were stayed.Francois, who grew up in Nisichawayasihk and moved back a decade ago with his four daughters and young grandchild, returned home for an event in June. That’s when he received a formal banishment letter from the First Nation, saying he was barred until the end of 2029, the court document says. [The banishment law] violates basic conceptions of fairness, and it affects many people.”- Lawyer Marty MooreNisichawayasihk Cree Nation rescinded its banishment order against Francois last Tuesday — the same day it was supposed to send written submissions for an Oct. 28 injunction hearing involving Francois’s court application, said Marty Moore, his constitutional lawyer.”Rather than filing any justification for this banishment of Mr. Francois on Oct. 14, NCN revoked and rescinded the banishment, and he is now at liberty to return home,” Moore told CBC News on Friday.Nisichawayasihk has its own permanent checkstop at the Highway 391 junction. First Nations safety officers enforce a bylaw allowing residents to bring limited amounts of alcohol into the community — the equivalent of two 26-ounce (about 750-millilitre) bottles of liquor, 48 beers or eight litres of wine. Cannabis is allowed in limited quantities.Francois’s application argued that the checkstop infringed his Charter right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure and the right not to be arbitrarily detained. These allegations have not been tested in court.While Francois’s banishment order has been rescinded, his constitutional challenge against Nisichawayasihk’s banishment and checkstop laws remains before the Federal Court, said Moore.’Uprooted’Moore claims 50 to 100 people have been banished from Nisichawayasihk, including many who were not given a chance to be heard or to challenge their banishment order.”The banishment law and the checkstop law need to be changed,” he said. “We believe it violates their treaty rights, their constitutional rights. It violates basic conceptions of fairness, and it affects many people.”In a statement posted to social media on Friday, Nisichawayasihk’s chief and council said the decision to rescind Francois’s banishment order was made “after careful consideration and on compassionate grounds.” I am happy that they’re letting me back … [but] they should have never [thrown] me off the reserve to begin with.- Terry FrancoisFrancois disagreed with that characterization.”I am happy that they’re letting me back on the reserve, I am. But they’re not doing me any favours,” he told CBC News on Friday. “They should have never [thrown] me off the reserve to begin with.”Francois, who still lives in Thompson, says he’s planning to visit his community next week.”Imagine being uprooted from where you lived and told not to come back,” he said. “I’ll have to go through that checkstop. I’ll have to be harassed [and] illegally searched.”His advice to anyone under a banishment order who wants to return to their community is to “stand up for your rights.””Don’t let anybody knock you down,” he said. “We’ve lived our life being knocked down. It’s time to stand up.”ABOUT THE AUTHORÖzten Shebahkeget is a member of Northwest Angle 33 First Nation who grew up in Winnipeg’s North End. She has been writing for CBC Manitoba since 2022. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature and a master’s in writing.Email: ozten.shebahkeget@cbc.ca