They met on Friday for a virtual meeting behind closed doors, but Indigenous Spaces was invited.
Representatives from various collectives including Decolonial Solidarity, Climate Justice Montreal and the Suzuki Foundation were in attendance. The Mohawks, on the other hand, had covered their faces and altered their voices. Indigenous Spaces knows their identity but respects their wish not to be named.
Several cigarette kiosks openly display the sale of cannabis in the Mohawk community of Kanesatake, near Montreal. Some of them are suspected of being linked to organized crime. (file photo)
Photo: Radio Canada / Jean-Francois Villeneuve
The collective denounces criminal activity, including shooting automatic weapons in broad daylight and stealing land by real estate developers and assimilated Mohawks. He asserts that laws are no longer respected in Kanesatake.
It seems that omerta reigns supreme in the community. A witness states that it has become impossible to know who to trust.
“This community is sick. Money and silence, that’s the new culture of Kanesatake. It’s become the wild west. »
— A quote from A Mohawk Witness
The Collective insists that the people of Kanesatake have not felt safe for several generations.
In a letter also released Friday, he says the provincial and federal governments have not acted and even the Kanesatake Band Council (MCK) has done little. Worse, there is nothing they can do.
The 1990 Oka Crisis had a profound impact on the Kanesatake community. (file photo)
Photo: National Film Board/Shaney Konulainen
To substantiate this thesis, the collective published a letter from the law firm advising the MCK. In a specific case of appropriation of common land by one of the members of the community, MCK had sought legal advice to compel said member to release that space.
In that letter we can read that, according to the lawyers, even if the council managed to transfer the member, there was violence and intimidation. The MCK would therefore have no way of safely evicting a person in unauthorized possession of common land.
A Mohawk witness says he suffered numerous threats after denouncing a similar situation of land grabbing. Everyone told me to shut up or they would burn my house down, adds this witness.
From one dump to another
During the meeting, other witnesses recalled the situation at the landfill, which led to the pollution of the surrounding waterways. This dump was owned by two Mohawks who would be linked to organized crime. Since then, their license to operate has been revoked by the Quebec government.
Here are photos from the Department of Environment’s inspection report on the land of the Kanesatake landfill.
Photo: Ministry for the Environment and Climate Protection
According to various statements in The Rover media, after the landfill was closed, mountains of garbage are now piling up in the backyards of some Mohawks who are being offered financial compensation for this operation. One of our sources confirmed this information.
If we denounce what is happening, our lives are threatened. All of this goes against all our traditional principles, against everything that makes us the Kanien’kehà:ka people, said one of the witnesses present at the meeting.
At the end of the rope, these Mohawks add that Kanesatake has become a lawless zone that doesn’t represent our identity.
In particular, the landfill polluted the Gratton stream, which flows into another stream leading to Lac des Deux Montagnes. The images from the communities of Oka and Saint-Placide were taken at the intersection of watercourses near Route 344 and Rang Saint-Jean. (file photo)
Photo: Courtesy / Cities of Oka and Saint-Placide
For all of these reasons, in the letter, the Mohawks are appealing for support to ensure the peace and safety of members. Consider Kanesatake’s lack of a police force since 2005 and the violence that led to the burning of the then chief’s home, among other things.
The Surete of Quebec [SQ] I know the situation but don’t want to do anything, adds a witness.
The Quebec Department of Public Safety, which says it is sensitive to the situation, adds it’s important to note that the SQ has been serving the community for several years.
It also invites people who are being threatened or intimidated on Quebec territory to contact their police force to file a complaint so that a police investigation can be conducted.
On the side of the secretariat responsible for relations with indigenous people, Quebec minister Ian Lafrenière emailed the message that organized crime is establishing itself where there are vulnerabilities. It’s not up to the Mohawks to pay the price. The fight against organized crime is one of my priorities and Minister François Bonnardel and I will not abandon organized crime in indigenous communities.
The signatories also call for the establishment of a special parliamentary committee to investigate the corruption that has led to lawlessness in our community and for the accountability of the federal government, the government of Quebec, the MCK, the community of Oka, and local real estate developers and organized crime groups the creation of the current situation.
Finally, they are calling for an independent investigation, led by an international team, into collusion at all levels of government and institutions, including the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake.
Quebec and Ottawa pass the buck
It must be said that since the Gabriel brothers’ landfill was closed, the governments of Canada and Quebec have passed the buck on decontamination, according to activists.
It should be noted that the Quebec government cannot make any financial contribution to the rehabilitation of the country. In fact, the site, which is federally owned, does not qualify for environmental liability in Quebec. The environmental liability of this site is federal, says the Quebec Department of the Environment.
This is a very complex situation that requires cooperation with the provincial government, says Indigenous Service Canada.
political support
During the meeting, three political figures joined the Mohawk Collective’s call for help. Among them Manon Massé, co-spokeswoman of Québec solidaire. She believes that since environmental and public safety issues are at stake, it is up to the province to regulate the situation as these are their prerogatives.
Québec Solidaire co-spokeswoman Manon Massé spoke with the Mohawks during the meeting. (file photo)
Photo: Radio Canada / Dany Pilote
I don’t have a solution, but if we don’t do it, organized crime will impose its law on this territory. We can’t be silent, she said.
She agrees with Mohawk witnesses who accuse the government of turning a deaf ear to them. My feeling is that the various levels of government were questioned and never saw fit to act.
She believes that in such an extreme situation, the argument that the government doesn’t want to interfere in the internal affairs of a community in order to respect its autonomy no longer holds.
NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice speaks for his part of a worrying global situation [à cause de] intimidation, violence and government issues.
Alexandre Boulerice believes the federal government must assume its responsibilities on the Kanesatake file. (file photo)
Photo: The Canadian Press/Justin Tang
It is unfortunate that all levels of government are passing the buck. The NDP says enough is enough. We call on the federal government to do this [cette] parliamentary question. The federal government has a responsibility, he adds.
Finally, Green MP Elizabeth May reiterated the importance of cleaning up contaminated land for real environmental justice and to end environmental racism.
Elizabeth May spoke about the environmental racism faced by members of the community. (file photo)
Photo: Radio Canada / Evan Mitsui
I know they took risks, that’s brave of them [de parler]she said again, referring to the witnesses who attended the session.
Kanesatake First Nation Grand Chief Victor Akwirente Bonspille did not respond to our interview requests. (file photo)
Photo: Radio Canada
Indigenous Spaces contacted the Quebec and Canadian Departments of Public Safety but received no response from them. Ditto for Kanesatake’s current Grand Chief, Victor Bonspille.