On Thursday, a judge authorized the five chiefs who oppose the leadership of Grand Chief Victor Bonspille and his sister Valérie Bonspille, herself a city councilor, to “remove or have removed any obstruction to access to the council office.”
On October 25th, the door of the band council was actually locked with a chain to prevent the five main council members from entering.
Judge Andres Garin called for this access to be restored for everyone. He also prohibited anyone from preventing those who wished to enter the band council premises from doing so.
The judge also points out that the leaders opposed to Mr. Bonspille must regain full access to their email addresses, their Microsoft accounts and the council’s servers within 24 hours.
The obstruction of council offices and the resulting inability of council staff to get to their workplaces where they serve the public represents a significant and sudden change from the status quo, the judge argues.
He believes that this lockdown situation could affect the provision of services to members of the community.
The delivery of welfare payments and services could be delayed or blocked, some bills could remain unpaid and transactions could come to a standstill […] would not be processed. Any delay in the payment of social assistance will cause serious harm to Kanesatake members, especially those who rely on these payments to feed themselves and meet their basic needs, the judge argues.
In addition, in his opinion, the decision to block access to the band council has no legal basis. I understand that there are significant differences of opinion within the community. However, there is currently no legal basis for the measures taken on October 25th, he explains.
Although Grand Chief Bonspille indicated that employees sent home could telework, the judge points out that meetings were still canceled due to this paralysis.
For example, a meeting between the council’s auditors and staff from the council’s finance department had to be canceled, as did another with representatives of Revenu Québec.
This is another episode in the internecine war between two clans in Kanesatake. On the one hand, the group of five chiefs, including former grand chief Serge Otsi Simon, accuses Victor Bonspille of misgoverning the community.
On the other hand, Victor Bonspille and his sister Valérie Bonspille accused their opponents of micromanagement, which is why the Grand Chief requested that the band council be closed.
Serge Otsi Simon finds this situation regrettable. I regret that we are forced to take such steps. We still hope for a resolution of this crisis in peace and truth. “We also hope that the silent majority will soon be able to speak out on the great chief’s lack of good governance,” he said.
The great leader had not yet responded to our request for reaction at the time of publication of these lines.