Mohawks, Que. police clashed before barricade: report

Updated Sun. Jul. 27 2008 2:27 PM ET CTV News

The Canadian Press

MONTREAL -- Police cars were rammed by Mohawks on Friday night in events leading up to the barricade of a highway near Oka, Que., Journal de Montreal reports.

Two police vehicles damaged during the incident had been rammed by trucks driven by Mohawks, the paper says, but no officers were injured.

Police confirmed Sunday that officers pepper sprayed a number of Kanesatake Mohawks on Friday around 9 p.m. after stopping them for speeding.

Police said that intervention and the barricade erected across the highway later that night were not necessarily related.

It's unclear what was behind the barricade incident.

"We're not commenting,'' said Quebec provincial police spokesman Michel Brunet. "We're still doing the investigation.''

Kanesatake Mohawks barricaded the highway around midnight Friday.

Police say 12 to 15 individuals blocked Highway 344 by dragging trees into the road and setting them on fire.

Police contacted newly elected Mohawk band council members who persuaded the individuals to end the blockade.

The road was cleared by Quebec Transport Ministry employees by 10 a.m. Saturday.

Charges are expected to be laid against a number of individuals involved in the barricade, police said.

Quebec provincial police, along with a local police force, have helped patrol the Mohawk community since 2005.

Kanesatake has been in the news since 1990 when a land dispute over native burial grounds sparked the 78-day Oka Crisis. Police corporal Marcel Lemay was shot and killed during the standoff.

In 2004 and 2005, violence erupted over a dispute related to local policing during which former Chief James Gabriel's house was burned down.