'It's sad what's happening at Kanesatake'

Residents afraid and tense: elder; Band council plans emergency meeting in aftermath of blockade, rammed police cars

WILLIAM MARSDEN

The Gazette

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

As the Sûreté du Québec continued its investigation into the ramming of two police cruisers during a weekend confrontation with Mohawks in Kanesatake near Oka, the local band council met in secret yesterday to discuss growing tensions in the community.

"The Mohawk council of Kanesatake does not support or condone the events that happened last Friday and Saturday," Grand Chief Sohenrise Paul Nicholas told journalists following the meeting. "We're going to be holding an emergency community meeting this Thursday. We're looking for solutions to some of the events that happened this past weekend."

The band council, elected only two weeks ago, did not return phone calls for further comment.

"It's very sad what is happening (in Kanesatake) now," said a band elder who refused to be named. "The community continues to be fractured. Tensions are growing and have been festering like an old wound. There are many, many good people, but they are fearful and intimidated and so they stay home and remain quiet."

Meanwhile, the Quebec Association of Provincial Police Officers called for a re-establishment of an aboriginal police force in Kanesatake. The last aboriginal force was disbanded in 2004 after it conducted raids on suspected drug dealers. Supporters of the dealers surrounded the police station and forced the officers to flee.

Sgt. Michel Brunet said heavy damage was done to both police vehicles during the weekend and police are looking for witnesses to help them find those responsible. The four officers in the damaged cars were not injured.

The confrontation occurred late Friday night after police stopped a car on Highway 344 and arrested its 17-year-old driver because he didn't have a driver's licence. Police also arrested one of his two passengers. Both were later released.

After police left the scene, a small group of residents set up a road block of burning tree trunks across the highway to stop officers from re-entering Kanesatake. The band council intervened and the roadblock was cleared.

Relations between residents and the Sûreté du Québec, which patrols the Mohawk territory, have been tense for years, particularly since an SQ officer was shot and killed during the Oka crisis of 1990.

Sparked by a decision by the local town council of Oka to expand its golf course onto land claimed by the Mohawks, the crisis, which resulted in a standoff between Canada's military and armed Mohawk militants, brought international attention to aboriginal land claims.

After the crisis ended in September 1990, Ottawa purchased properties from local whites and handed them over to the Mohawks. Since then the community has been rattled by internal strife over illegal gambling casinos, marijuana grow-ops and tobacco smuggling that has resulted in riots, arson and assaults.

Many locals claim a handful of people have intimidated residents.

Since the Oka crisis, successive Kanesatake councils have struggled to reach a consensus as rival factions constantly struggle for control of the tiny community of 1,400.