DAVID JOHNSTON
The Gazette
Kanesatake still has a familiar look to it, after all these years. The pine forest at the top of the hill on Route 344, where the barricades were erected during the 1990
The same old smoke shacks are there, too, except with new names, like Nice Butts or Ti-Goof. Trilingual stop signs saying Testan, Stop, Arrêt are everywhere, as are fluttering Mohawk Warrior flags. But it's the bungalow on the 344 with the New York Yankee team banner in front of it that is the centre of attention this week in the Mohawk community of Kanesatake.
A firebombing on the property last Sunday, and related events on the same day, have propelled the unresolved issue of local policing back into the spotlight and brought local Mohawks into closer co-operation with the Sûreté du Québec.
The killing of a Sûreté du Québec officer at the beginning of the 78-day
An aboriginal police force put in place in Kanesatake after the
That fate and circumstance have conspired since 2005 to put the SQ back in charge of Kanesatake today is an outcome that would have been unimaginable in the aftermath of the
But the SQ doesn't really want to be in Kanesatake. Officers do their patrols up and down the 344, but they don't actively investigate crimes, local residents say. For a while, this do-nothing policy wasn't an issue. But things are different now. Reports of young people spiralling dangerously out of control in the absence of any credible police oversight have instilled fear in the community.
After some SQ cars were rammed in Kanesatake in July under nebulous circumstances - with the SQ beating a quick retreat - the lawlessness has gotten worse, residents say.
It seems to have come to a head last Sunday, when a man in his 30s known within the community to have an OxyContin dependency is alleged to have beaten up an old man, threatened his girlfriend and their 4-week-old child, firebombed his former girlfriend's garage on the property bearing the Yankee banner, pulled a gun on this same former girlfriend's two eldest sons, and then pulled the gun on the woman herself. All within an eight-hour period between
"We've been getting calls from people saying, 'Tell the SQ that if they want to cross our property for their work, they're welcome,' " said Sandra Harding, the former girlfriend involved in last Sunday's events.
She dated the man in question three years ago, and now lives with her husband, Kahnawake native David Rice, along with her and Rice's five children. She says the man is an influential member of a gang of troublemakers that was primarily responsible for the SQ car-smashing incident.
Rice said he was standing beside SQ officers outside the family home last Sunday afternoon, as officers were helping escort the family out of Kanesatake for their own safety, when the suspect in question drove right by the family house. Rice said he encouraged police to get him right there and then, but police declined. "Oh, that's for later," he one of the officers said.
Sgt. Benoît Richard, an SQ spokesperson for the
Throughout this week, the Kanesatake band council has been meeting with the SQ to discuss how to respond to last Sunday's events. Efforts are being made to persuade the suspect to give himself up.
Other policing issues are being discussed. At the same time, the
Whether that means a return of aboriginal peacekeeping or a new aboriginal branch within the SQ is something that needs to be worked out, according to Kanesatake Grand Chief Sohenrise Paul Nicholas, who was elected last July.
"Whatever it is, we want it to be something for which there is local community support," he said.