As a result, no disruption is planned anymore for the torch relay’s scheduled visit through Kahnawake around noon.
The torch relay arrived in in the Montreal metropolitan region at 5 pm Monday, on the eastern outskirts of Boucherville. From Boucherville, the flame is to travel to Longueuil, where a big rally is to be held at 7 pm.
The rally spells the beginning of the Olympic flame’s passing through the Montreal region this week.
The senior RCMP brass in Ottawa on Monday afternoon approved a deal whereby RCMP officers who have been escorting the torch across Canada will stand back and let local Mohawk Peacekeepers replace them in Kahnawake.
The deal had been worked out over the weekend by lower levels of the RCMP brass in Quebec. But it needed high-level approval in Ottawa. Mohawk traditionalists had been threatening to disrupt the Kahnawake leg of the relay unless Peacekeepers replaced RCMP escorts.
Joe Delaronde, an official for the elected band council in Kahnawake, the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, said the council was never part of the threat to disrupt the relay.
The threats came from Mohawk traditionalists in the community – the so-called longhouse, formally known as the Mohawk Nation at Kahanwake.
Kahnawake will be the 10th of 21 communities, mainly south and west of Montreal island, that the torch relay will pass through on Tuesday.
Eighteen of those communities are situated off-island. At 6:15 pm Tuesday, the flame is expected to cross over from Ile Perrot to Ste. Anne de Bellevue, and be carried through Baie d’Urfe to Beaconsfield, where a big rally will be held beginning at 6:30 pm.
The flame heads to Mont Tremblant on Wednesday.
Thursday will be the big day for the relay in the Montreal region, as the flame passes through the city of Montreal, most demerged Montreal suburbs, Laval and other northern off-island suburbs.
Alwyn Morris, the Kahnawake native who won gold and bronze medals for Canada in canoeing at the 1984 Los Angeles Olmypics, will be the main torch bearer through Kahnawake.
Monday night’s torch rally is being held in the parking lot beside the Centre sportif Montpetit, affiliated with CÉGEP Édouard-Montpetit.
Benoît Huot, a Longueuil native and Paralympian swimmer who has won six gold medals for Canada, will light the ceremonial Olympic cauldron in the parking lot.
On Tuesday, torch bearers will set out from St. Lambert at 6:20 am.