Violence in Akwesasne as protestors clash with Mohawk police over dispensary raid

Police car burns on the Akwesasne Mohawk territory, Feb. 22, 2019.

by Alan S. Hale, Standard Freeholder, February 23, 2019

AWKESASNE — The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne (MCA) is pleading for calm after a protest in front of the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service headquarters became violent on Friday night, resulting in a police SUV to be stolen by protesters and burned on an international ice bridge that connects different portions of the community.

Akwesasne under surveillance by military counter-intelligence unit: documents

Crest of the Canadian Forces National Counter Intelligence Unit with what appears to be a Northwest Coast Indigenous style eagle. Photo: Wikipedia

by Jorge Barrera, APTN National News, Feb 19, 2016
The Canadian military’s counter-intelligence unit has been conducting surveillance of a Mohawk community straddling the Canada-U.S, according to “confidential” reports released to APTN National News.

The documents, a handful of counter-intelligence reports from 2012 to 2015, reveal that the Canadian Forces National Counter Intelligence Unit regularly mentioned Akwesasne—a Mohawk community straddling the Ontario-Quebec-New York State borders—as part of its “threat information collection.”

The heavily redacted reports, which are comprised of “raw data,” incorrectly describe Akwesasne as a “First Nation located on Cornwall Island.”

Mohawks’ right to freely cross Canada-U.S. border trumped by national security: judge

by Douglas Quan, National Post, October 28, 2015

Federal border officers’ duty to safeguard Canada trumps the right of Mohawks to freely travel their Akwesasne territory that straddles Ontario, Quebec and New York state, a judge has ruled.

Two Akwesasne women had tried to assert an “aboriginal right to mobility to travel freely” within the territory for family or community purposes, and claimed that having to check in at the Cornwall, Ont., port of entry violated their Charter rights.

But in a new ruling, Judge Peter Griffiths of the Ontario Court of Justice said the inconvenience of checking in at the border was minimal and necessary to ensure national security.

Akwesasne man, 67, says he was brutalized by border guards over whiff of phantom tobacco

Antoine Delormier, 67, in his hospital bed in Cornwall Thursday. Photo courtesy of family via APTN.

by Jorge Barrera, APTN National News, September 24, 2015
A 67 year-old Akwesasne man who recently survived a heart-attack says he was brutalized by Canadian border agents Tuesday who forced him into secondary inspection because one of them caught a whiff of tobacco in his truck.

Antoine Delormier was on his way to the hospital when he was stopped at the border and manhandled by border guards after he refused to leave his truck.

Mohawk Council of Akwesasne Grand Chief Abram Benedict said in a statement the incident is being “reviewed and investigated” by Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

RCMP reveals details of its $92-million plan to erect a 700-kilometre surveillance fence along the Canada-U.S. border

Ian MacLeod, Postmedia News, Nov 4, 2014

OTTAWA — A massive intelligence-gathering network of RCMP video cameras, radar, ground sensors, thermal radiation detectors and more will be erected along the U.S.-Canada border in Ontario and Quebec by 2018, the Mounties said Tuesday.

The $92-million surveillance web, formally known as the Border Integrity Technology Enhancement Project, will be concentrated in more than 100 “high-risk” cross-border crime zones spanning 700 kilometres of eastern Canada, said Assistant Commissioner Joe Oliver, the RCMP’s head of technical operations.

Police tobacco raids in Akwesasne and Kahnawake

Tobacco store in Kahnawake, Mohawk Territory.

Weapons found in home of Akwesasne man and strip club owner caught in SQ tobacco operation

By Jorge Barrera, APTN National News, May 1, 2014
Mohawk police officers uncovered a cache of weapons Wednesday inside the home of an Akwesasne man whose strip club was allegedly used to store North Carolina-grown raw tobacco after it was smuggled into Canada by an Italian Mafia-run network, APTN National News has learned.

Akwesasne Mohawk takeover of border post ends with arrest

Stacey Boots arrested by Akwesasne Mohawk Police, March 22, 2014.

By Todd Hambleton, Cornwall Standard Freeholder, March 22, 2014

CORNWALL ISLAND – Akwesasne Mohawk Police defused a potential showdown just before noon on Saturday, arresting activist Stacey Boots.

Boots, of Akwesasne, had announced to media outlets his plan to march with other activists on the former Canada Border Services Agency customs house, but it never happened.

Ottawa giving RCMP cash for high-tech surveillance targeting Mohawk tobacco trade

Tobacco store in Kahnawake, Mohawk Territory.

APTN National News, Feb 11, 2014
OTTAWA–The federal government is continuing its battle against the underground Mohawk tobacco trade by giving the RCMP new high-tech border surveillance tools, according to the federal budget unveiled Tuesday.

Akwesasne anti-fracking protest briefly closes Seaway International Bridge

By Norman Provencher, Ottawa Citizen, November 9, 2013

Protesters on the Seaway International Bridge at Akwesasne, Mohawk territory, Nov 9, 2013.

OTTAWA — The Seaway International Bridge between Cornwall and the U.S. was closed for about an hour Saturday as First Nations protesters stage an “information march” in opposition to hydraulic fracking gas extraction processes.

The bridge was closed at about noon as about 50 protesters from the Akwesasne First Nation and others walked along the span handing out information flyers.