Support from all sides building in Kanesatake fight to stop Oka housing development

by Danielle Rochette, APTN National News, August 15, 2017

On Saturday, more than 100 people gathered on the Mohawk Territory of Kanesatake demanding that a housing project on disputed land be stopped.

The development outside the sacred pines was approved by the Town council of Oka that sits down the road from Kanesatake.

Frustration mounts as land dispute continues in Oka, Que.

A sign is erected in Kanesatake, Que., where a housing project threatens a piece of land known as The Pines. (Steve Bonspiel/Facebook)

Residents of Mohawk community call on federal government to intervene in dispute over housing development

CBC News, August 2, 2017

Frustration continues to mount in Kanesatake, Que., where residents of the Mohawk community are once again rallying to protect a stand of trees known as The Pines from encroaching development.

Tensions rise as Mohawk activists square off with Oka mayor over development

CTV Montreal, July 12, 2017

A real estate development in Oka is raising tensions in the Mohawk community of Kanehsatà:ke.

On Wednesday morning, a group of protesters led by Mohawk rights activist Ellen Gabriel squared off with Oka Mayor Pascal Quévillon.

Four hundred homes are planned for a plot of land adjacent to The Pines – the land at the heart of the 1990 Oka Crisis.

The Oka Crisis in 5 minutes

 

The Oka Crisis was supposed to be a wake-up call. Little has changed in 27 years

A picture taken during the Oka Crisis on July 11, 1990. (Tom Hanson/The Canadian Press)

By Steve Bonspiel, for CBC News, July 11, 2017

“Just go in there and exterminate them like the rats they are.”

“What are we waiting for? Let’s get rid of them.”

“Put them all in the Big O and blow it up.”

I heard these words from random non-Natives as a 14-year-old boy, 27 years ago to the day. I feel a mixture of pride, anger, sadness and resolve when I think of that fateful summer, and what went on for those 78 days in Kanesatake: the Oka Crisis.

Kanesatake hit by rising waters: ‘We’re working like crazy here’

Flooding in Kanesatake, May 2017.

by Tom Fennario, APTN National News, May 9, 2017

KANESATAKE MOHAWK TERRITORY – Drive past Torrey Daoust’s house from the back, and it could be mistaken it for an island. Brown water from the Ottawa River laps at his green lawn about a metre away from a row of sandbags.

Mohawks threaten to block Energy East; says project is threat to their way of life

TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline.

by Philip Authier, Montreal Gazette, March 14, 2016

The Mohawk nation is threatening to do everything legally in its power to block the Energy East pipeline project, calling it a threat to their way of life.

Despite perceptions opposition to the project is harboured mainly by mayors in Quebec, a Mohawk-driven Canadian First Nations movement against the project is picking up steam in other parts of the country.

Kanesatake hopes to build opposition, raise cash for pipeline fight

Gate at Unist’ot’en camp, photo: Al Jazeera.

by Christopher Curtis, Montreal Gazette, Nov 17, 2015

If Kanesatake was meant to lead the fight against the Energy East pipeline in Quebec, things might be getting off to a slow start.

Last weekend, the environmental group Greenpeace held workshops on the Mohawk territory that focused, in part, on mobilizing people against the proposed pipeline. Only about five locals attended the event, according to Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Simon.

Mohawk police station, site of 2004 standoff, burns down

Fire fighters battle flames engulfing police station in Kanesatake, October 12, 2015.

CTV News, October 12, 2015

A former police station in Quebec where dozens of Aboriginal officers were held hostage more than a decade ago has burned to the ground.

The blaze in the Mohawk settlement of Kanesatake injured no one, but brought up bad memories and raised questions about youth joblessness.

It was the building where Grand Chief James Gabriel’s Aboriginal police force — brought in to fight growing organized crime — was held hostage in 2004. The chief’s family home was famously torched by vandals during that standoff, which ended with the provincial force taking over policing.

Sisters recall the brutal last day of Oka Crisis

Waneek Horn-Miller holds on to her 4-year-old sister as chaos breaks out. The 78-day siege, remembered as the Oka Crisis, ended with the army moving in to push the Mohawk out on Sept. 26, 1990. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

CBC News, September 20, 2015

Most kids spend the summer playing with friends or chilling out at home.

But when sisters Waneek Horn-Miller and Kaniehtiio Horn were just 14 and four years old respectively, these Kahnawake Mohawks were behind the lines of one of Canada’s most infamous standoffs. The media branded it the Oka Crisis but for those who were there and those who supported them, it is remembered as the Mohawk Resistance.

“My mother, Kahentinetha Horn is a native activist, old-school from the ’60s. She was there and me and my little sister ended up following her there,” recalled Horn-Miller.