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.

Indigenous convoys slow Ontario highway traffic in solidarity with B.C. pipeline protest

An Indigenous protest convoy drives westbound on Highway 401 near Kingston, Ont. (The Canadian Press)

‘We’re standing strong with our brothers and sisters out west,’ said 1 participant

CBC News, Jan 11, 2019

Two convoys of vehicles slowed traffic on stretches of Canada’s busiest highway Friday morning in Ontario in a show of solidarity with an anti-pipeline protest in British Columbia.

One rolled westbound from the eastern part of the province, while the other began in southwestern Ontario and headed east. Both left before dawn and disrupted traffic during the morning rush hour.

How the Oka Crisis has shaped 4 generations in Kanesatake and Kahnawake

Warrior raises rifle from atop an overturned police cruiser at Oka roadblock in Quebec on July 1990. Photo by Tom Hanson / The Canadian Press.

‘You could say, it woke us up,’ says 72-year-old John Cree

by Jessica Deer, CBC News, July 11, 2018

Every year on July 11, Bryan Deer spends the morning at the foot of the Mercier Bridge connecting Montreal with Kahnawake as a reminder to his community and the thousands of commuters that pass through it of an important day in Canadian history.

First Nations entrepreneurs are asserting sovereignty and seizing the new cannabis economy

An officer from the Six Nations police aims an assault rifle during a Nov. 16, 2017, raid of the Mohawk Medicine herbal dispensary in Six Nations. (Submitted by Seth LeFort)

Six Nations cannabis dispensary owner defiant after raid: ‘Stay out of our affairs’

By Jorge Barrera, CBC News, Jan 10, 2018

Jeff Hawk said he was sitting in the lounge area of his dispensary chatting with friends early on Tuesday evening when several assault-rifle wielding Six Nations police officers burst in, ordering everyone to get on the ground.

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.