Kanesatake roiled by address erasure

Last Friday in Lachute, Kyle Atkwiroton Canatonquin provided his new Kanesatake address to the clerk behind the counter at the SAAQ (Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec) in a transaction he thought would be routine. But he got back a bewildering answer: “Do you mean Oka?” she asked.

“No,” he replied. “I meant Kanesatake.”

So she asked for his postal code. He gave her the same one used throughout the territory: J0N 1E0.

“That’s Oka,” she said. Even though Canatonquin’s new address is part of what every government recognizes as Kanesatake territory, the SAAQ didn’t see it that way. In fact, Kanesatake was not listed in the system at all.

“Wow,” Canatonquin said, growing angry as the implications dawned on him. “The government just wiped us off the map.”

The clerk’s response only made him madder.

“It looks that way,” she chuckled.

The recognition of Kanesatake Mohawk Territory is no joke, of course. On the contrary, this is a community that has fought and resisted the erosion of its territory from a colonial force hungry to consume it - Oka is part of Kanesatake’s unceded lands, and not the other way around.

This is why, in part, it has so incensed community members this week as more and more Kanehsata’kehró:non report similar problems dealing with everything from government entities to Amazon, leaving them searching for answers and demanding action.

Reached by The Eastern Door, the SAAQ insisted it is committed to fair treatment of its clients, including Indigenous people. The country’s postal service is the source for the address data, according to SAAQ spokesperson Geneviève Perron.

“In this case, the postal code J0N 1E0 is associated with the city of Oka by Canada Post. The corporation cannot change it,” said Perron.

Maybe Amazon uses the same database - the company said it would look into the situation, but did not provide answers to The Eastern Door by deadline.

Whatever the reason, Kanesatake is not a valid destination for the online retailer, with the system forcing customers to accept their address to be rewritten as belonging to Oka.

This has not always been the case, said Karonhienhawe Nicholas, who was even required recently to change the Kanien’kéha name of her street, Ahsennenhson, to the French version, Rang du Milieu. Instead, she cancelled the order altogether.

“I’m sorry, but no. Enough of the government ignoring and allowing the degradation of our existence and our territory. It’s enough,” said Nicholas.

She hates shopping in stores - crowds wear on her - but it’s a small sacrifice to draw what she sees as a line in the sand. When she told her children the family won’t be ordering anything online until this gets resolved, they agreed with her.

“We’re like an extinct people, extinct community. It’s just unheard of. It’s disgusting and it’s uncalled for. It’s against our human rights, I think,” she said.

“I want Kanesatake acknowledged. My great grandfather didn’t work his ass off and fight hard in 1903 just so his great grandchildren can see it go extinct.”

She is traditional rather than political, she said, but she wants to see the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) step up and intervene in the situation. She even believes Kahnawake should get involved in speaking up for the sanctity of Kanesatake’s territory.

“People, we have to fight,” she said. “This is a right thing to fight for.”

Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) grand chief Victor Bonspille announced on Facebook that he will be meeting with “the minister” next week, an apparent reference to Quebec Indigenous affairs minister Ian Lafrenière. “Our discussions will be putting action an end to this down right (sic) injustice,” Bonspille wrote.

According to Lafrenière’s office, the two politicians had a discussion over the weekend and will be meeting soon.

“The Canada Post issue was raised, and we will be looking into it with Canada Post and the federal government. We have just been informed of this by the grand chief, and further verifications will follow,” said Maxime Tardif, a spokesperson for the minister.

Meanwhile, the Council majority has taken another route, taking the issue to the federal ministry responsible for Canada Post, Public Services and Procurement Canada.

However, despite all signs pointing to the Canada Post database being responsible, the crown corporation’s response to a media inquiry from The Eastern Door does not clarify why community members have noticed a recent change.

“We understand the concerns raised by these residents, however, we can confirm that there haven’t been any changes made to our database,” said Valérie Chartrand, spokesperson for Canada Post. “Some organizations do use Canada Post’s address data, while others don’t, or update their systems later on.”

She said that Canada Post systems include the community or city name of the post office that deals with that area’s mail.

“In this instance, the post office in Oka processes and delivers mail to many communities in that region, which is why the Oka city name is assigned to these mailing addresses,” said Chartrand.

According to the Oka post office, the location delivers mail only to Oka and Kanesatake.

“A change to the mailing place name of a resident’s mailing address can be submitted to Canada Post by the responsible municipal or band council,” said Chartrand. “Canada Post will then work with the council to determine next steps.”

Chartrand later clarified this would then apply to all the community’s addresses.

MCK chief Brant Etienne said Council is still waiting to hear back from the ministry responsible for Canada Post but that they are confident they can have the issue resolved.

“We went straight to the source instead of just shooting blindly out. We’re still waiting to hear back from them but we’re confident we can have that changed,” Etienne said.

“We’re informing them that quite frankly Kanesatake is not a part of the municipality. Due to the Governance Act, it is officially recognized as land set aside for the Mohawks of Kanesatake. This has been ratified by the House of Commons, by the Senate, and by the Crown. As a crown corporation, we feel they are obliged to abide by this designation and to reinstate Kanesatake as a valid designation for delivery.”

MCK chief Serge Otsi Simon echoed the sentiment, saying the band council will pursue the issue if it isn’t fixed.

“If we really need to flex our political muscle, then we will,” he said.

Public Services and Procurement Canada pointed The Eastern Door directly to Canada Post for a response on this issue.

In the meantime, complaints continue to mount.

Kanehsata’kehró:non John Harding also noticed a recent change when trying to make an order on Amazon. Like Nicholas, he chose to cancel it instead.

“It brings memories of pre-1990, when they were trying to erase us from existence. It angered me,” he said, noting it seems Kanesatake is being deleted by the provincial and federal government.

Harding doesn’t trust the MCK to confront the issue, characterizing it as preoccupied with infighting. He is hopeful media attention could help.

“Obviously, something has changed, a change that could have a far greater impact than we can even imagine at this point,” said Harding. “I’d like to get to the bottom of this fundamental change to our existence that happened. Who deleted us? Why did they delete us? How do we resolve this? Obviously we still exist. And finally, how do we ensure this doesn’t happen to us again?”

[email protected]

Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter