Bonspille demands action on illegal dumping

Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) grand chief Victor Bonspille called out the federal government while at the annual gathering for the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) in Montreal this Wednesday, saying it’s unacceptable his calls for action on illegal dumping in the community have gone ignored.

Kanehsata’kehró:non and a coalition of Oka residents alike have been vocal against the seemingly endless flow of dump trucks that come into the community daily to dispose of waste from outside construction sites. Without any provincial oversight, many fear the truckloads contain contaminated waste. 

“You’re ignoring my emails, my letters, and my text messages to your cell phone number. I want to know why you’re not listening to my voice and my community’s voice,” Bonspille asked Gary Anandasangaree, Canada’s minister for Crown-Indigenous Relations. “I’m tired of being ignored. My community is being ignored. When are you going to start listening to my community?”

The MCK grand chief also addressed his comments to Patty Hajdu, the minister for Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), who wasn’t in attendance at the gathering, claiming the band council was pressured to hire W8banaki to begin the preliminary work required for the clean up the infamous G&R Recycling site, which Bonspille characterized as dictatorial in his comments to Anandasangaree. 

Five out of seven MCK chiefs passed a band council resolution in support of hiring W8banaki, a decision that was eventually affirmed by ISC. Bonspille has long maintained these chiefs don’t represent the community, however.

“You’re listening to five ousted individuals who were ousted in non-confidence votes in my community twice, in October and November of 2023,” he said.

Council chief Serge Otsi Simon said if there’s anyone that’s acting like a dictator, it’s Bonspille, not minister Patty Hajdu, adding that the non-confidence votes did not follow due process and were not legitimate.

“Minister Hajdu was simply agreeing with the Council’s decision, which was a majority decision,” said Simon, who’s among the chiefs Bonspille claims have been ousted.

“It’s not just his voice that counts, it’s the majority. I find it funny that he’s throwing the word dictatorship around, when he’s the one advocating for his sole authority – that’s a dictatorship.”

The minister for Crown-Indigenous Relations didn’t publicly respond to the grand chief’s comments demanding action on ongoing illegal dumping.

Bonspille said Anandasangaree did however agree to meet with him sometime soon once he came up to approach him afterwards.

“I knew he would go around it or ignore it,” Bonspille told THE EASTERN DOOR. “Nobody wants to touch this issue – not even the ministers.”

Both Simon and Bonspille told THE EASTERN DOOR security and the lack of policing in the community were top of mind for them as they attended the assembly over the week. 

“We have no policing. The SQ is completely inefficient. We have no environmental officers. We don’t even have a fire station,” Simon said. “How are we supposed to exercise our jurisdiction and our right to self-government when we don’t have the governance tools to accomplish that? How are we going to protect our children?”

To that effect, Bonspille took to the microphone on Wednesday during a plenary on policing to ask the AFN for their support, saying the Quebec government has refused to sit down with the band council to talk about the provincial police’s failure to properly patrol the community. 

“They refuse to sit down and speak with myself and my community about having our own traditional police force,” he told the room. “I think something needs to be done about that and about communities that have no policing, and those discussions need to be expedited.”

Discussions that have happened in the past between the band council and the federal and provincial government over the issue haven’t been fruitful, with Bonspille telling THE EASTERN DOOR “they just throw it back and forth” over who should foot the costs involved in any possible solution.

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This article was originally published in print on July 12 in issue 33.28 of The Eastern Door.