Caretakers mull ‘ecological gift’ cases

The caretaker council of the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) is considering how much they can intervene in the years-old, ongoing court cases involving Pines land, while a judge has decided to defer a case because of Kanesatake’s governance status.

Although Federal Court judge Phuong T.V. Ngo ruled the caretaker council’s limited mandate includes “the protection of the community’s legal interests” last year, it remains unclear to what extent the caretaker council may legally intervene in court cases.

Caretaker council member Serge Simon said the council’s limitations to intervene in court cases casts a shadow of uncertainty on what will come of the “ecological gift” land transfer to Kanesatake by real estate developer Gregoire Gollin.

While he is glad one of the court cases has been deferred by a judge, he maintains it is council’s responsibility to intervene when necessary.

“I’m confident, at least in my position at the moment, that as a caretaker council, that I have to deal with this to prevent irreparable harm to my community,” said Simon. “We would have to continue intervening.”

Caretaker council member Brant Etienne said the MCK council can continue to play an active role in ongoing cases.

“Once the decisions are made, then wherever we move from there, we’ll have to double check to make sure that we aren’t overstepping,” said Etienne. “But for now, just regarding the litigation, it’s just ongoing business, essentially.”

The court cases of interest to Kanesatake involve a dispute with Oka over bylaws governing some Pines land and an “ecological gift” from Gollin to Kanesatake.

For the deferred case, the MCK is seeking to have a municipality of Oka bylaw designating the pine forest in Oka as a heritage site annulled. The pine forest territory under the Oka bylaw includes the portion of land Gollin is transferring as an “ecological gift” to Kanesatake.
In the ongoing court case, the MCK argues that the bylaw allows Oka to retain undue control over the land, that it was adopted to subvert the restoration of Pines lands to Kanesatake, and that it is unconstitutional.

The most recent development on this case was in June 2025, when judge Paul Mayer ordered the municipality of Oka hand over documents requested by the MCK. These documents include Oka municipal council emails and documents concerning the bylaw and a copy of documents concerning the attempted expansion of the Oka Colf club in 1990.

The consequence of deferring the case until after an election is held could be that a newly elected council could potentially unravel the progress the current council has made on the court case, said Etienne.

“If a new incumbent council were to come in, to try and undo that, essentially, they’d be working against the interests of the community as a whole,” said Etienne. “I don’t think that’ll happen, but who knows? I wouldn’t say it’s a low risk.”

A second ongoing court case that is of interest to Kanesatake involves Gollin versus Oka. Gollin alleges zoning and property bylaws adopted by the municipality of Oka restricted his real estate development projects and sunk the value of the property in a portion of the Pines forest owned by Gollin.

Gollin alleged the regulations are a form of “disguised expropriation” on the part of Oka. In 2022, he filed a claim for damages under his real estate development company, 153409 Canada Inc.

Gollin claims he is entitled to $9,295,000 in compensation from Oka, his valuation of the land through a formal expropriation, as well as $100,000 for unlawful infringement on property rights.

However, Oka valued the land in question at $2 million and submitted expert reports that brought into question the feasibility or difficulty of housing developments on the land, including a report by Roland Viau, a consulting anthropologist.

The anthropologist’s report concludes that there is significant risk of opposition by Mohawks if a housing development is planned on the disputed land.

In 2024, Gollin’s company filed a request to reject an expert report by Viau. In February last year, judge Janick Perreault dismissed Gollin’s motion to reject the anthropologist’s report.

Currently in the ongoing case, Gollin is seeking to have caretaker council member Serge Otsi Simon be a witness at the trial to testify against some statements made by anthropologist in the report.

“My lawyer judged it pertinent that the former grand chief Simon could answer the questions of the judges on the dialogue that we have on the agreement,” said Gollin.

The agreement Gollin is referring to is a memorandum of understanding signed in 2019 by the MCK and Gollin to transfer about 60 hectares of Gollin’s private lands to Kanesatake under a federal ecological gifts program. It was signed when Simon was grand chief of the MCK.

The MCK is an intervener in the case. Etienne said the MCK’s position is to argue against Oka using Indigenous rights to benefit the municipality of Oka’s argument.

“They were trying to set us up as like a straw man, in that instance, as a boogeyman, to essentially argue their point for them, and at the same time draw us into the legal matter,” said Etienne.

“The municipality keeps trying to make the Gregoire Gollin case about Mohawk rights, but the court has already told it the two things are completely separate,” said Nicholas Dodd, partner at law firm Dionne Schulze, which represents the MCK. “We have been instructed to go and send that message to the court again.”

Meanwhile, the “ecological gift” by Gollin is ongoing.

For now, the caretaker council will consider any legal maneuvers regarding the “ecological gift” as they come, said Simon.

“The uncertainty on so many files, especially this one, we would have to take it on a case-by-case basis,” said Simon.

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Hadassah Alencar, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter