Commission meets on Bonspilles

An Ethics Commission decision on whether Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) grand chief Victor Bonspille has vacated his position will be rendered by the end of the month, following a hearing earlier this week.

The decision will also contemplate whether MCK chief Valerie Bonspille has vacated her seat.

The extraordinary hearing on March 17 stems from an appeal launched by the Bonspilles following the Council majority’s efforts to sanction the pair. However, a letter submitted by their lawyer, Robert W. Lord, outlined his clients’ decision to boycott the hearing, dismissing the commission - and the Council that established it - as illegitimate.

The Ethics Commission is made up of three legal professionals from outside the community: Kathleen Lickers, a Seneca lawyer from Six Nations of the Grand River, and lawyers Daniela Corapi and Arlene Henry, whose public bios do not identify them as Indigenous, although Henry’s indicates she has experience working with First Nations going back to 1991. The commission was assembled by First Peoples Law on behalf of the MCK.

The Custom Electoral Code, which was approved by the community in 2015 and signed by the Council in place at that time, including now-grand chief Victor Bonspille, envisions an Ethics Commission to navigate disputes about whether a Council member has vacated their seat.

There is little guidance on what that commission should look like, but, according to the text, it is clearly the MCK’s prerogative to establish it. This body is tasked with hearing appeals when a position is vacant.

The code is clear that a grand chief or chief who misses three Council or community meetings without valid reasons or “engages in, during their term, any wrongful conduct that affects, interrupts, or interferes with the performance of their duties” has vacated their seat.

The hearing was led by Lickers, who noted the circumstances of the hearing and outlined the process so far, including its communications with the two sides regarding submissions. On January 14, the appellants - the Bonspilles - requested an extension until mid-February, but nothing was submitted by the deadline.

Instead, the commission received Lord’s letter on March 11 that was subsequently shared by grand chief Bonspille on Facebook.

At the hearing, a lawyer representing the MCK, Nicholas Dodd of Dionne Schulze, outlined the Council majority’s case that the Bonspilles have vacated their positions, according to the Custom Electoral Code, Kanesatake’s primary governing document.

“It’s important to remember these are rules the community set for itself. These are not rules imposed from the outside,” said Dodd at the hearing.

“Once you start disagreeing on the rules, there can be a real failure of civil society.”

Dodd said that the appellants have failed to attend Council meetings since August 2021. He referred to the letter submitted by Lord, which said, “my clients had every reason to avoid attending the meetings, as the meetings have degenerated into nothing more than shouting matches.”

That letter also denies that the Bonspilles have missed Council meetings - claiming it is “well established” that only the grand chief can call Council meetings.

“If this position were correct, it would essentially amount to a veto of the grand chief,” said Dodd at the hearing.

Lord further argued in the March 11 letter that the Council majority members are no longer chiefs themselves following ad hoc votes of non-confidence at public meetings. While the Custom Electoral Code provides for non-confidence votes, there is no recognized process currently established.

Dodd cited the argument that the Bonspilles had every reason to avoid attending the meetings because of the shouting as an acknowledgment of the validity of the Council meetings they missed.

“Essentially, what the appellants have done is they’ve decided they don’t want to attend council meetings because they don’t agree with the other members of council. And that is not a valid excuse,” said Dodd.

Dodd also denied the grand chief’s frequent claim that he is adhering to custom in his approach to governance, arguing that custom implies broad consensus.

On the point of wrongful conduct, Dodd cited grand chief Bonspille’s request to the federal government for Kanesatake to be put into third-party financial management.

“It’s perhaps a bit of editorializing on my part, but actually that’s one of the most shocking things I’ve ever seen,” said Dodd, saying third-party management destroys autonomous decision-making.

“It goes against everything we have been trying to do in the last 30 years, which is to give Indigenous communities more autonomy.”

He went on to cite an altercation in which MCK chief Denise David was injured by chief Valerie Bonspille, as well as grand chief Bonspille’s participation in the chaining of the band office in 2023.

In his letter contesting the validity of the Ethics Commission, Lord argues that the five chiefs comprising the Council majority were ousted by votes of non-confidence in late 2023, citing his clients’ position being laid out in a Superior Court file and noting the file hasn’t been disposed of.

Dodd countered at the hearing that it is not the Superior Court but rather Federal Court that would be the domain for such a question.

The federal government has continued to accept the validity of band council resolutions that do not include the grand chief, a position Indigenous Services Canada made clear when it accepted plans for characterization work to be carried out at G&R Recycling, the toxic dump that continues to plague the community.

Lord’s letter explicitly states that no matter the outcome, no decision from the Ethics Committee can bar the Bonspilles from running in this year’s MCK elections, and closes by informing the commission that his clients will not attend any hearing and that their arguments should not be construed as an “admission as to the validity of the Commission.”

The letter also accuses the Council majority members of missing three public meetings, citing dates in 2024, and one erroneous date of December 2025. However, these all fall after the date at issue of February 27, 2024.

The MCK is seeking confirmation from the Ethics Commission, Dodd said, that the Bonspilles have vacated their seats because of missing meetings and wrongful conduct, asking that all economic benefits they have received since February 27, 2024, be returned.

Lord and his clients, grand chief Bonspille and chief Bonspille, did not return requests for comment by deadline.

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Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter