Conservation officers needed

A plan is underway to reinstate conservation officers on the territory after they were phased out nearly a decade ago. Commissioner of public safety Lloyd Phillips shared the news this week.

“A full needs assessment will be done in the next several months,” he said.

Since the needs of the community have changed quite a bit in the last decade, the long-inactive conservation office will need a thorough revamp, Phillips said. The roles and responsibilities of the officers and training they’ll require is still something being debated internally within Public Safety. The community will also have to be consulted, he said.

The commissioner of public safety was serving as a Council chief back when the decision was made at the table to phase out the officers. He said it largely came down to two factors: a lack of resources and concerns about them not having the proper training to enforce local laws.

“In the 80s and 90s, we were able to get away with a lot of in-house training and on-the-job training,” Phillips said. “Now we have to look at somebody who’s going to have more official certified training to be a law enforcement officer.”

Except for a few exceptions, officers back then were unpaid, he said, serving on a volunteer basis.

“It was more about making sure that legally everything was covered,” he added, “because the responsibilities were great, and obviously Council has to protect itself from any liability that they may encounter, so that was a driving force behind it. Primarily liabilities.”

Because it a volunteer-based role, it was tough to get buy-in from community members, said David Lahache, a former conservation officer. Many of those serving back then also already had full-time jobs that distracted from the commitment.

“You can only do what you can, when you can. I think that was part of the problem,” said Lahache, who had been serving as a conservation officer right up until the role got phased out.

Their job centered around protecting the environment, he said. They would do so by patrolling the territory, deterring trespassing, illegal dumping, and the presence of non-locals in undesired places, he said.

“Things like that don’t happen anymore, and I think that’s where the hole really lies, because the Peacekeepers can’t be everywhere,” Lahache said.

Kaniet White said similarly, saying illegal dumping has intensified in recent years. The community member often takes it upon himself to clean up waste left behind in the territory.

“I think it’s a good time to bring back the conservation officers, just to see more patrolling with marked vehicles. It makes people think twice about doing some sketchy stuff,” White said. “After they phased out the conservation officers, it got worse out on the back roads.”

Whether these officers should be employed under the umbrella of Public Safety or integrated into the Peacekeepers is still up in the air, Phillips said.

The Kahnawake Environment Protection Office (KEPO) has recommended the latter. The office has also been a vocal proponent of bringing back the officers, as a means to enforce environment protection laws it hopes to see implemented in the community in coming years.

Without conservation officers and inspectors, Kahnawake’s current environment laws remain largely unenforceable, the office wrote in a 2022 report. It was published following extensive surveys with about 200 community members, many of whom called on the reinstatement of the conservation office.

“Conservation officers would require basic level police training to make them special constables able to deal appropriately with enforcement situations,” noted the 2022 report, which was co-written alongside a law firm KEPO contracted to study gaps in Kahnawake’s current environment protection laws.

“To ensure the safety of the conservation officers and community members, it is essential that they be properly trained to deal with difficult enforcement situations and to understand the procedural and substantive rights of civilians and landowners,” it read.

Council chief Jeremiah Johnson is also among those in the community that have been pushing for their return, and not just in the community. Tioweró:ton would also benefit from having a conservation unit, he said.

“Everybody’s very supportive of bringing this back, because it’s not a hindrance to anything we do. It’ll complement a lot of the things that we’re trying to do in the community,” he said. “Peacekeepers can’t patrol and watch all areas of the community.”

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