Council preparing for ISC exit
There was a lengthy debate at the Council table this past Monday, after a proposal was brought forward over the possibility of hiring an Indian registry administrator.
The Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) office in town is expected to relocate to Montreal sometime this year, meaning unless a solution is found, community members will be forced to cross the Mercier Bridge to renew their band cards.
“A lot of community members were not happy about that. Specifically, the elders,” said Council chief Jeremiah Johnson, who oversees membership. “Community members wanted to have services in town, so we were discussing ways that service could still be available to the community members.”
Right now the table is considering housing an ISC employee that could work out of one of their own offices, inviting the federal government to host service clinics in town, or the possibility of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) taking on the job itself - something the band council has previously done before, Johnson said. No decision came out of the debate.
“It was a long discussion, and it turns out that we haven’t gotten anywhere yet with it, because there’s concern about doing Canada’s job for them, in relation to registering federal Indians,” the Council chief said.
The MCK already has its own established process for deciding who is and isn’t a Kanien’kehá:ka of Kahnawake under its own registry, so from his perspective, hiring someone who could register people as belonging to the community in the eyes of the federal government is out of the question.
The federal government should continue providing the services it’s always provided through the ISC office across from the hospital, Johnson said, floating the idea of the government coming to host bi-monthly clinics in town.
“That is something I’m very much against. I’m very supportive of our own registry, of our own membership law, and the only people who should determine who First Nations people are First Nations people, not the government,” he added. “So far, it looks like if we did have somebody here, we’d end up having to pay their salary, and we’re not going to pay somebody to make fake Indians, you know what I mean?”
News that the ISC office would be relocated to downtown Montreal came out last February, after The Eastern Door learned about the imminent move. It’s set to operate out of the Guy-Favreau complex near Place des Arts, known for housing a Passport Canada office.
