Council seeks input on ‘ecological gift’

At a series of upcoming community meetings, the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) will unveil plans to work with a third-party organization that would handle management and ensure better protection of the Pines land involved in an ongoing land transfer to Kanesatake.

As part of a requirement by the organization, Eco Corridors Laurentiens, the MCK is holding four discussion sessions and began a survey to get the community’s input on how they think the Pines involved in the land transfer should be used, said caretaker council member Brant Etienne. The organization has the technical resources and expertise to handle ecological land management, he said.

“They want to know what the community envisions the future of this part of land being,” said Etienne. “Is it going to be something that’s kept completely wild, or should there be some human activity allowed in there? What type of management and extent should there be? There are actual practical questions that have to be answered for this.”

The MCK’s purpose of having the organization manage the land is to ensure the land would remain available to the Mohawks of Kanesatake while being protected from land grabbing or illegal developments, said Etienne.

“I think everybody can agree that we wouldn’t want any lands that come back to the community to face the same fate as the Pines along the 344,” said Etienne.

According to Etienne, the land’s status as an ecological gift, managed by the third-party organization, could help facilitate police intervention if necessary.

“They still technically have access to the protection of the police and everything, in ways that if it was directly returned and was in the same legal stance as the federal lands, are that those lands don’t have protections, that these lands will through this arrangement,” said Etienne.

The Pines land in question is being transferred to Kanesatake by real estate developer Gregoire Gollin under a federal “ecological gifts program.”

In 2019, former grand chief Serge Otsi Simon signed a memorandum of understanding with Gollin over the land transfer. Lawsuits involving the MCK, Gollin, and Oka have delayed the land transfer for years.

But many community members have criticized the Pines land transfer.

Community member Lisa Gibson said she has already lost faith in the MCK’s ability to thwart organized crime or illegal developments. She is from Kanesatake but like many others, cannot find housing in the community all while businesses go up on land that doesn’t belong to them.

She feels any new land acquired by Kanesatake would share the same fate as the rest of the territory.

“Organized crime is too prevalent, too strong in the community. They’re going to move into the Pines. If this ecological gift is given to Kanesatake, they’re going to move in,” said Gibson.

“They already destroyed all the other Pines, and that was sacred to us. Might as well have put two golf courses there. What did 1990 stand for?”

Other community members have criticized the fact the ecological gifts program comes with strings attached and could therefore limit Kanesatake governance over the land. According to the Government of Canada, recipients of ecological gifts are “responsible for maintaining the biodiversity and environmental heritage of the property.”

In a press release, the MCK said “Council has been working on an approach to making the land transfer that would respect Kanien’kehá:ka autonomy while protecting the land from outside governments and non-members, including on issues such as taxation, and financial and legal risks.”

Another criticism is that Gollin stands to gain a tax benefit from the ecological gifts program.

Etienne said Gollin has never backslid from his promise and that he deserves some grace.

“I don’t think it serves anybody by trying to paint him as ‘well, he’s only doing it for this,’” said Etienne.

“He wants to be compensated, but yes, he also believes that land should come back to the Mohawks.”

Upcoming information and discussion sessions organized by the MCK over this project are scheduled for April 30, May 11, and May 19.

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Hadassah Alencar, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter