Council’s priorities out of whack? 

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) is spending more time and money in the courts than they are on building trust and exercising true transparency.

Case in point our front page this week. Dean Montour originally sued Cody Diabo for defamation, and the MCK became part of that lawsuit after intervening because Diabo was a council chief at the time, but he has since graduated to head honcho.

Now, in a retaliation move that reeks of revenge and control, the Council has filed suit against Montour for $45,000 for speaking his truth.

This brings up many points we would like to bring to you, the community, because you certainly won’t get a straight answer from the MCK.

First off, as you have probably already read, the Council is suing Montour based on expressing his opinion on Mohawk Online (who is better positioned than him as former head of Mohawk Online?), and choosing to speak to us, the media, in the form of talking on the record about the original lawsuit in the pages of this newspaper in June.

He had a right, if not a responsibility, to speak directly to the people through whichever means he chose, and he chose The Eastern Door. 

People are interested in Mohawk Online (MOL) and how it operates, but most importantly, the money it has been giving back to the Council, which is now very much in jeopardy if a miracle doesn’t happen to keep it going.

A good point was made: Why didn’t the MCK try to go through the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism, Skén:nen Aonsón:ton, instead of running to outside court?

Former and current chiefs, after all, say running to the outside is the wrong way to solve internal disputes, and utilizing the Quebec court system threatens real claims to sovereignty.

If ADR wasn’t a real choice because of the animosity, fine, but suing someone for speaking to the press is not the power move they think it is.

If a system exists here that is supposed to act as a first step promoted by the Council, did the MCK choose not to use it because they were already being sued in outside court so they followed suit, excuse the pun?

They also have not tried to reach out to The Eastern Door directly because they know our reporting is solid and there’s nothing to sue for, but it does raise the valid and very dangerous issue of targeting our sources, you know, the ones we rely on to tell stories to everyone, to get the truth out. 

There are a lot of questions left unanswered because communications can be so tight-lipped they’re more like a clam protecting its oyster than a government serving the people.

As examples, we still have not gotten direct confirmation, in the form of a press release or any other means of public dissemination, that two of the three chiefs who originally breached confidentiality by telling Montour what Diabo allegedly said about him, were reprimanded.

Suspensions to former grand chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer and chief Ross Montour should be public knowledge, while Mike Delisle wasn’t suspended or reprimanded because he was no longer a chief.

The MCK still hasn’t publicly announced that MOL is ending, even though both grand chief candidates Sky-Deer and Diabo admitted to it at the Grand Chiefs’ Debate on K103 Radio.

In that respect, once politicians put it out there for all to hear, the least that could be done is a follow-up press release, for the record, to confirm what they said.

Suing Montour for revealing information he was privy to as punishment should also apply to the chiefs, or not at all. We think the truth coming out is good enough instead of lawsuits made to stop people from talking.

The MCK media ban was bad enough, but delays in reaching chiefs for critical comments still exist, with the latest excuse being the transition period for the new Council, and the acclimatization it takes to get up to speed.

What excuse will be used next to keep chiefs from responding to timely requests on pertinent issues that affect every single person in Kahnawake?

And who else will get sued for speaking the truth?

This editorial was originally published in print on September 13 in issue 33.37 of The Eastern Door.