Few leads in reno dump

Heaps of refuse from a bathroom renovation found at the lacrosse box Monday morning marks the fifth or sixth similar incident in recent months.

“Right now, it’s like we’re becoming a dumping ground,” said Kane Montour, coordinator of the Kanesatake Perimeter Security Team (KPS). “We’ve got all kinds of toxic chemical waste being dumped here, all these contaminants being dumped here, and now to add to it, bathroom renovations? What else is there to dump?”

Montour and his colleagues spent two hours combing the trash for clues, trying not to prick their fingers or feet with stray nails, a task that was none too pleasant.

“It’s just disgusting, flipping over a toilet bowl and a bathtub,” said Montour.

But the team couldn’t turn up any receipts or mailing addresses. From the boxes they found, it appears the mystery renovator bought materials in high-traffic Laval, meaning KPS can’t exactly stroll into a store and ask if anyone bought a toilet lately.

“It’s very disheartening. It’s sad. At the same time, I’m angry. Myself, I don’t even throw a piece of paper out the window. It’s sad to think that it could be somebody coming not from here dumping it and thinking they can do what they want,” said Montour. “At this same time, which would make it even worse, is if it’s a local community member. This is their territory too.”

After Public Works hauled away the garbage, KPS asked community members to check nearby cameras, but this didn’t turn up any evidence either.

“We pulled the surveillance from a couple of the stores, and we had the surveillance pulled from the (Onen’to:kon Healing Lodge), and we weren’t able to find anything in the time frame,” said Montour.

KPS believes the person who dumped the trash came up through the baseball field, where there are no cameras. He feels more cameras around the community could be one potential tool to stop this kind of dumping.

“I know people here in Kanesatake, they don’t like cameras. They feel they’re being spied on. Someone will probably just break it down anyways, but at the same time I think a lot of people are pissed,” he said.

There are no easy solutions, according to Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) chief Serge Otsi Simon, who is on the environment and justice portfolios.

“It all comes down again to enforcement,” he said. “We don’t have the resources. I really wish we could be allocated these resources to have environmental officers patrolling our community.”

He said if anyone sees anything suspicious, whether at night or during the day, they should report it to KPS.

“It’s the only resource we have right now,” he said. “People like that, we have to get them out of here. These are non-Natives.”

This advice was echoed by Montour, who would like to see community members help hold those who are disrespecting the environment accountable by speaking up.

“If you’re scared and you don’t want to approach somebody, call me. I’m not scared. I’ll approach somebody. When it comes to the environment and it comes to hurting our community, hurting our children, hurting what we have left, I’ll stand up to anybody. It’s not right,” said Montour.

“This I can say, if we find out who’s doing it, and we catch who’s doing it, they’re going to be dealt with.”

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Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter