Historic first oath for the community

Kahnawake marked a historic milestone this month with the first-ever formal oath of office for a justice of the peace, a ceremony symbolizing the community’s push for greater legal autonomy and its ongoing shift away from colonial structures.

It’s a step long envisioned as central to strengthening self-governance and an assertion of inherent jurisdiction.

Commissioner of justice Kevin Fleischer noted that while the change comes after years of community-driven development, the timing is right.

“It was time to take a closer look at our justice of the peace, making sure that there were governance documents in place to help foster public confidence in the role. By doing this it helped transition the role to be more specific to Kahnawake,” he said, adding that formalizing the role creates much-needed clarity. “In some ways, it’s a little overdue, but also it’s about governing our own judicial affairs.

“I’m very pleased to be part of it and to see this work completed. It’s a very positive development - symbolic, but very positive,” said Fleischer.

For justice of the peace Stephanie Cross, who first assumed her role in 1993 under the Indian Act, the ceremony was both emotional and momentous.

“Having been appointed in 1993 by the solicitor general of Canada under section 107, giving me the authority to sit as a justice of the peace, it is an honour to sign the oath of office now, establishing our own justice system,” she said.

With the signing, Cross becomes the link between the former federally defined role and Kahnawake’s independent justice framework. “I am proud to be part of this groundbreaking moment,” she said. “I’m proud of our community. I’m grateful to be part of the evolution of our justice system.”

Administering the oath was justice portfolio lead Tonya Perron, who has spent decades contributing to the evolution of Kahnawake’s justice system. For her, the milestone carried deep personal meaning. “It was certainly an honour. It is going to be very memorable for me moving forward,” she said.

Perron has long envisioned this shift toward a fully Kahnawake-led justice system.

“These are things that I’ve been dreaming of for our community for many, many years, and to finally see them coming to fruition is just amazing. It really is historic in many ways,” she said.

She emphasized that the new oath formally binds judicial roles directly to the community’s own values and laws.

“The importance of that is, it is binding the justice of the peace to us, to our culture, to Kahnawake, to our community,” Perron said.

Fleischer said the shift represents the culmination of decades of governance work that has redefined the justice system from within.

“We’ll be using a similar oath of office for our future Kahnawake judges, once they are appointed,” he said.

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