Law-making process faces backlash

Highlighting tensions around the new Kanesatake Law-Making Process (KLMP), Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) chief Brant Etienne’s windshield was smashed overnight after the framework’s passage was revealed by The Eastern Door.

“I wouldn’t say I’m surprised,” said Etienne. “This stuff always seems to happen after dealing with something contentious in the community. I’m not particularly afraid of this stuff.”

There is no question in his mind that the incident is linked to the law-making process ushered in by the MCK over the past several months, after a draft of the legislation was first published in July last year. The framework, itself the first official Kanesatake law, was passed at a Council meeting on February 19.

“I think it’s very convenient, the fact it happened the night it was made public through The Eastern Door that we’d passed the lawmaking process. There’d been nothing else of consequence happening,” Etienne said. “We knew it had the potential that somebody was going to act out on it. It’s just the way things are here and the way people are.”

Etienne and MCK chiefs Amy Beauvais, John Canatonquin, and Serge Otsi Simon voted in favour, while chief Denise David abstained. However, according to Simon, David was formally added as a signatory this Thursday.

“I think there’s a broad support in the community for law-making because people are just fed up with the lawlessness here,” said Simon. “Brant is just one example out of many we’ve survived through.”

Since the passage of the law was made public, MCK grand chief Victor Bonspille has renewed his efforts to cast doubt on the legislation, which empowers Council to create laws about a wide range of issues, including land and the environment.

The Eastern Door article revealing that the law-making law was passed by Council last week was attached to a letter that MCK grand chief Victor Bonspille sent out to cannabis dispensaries and possibly other businesses, addressed to “All Owners and Operators.”

In his letter, he wrote he has no involvement in the legislation, which he repeatedly referred to as “this bias-law-making process.”

He warned that the law-making process “will AFFECT YOUR BUSINESS, ESPECIALLY BUSINESS’S SITUATED ON FEDERAL AND COMMUNITY LANDS (sic)” and said it does not exempt those on privately owned lands.

“This bias-law-making process, will have an impact on anyone wanting to establish ‘any type’ of business in the future within Kanesatake,” he wrote.

He also urged recipients to read a highlighted passage of the attached article that described Council’s intention to pass four more laws this mandate: a Land Protection Law, a State of Emergency Law, a Trespass Law, and a Code of Ethics. These draft laws have been worked on by First Peoples Law, which also drafted the lawmaking process and led community workshops on it.

Bonspille did not reply to a request for comment for this article.

“Our suspicion is he’s trying to instigate another riot or chaining up or action again like he did last year with the chaining up of the band office,” said Etienne.

In October 2023, Bonspille told a raucous crowd at a community meeting, which included Kanehsata’kehró:non affiliated with the cannabis industry, that his Council opposition had asked Kahnawake and Akwesasne to intervene in the community, raising the spectre of raids on local businesses.

This was not true, according to a Mohawk Council of Kahnawake chief who said he had told both factions of Kanesatake’s Council that nobody had requested formal help from Kahnawake Council.

The day after the Kanesatake community meeting at which the grand chief made these claims, the band office was chained up by community members, including Bonspille, who fist bumped the man who put on the lock.

Clifton Ariwakehte Nicholas, one of the cannabis shop owners who received the letter from Bonspille recently, feels it was not appropriate for Council to move ahead on such a monumental change without a consensus that includes Bonspille.

“We did elect a grand chief, and to have him shut out of all the processes is counterproductive. For his part, not wanting to cooperate with the rest of them either is also counterproductive,” said Nicholas, who owns the Green Devil. “We need to have a solution, not a pissing match all the time. It’s embarrassing.”

Decisions made by a majority of Council chiefs are recognized as binding by the federal government, whether or not the grand chief is involved.

Nicholas is not swayed by this and said he is open to the creation of local laws if he felt the band council were going about it the right way.

“We do need security, there’s no doubt about that. But how do we go about it? Just unilaterally decide for everybody, like how it looks they’re doing right now? I’m not okay with that.”

He feels the workshops offered in person and online were not sufficient as a signifier of community consent, especially given limited attendance.

“If they’re doing only a couple workshops, they have to be a little more intense about it,” Nicholas said. “Maybe come knock on doors? Strap on a backbone and be a representative and do your job instead of hiding behind your Council office, which they’re all doing. I have to give it to Victor, he’s got at least the backbone to come to people’s doors and knock on the doors and talk to them.”

Nicholas said that as one of the few cannabis dispensary owners who is operating on land he possesses, he is worried actions taken against the industry could unfairly lump him in with rest.

“I’m unaffiliated. I’ve never been affiliated with anybody. I’m 100 percent Indigenous owned and operated,” he said.

“It’s been over six years that I’ve been demanding and asking and working toward trying to get legislation back for cannabis with zero responses from Council. All of a sudden we’ve got law-making posters without talking to people. They ignore people on a constant and then they wonder why people hate them.”

Etienne has stated that Council intends to pursue other forms of community consultations for the upcoming laws, such as kitchen table meetings, if people are interested.

According to the Surete du Quebec, an investigation into a complaint of mischief involving a vehicle on Saturday morning had yielded no suspects by Wednesday afternoon.

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Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter