New mayor of Oka elected, promises change

After more than a decade in office, Pascal Quevillon, who at times incensed Kanehsata’kehró:non with his public comments about the community, is no longer mayor of Oka following the election of Patrick Hardy to the post.

“I am very proud of the last 12 years I have dedicated to the municipality of Oka and the achievements we have accomplished,” said Quevillon, who first won the position in June 2014 and was re-elected in 2017 and 2021.

Hardy, who is being sworn in today (Friday) alongside a new city council, was able to secure nearly 53 percent of the November 2 vote, handing him a narrow but decisive victory, beating Quevillon by 114 votes in the head-to-head campaign.

“It’s a new team, new eyes, new ideas, and it’s safe to say, most likely new philosophies about a lot of ways of doing things,” said Hardy.

The new mayor believes relationships with partners in the region, including Kanesatake, have been neglected in recent years. While he said it is too early to talk specifics on files relating to the two communities, he indicated a change in tone would be coming.

Some Oka residents asked him bluntly during the campaign, “What are you going to do with the Mohawk community?” Hardy promised them just one thing, he said.

“It was simply to stop making headlines, and no public insults,” said Hardy. “By saying that, I want the tensions between our communities to go away and things to calm down.”

Word of a new mayor was welcomed by many in Kanesatake who have felt that Quevillon made a habit of disparaging the community, such as when in 2024 he objected to the Kanesatake Health Center’s purchase of farmland in the municipality, just outside the territory, near Rotiwennakéhte Elementary School.

Quevillon lobbied for a federal meeting to stop the acquisition, calling it a disguised expropriation, and told Le Devoir that he feared cannabis would be grown there and that the land would be taken over by people with bad intentions.

“Truth is I don’t know much about Oka’s politics, but it always seemed like Quevillon didn’t like us people at the top of the hill much, so I’m hoping to see positive changes with the new guy in charge,” said Kanehsata’kehró:non Sterling Mallette.

Kanehsata’kehró:non Angela Gabriel, who owns a home in Oka, voted for Hardy in the election. She doesn’t know much about him, she said; rather, she cast a vote against Quevillon.

“The old mayor was arrogant,” said Gabriel. “The new mayor just has to be nice with his neighbours - us - and perhaps include us rather than pretend that we don’t exist, which happened more often than not.”

She said she knows Kanehsata’kehró:non living in the village who tried to make a difference in the community, but who didn’t feel their efforts were welcome under the previous administration.

“That’s why I voted at all. I voted for a change,” said Gabriel.

Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) caretaker chief Serge Otsi Simon, who was grand chief during much of Quevillon’s tenure, said he welcomes the change in leadership in Oka.

“We do have some groups around here that are looking for nothing but an excuse to light the powder keg, and Quevillon was giving it to them. It was very damaging,” he said. “He paints every single one of us with the same criminal brush, when the large majority of our community members are peaceful people; they just want to provide for their families, just like municipal people in the village.”

Simon said Quevillon’s approach was also harmful to residents of Oka.

“When he speaks like that, he’s painting his own people as borderline racist and very narrow-minded,” he said.

Simon doesn’t know much about Hardy, he acknowledged, but he believes an approach defined by mutual cooperation could yield improvements for both communities, such as economic development projects.

Hardy said as mayor of Oka, besides renewing partnerships, he hopes to stymie a turnover rate at City Hall that he said is unusually high, and to boost transparency in Oka’s municipal government.

His first priorities will be to settle in as a new council and adopt a budget, he said.

“I’m going to have to change the engine in flight for the first couple months,” said Hardy.

As for Kanesatake and Oka, he said both communities have rich histories, and believes there is an opportunity to celebrate that and move forward together.

“I don’t have all the solutions for existing conflicts, whether legal or for land. I don’t have those answers; I don’t know if anybody’s going to have those answers. But the basis of a good neighbourly relationship is respect, and eventually trying to build back some trust,” said Hardy, who sometimes does CrossFit in Kanesatake.

When he found out he had been elected on Sunday, a sense of euphoria and serenity carried into Monday, but a great sense of responsibility took over as well.

“I do not take this lightly,” Hardy said. “To me this is not about power, this is about the people, and I know why I was elected. People want change, and change, for me, when you want to change things in life, it’s not about doing a 180 on everything. It’s about making slow and measured changes and repeating those same things every single day.”

The new city councillors with whom Hardy will be working are newcomers Chantal Lemire, Jean Hamelin, Yan Bonhomme, Alain Girard, and Karelle Trottier, while Karine Bouchard was re-elected. Three of the councillors - Lemire, Bouchard, and Trottier ran on Team Pascal Quevillon, while the remainder ran as independents.

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Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter