No relief as arsons plague community

Minutes after police confirmed to The Eastern Door that there will be no investigation into a blaze that ravaged a new cannabis dispensary Wednesday morning, authorities were called to another fire on Mohawk Territory in Oka village.

The house, already burned in a suspected arson this spring, is now a total loss. A witness reported seeing someone flee the scene. This property is linked to four cars that were burned at The Brothers in June.

One suspicious house fire in March was believed to have involved a Molotov cocktail.

Another blaze at a new business on Route 344 - this one still under construction - was set in the middle of the night in August and was referred to the Surete du Quebec (SQ).

However, just because there is a suspicious fire does not mean the police will investigate. Without a complaint from the victim, the SQ’s hands are tied, they said.

“For sure, the law is the law for everyone, but we need the collaboration first of the person who is the victim of the situation,” said Ann Mathieu, lieutenant coordinator for SQ media relations. “It’s necessary to do good work.”

Planet 344 celebrated its grand opening with a barbecue less than a month ago, but around 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, emergency services were called to put out an inferno at the store, which was built inside a shipping container on Route 344.

The metal box, once surf blue, is now broken and blackened, its contents incinerated.

One community member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, reported smelling gas near the site. Then they heard a popping noise.

When they saw the blaze, they were shocked and horrified.

“It’s devastating to see that happen,” said the Kanehsata’kehró:non. “There are a lot of community members that are looking for ways to be self-employed to keep up with the economy. And then what they invest, it just gets destroyed.

“That’s devastating and scary. I have no idea what’s behind it or the reasoning for that, but it was deliberate.”

At a time when countrywide headlines have amplified anonymous cries for help from Kanehsata’kehró:non demanding that authorities address a climate of fear and lawlessness in the community, suspicious fires have proliferated at an alarming rate.

“In Kanesatake, it’s a big year for us, a very, very big year,” said Oka fire chief Sylvain Johnson.

While for decades arson has loomed over personal and political disputes, not to mention those who dare to vocalize Kanesatake’s internal challenges, Johnson estimated there have been as many as 10 suspicious fires in 2024 alone.

In a typical year, the fire department sees around one, he said.

“All the arson fires we have this year, it’s not normal,” said Johnson. “I don’t know what happens up there. We are not in this kind of store, so I don’t know what happens, but there’s like a war of the market.”

However, the Planet 344 blaze appears to be another in a string of fires treated as isolated incidents by the SQ - the business, rather than the community that lives in fear, is recognized as the victim.

“It’s inevitable and it’s unfortunate that Kanesatake is the one that’s going to have to pay the price in the end,” said Mohawk Council of Kanesatake chief Brant Etienne.

The cannabis store all but confirmed on Facebook following the incident that it will not reopen, with a send-off that included the hashtags #itsawrap and #byebye.

The owner of Planet 344 could not be reached for comment by The Eastern Door.

Mathieu said the police face hurdles when victims of crimes refuse to participate in the process. For instance, it can be difficult to produce leads, or if a case goes to court, it can be hard to prosecute without a victim’s testimony, she argued.

“They are not giving me the power to work,” said Mathieu. “People have to collaborate for the information that we need because we have to ask questions. We have to talk to the people that are implied in the situation. If you don’t want to talk to us, how can I get the information I need to start something?”

In this case, according to Johnson, the SQ was asked to leave.

While many civilians believe it is a victim’s prerogative to press charges, a victim’s cooperation is not a legal necessity. However, it would be unusual for the SQ to proceed without a victim’s cooperation, Mathieu said.

In the case of the house fire in Oka village around 11 a.m. the same morning, there will be an investigation because a complaint was filed, she said.

Asked whether a unilateral investigation might uncover something such as video of the incident at the dispensary, Mathieu suggested it is incumbent on community members to come forward.

“If someone has proof that a crime has been committed, then I think it’s the responsibility of the person to give that information to permit us to work on something,” she said, noting anonymous tip lines are available.

But the relationship between the police and Kanehsata‘kehró:non is fractured, with little trust held by a community that has suffered numerous apparent failures of authorities - whether police or governments - to act on intractable problems that are often driven by outside forces, from environmental degradation to land grabbing to the incursion of organized crime.

However, Mathieu defended the SQ’s engagement with the community, citing a designated Kanesatake liaison, and said the response to a fire like the one that destroyed Planet 344 would have been similar in any other Quebec community in which the SQ works.

Etienne finds this hard to believe.

“As far as the SQ, I think it’s clearer now than ever that they really don’t have the security and public wellbeing of Kanehsata’kehró:non as part of their mandate. They are not here to help protect us in any way,” he said. “To say otherwise I think is just spewing hot air at this point.”

He suggested that if Ville St. Laurent or Trois Rivieres had the same issues on the same scale as Kanesatake, there would be political echoes all the way up to the Quebec legislature demanding action be taken. “But we’re just a Native community,” he said.

Meanwhile, a request by The Eastern Door to speak with Quebec’s Indigenous affairs minister Ian Lafrenière, a former police officer who has previously said Kanesatake’s political dysfunction makes it ripe for organized crime, was redirected to the province’s public security ministry.

This office declined an interview request with public security minister François Bonnardel.

“We are fully aware of citizens’ concerns,” the ministry wrote in a statement sent by press attache Maxime Bélanger and attributed only to Bonnardel’s office.

“This is a complex issue that involves many stakeholders at all levels. We want to find solutions, but to do so, we need the federal government’s collaboration. We have invited them several times to join us to discuss this, and we are still waiting for a response.”

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Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter