The year that was in Kahnawake  

Transparency was a four-letter word for the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake in 2025, and it wasn’t because they were good at being transparent.

And let’s be clear: every politician has things they keep close to their chest, but the MCK really outdid itself this past year. With so many important issues buried, you’d need a hell of a shovel to dig them all out.

We have written about it multiple times before, but let’s just say the two Dean Montour lawsuits, the Magic Palace lawsuit, the Indigenous Services Canada building moving, Mohawk Online being left for dead, and so many other key stories reported in-depth (and first) by The Eastern Door would not have seen the light of day if we didn’t put you, the community, first. 

Sure, we could have coasted and rewritten press releases and stayed away from the controversial topics to keep everyone happy, but that’s not the real journalism Kahnawake needs.

You have a right to know what’s going on and we will always dig for the truth for all to see – whether you support us or not.

Aside from the MCK’s lack of transparency, new grand chief Cody Diabo showed his inexperience and complete lack of professionalism when he attacked The Eastern Door for allegedly leaking confidential issues from a secret public meeting. 

Yes, you heard that right, a public community meeting whose contents were supposed to be kept secret.

You can’t make this up.

Peppa Pig fans might remember the Secret Club episode where, well, secrets could not be kept. So why put these alleged secrets in a public forum?

Oh, wait, there were no real earth-shattering things to share, just a question of whether the MCK should delay a lawsuit against Chateauguay for six months. Sounds more like poor planning.

We didn’t reveal anything secret, it was all a ruse, but Diabo used his platform on his personal Facebook page, and later an official press release (with a letter signed only by him) to announce the MCK, the governing body of this community of which we’re part, would not be doing business with TED anymore. And that we (although they didn’t name us, a tactic to try to target us without being sued for libel), breached the community’s trust.

Imagine that. Breached the community’s trust, in an official memo from the Council, signed by the grand chief. If we had a dollar for every time the MCK breached the community’s trust, we wouldn’t have a housing crisis.

There are many things wrong with how it played out, but when instructions were sent to all other parts of the MCK monster not to talk to us, including when our reporter attempted to cover a low-waste market, we were able to fully see what a rogue grand chief can do when not properly briefed on how to be an effective leader.

The ban lasted less than a week because of a public meeting (not quite secret) that revealed the truth: the media plays too important of a role to try to control by an Indian Act band council, and although we had haters there who supported the council (and unprofessional chiefs as well), the truth prevailed.

Besides, our response on Facebook and in The Eastern Door showed people the truth, and the simple question of “Should the MCK delay the lawsuit against Chateauguay for six months” was shown to be not a breach at all, but good reporting that the people needed to know, outside of the few who showed up. 

Our response helped people to understand what really happened, instead of allowing Diabo to speak in generalities to put a target on us and away from a potentially ineffective legal strategy.

He (along with chiefs Jeremiah Johnson and Ross Montour) even breached his own decree of not communicating with us directly and answered our post on Facebook with half-baked accusations. Then he removed the author of this editorial as a Facebook friend.

Cody took his ball and went home.

The MCK has since pivoted to try and have a meeting with the media and select community members to “set ground rules,” so to speak, for future meetings, but as of this writing, nothing has come of it due to scheduling issues.

We need to have access to community meetings, whether the reporter is non-Native or “not from here,” because reporting to the community is more important than who the reporter is.

The whole sham of an issue will serve as a lesson in what could happen when politicians are not fully equipped to deal with tough situations and don’t know how to put their emotions aside for the betterment of all in the community.

Jumping the gun should never be the reaction from a sitting chief, and leading means stopping to think clearly, with a good mind, instead of a knee-jerk reaction done to pressure us and get hate spewed our way for no good reason.

We are the only media who report on the hard stuff regularly – the court cases, the cover-ups, the drunk driving politicians, the lies – all of the things that need to be exposed – so cutting us out of meetings, as they have done for far too long now, is just plain wrong.

If we close up shop tomorrow, who will report on these vital issues?

Something has to change but we fear with the rise in anti-journalist sentiment, the average person won’t know The Eastern Door from CBC, or won’t be able to see they are quite clearly different, with different ways of reporting, of fighting FOR the community, and for standing up for the truth; as we see people at the bank or grocery store; as we spend our money here and help to support orgs, businesses, individuals, and important causes. 

We aren’t going anywhere so accepting our role means we can be better at it in the future, with more voices coming forward to tell their stories.

Mainstream media like CBC come and go. We do not. We’re here for all of it, warts and flowers, the truth and conspiracies all in one.

Taking this time now to raise these important issues demonstrates who we are and what we stand for, and we also hope it equally shows the ones who just yell without thinking of the consequences that we are fighting for them too. Even though we also sometimes have to fight against them.

And that includes the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake.

After all, we want a better community and we know they do too.

Steve Bonspiel

The Eastern Door

This editorial was originally published in print on January 3 in issue 34.01 of The Eastern Door.