Trudeau announces resignation

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) will continue working to establish a better relationship with the Conservatives, especially now that prime minister Justin Trudeau has announced he’ll soon be resigning.

The writing has been on the wall for a while now, said MCK grand chief Cody Diabo, with many predicting a coming Tory government. That’s why he’s been trying to set a meeting up with leader Pierre Poilievre to make sure his party knows what to expect from Kahnawake in the instance it comes into power this fall.

“At this moment, I’m trying to make those connections,” Diabo said. “Really, at the end of the day, though, Kahnawake is going to keep doing what Kahnawake is going to do.”

He’s only interacted once before with the leader, when he took the microphone at the Assembly of First Nations gathering in Montreal in July to ask if he would apologize for the Canadian army’s siege on Kanesatake in 1990 in the instance he was elected as prime minister.

The MCK grand chief also asked Poilievre if his party would modernize how Canada defines Indigenous rights protected under its constitution. The leader ended up skirting around the question then, not making any promises.

“That is exactly the partnership that I propose - to put you back in control of your decisions and your destiny,” Poilievre said in response to Diabo at the assembly then. “I agree with you that there has been a paternalistic top-down relationship from Ottawa that has held back your communities, and prevented you from passing on your traditions, knowledge, language, and prosperity to your people. And that needs to change.”

Diabo and other Council chiefs have already met twice with Conservative MP Jamie Schmale, the party’s critic of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Indigenous Services, in the hope of forging a stronger relationship with the party.

The MCK grand chief is also working on arranging a discussion with the party’s critic for Public Safety, saying he hopes the Conservatives will support their demand to recognize Indigenous-led police forces as essential services. That recognition should also be supported through more funding, he added.

The band council will continue pressuring Canada to respond to Kahnawake’s land grievance over the Seigneury of Sault St. Louis as well.

“The Seigneury negotiations, we want to make sure that doesn’t get impacted in any type of way,” Diabo said about the possibility of a Conservative government.

Regardless of whatever party comes into power, there’s “going to be a struggle for us” no matter what, Council chief Jeffrey Diabo said, with Conservative governments historically unwilling to work alongside First Nations in good faith.

“Trudeau has demonstrated a willingness to work with Indigenous people,” said Jeffrey, on the external government relations file. “We do know that under the Conservatives in the past, their agenda is not favourable to Indigenous people.”

Whoever the next prime minister is is entirely out of their control, Jeffrey said, adding the table historically doesn’t vote in federal elections.

“This is our land. This is our country, you know, and we’re going to do what we need to do for ourselves,” he said. “So for me, personally, I don’t care who they put in place.”

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