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The Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) hosted a webinar last night facilitated by First Peoples Law to give community members a chance to take in a governance presentation ahead of consultations on a proposed law-making process.

All the dumping going on in Kanesatake for so many years has created a horrible and unhealthy situation and has divided families and broken up the firm social tenet we all used to feel of “at least we protect the land.” That isn’t the case anymore for too many community members, who welcome dumping because they benefit from it.

Victor Bonspille’s late mother Myrtle, who died 10 years ago, is registered as part owner of land on the Lake of Two Mountains that was allegedly filled in with contaminated soil, facilitating the construction of a cannabis dispensary.

One hurdle to the cleanup of the toxic G&R Recycling site has been cleared after Robert and Gary Gabriel, the dump’s owners, signed a letter promising not to interfere with workers there.

More than a year after a wave of dump trucks carrying contaminated soil began streaming into Kanesatake, a Superior Court judge issued an emergency injunction order Monday to halt illegal dumping until the request can be considered again next Friday.

In 2015, the Liberal Party of Canada’s election platform included the promise to implement all Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action and to endorse the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).  Once in power, the Trudeau Liberal government advanced a domestic interpretation of UNDRIP through Bill C-15, the United Nations Declaration Act and a government-wide National Action Plan that applies to First Nations, Metis, and Inuit, with a list of 181 federal measures/actions in five chapters.  In the First Nations chapter, the plan gives public notice that for “Canada’s laws to fulfill the UN Declaration, the Indian Act must be repealed.”  For the past nine years, the Trudeau government has already started the process to end the Indian Act band/reserve system by transitioning all First Nations into municipal self-government with the legal status of a “natural person” (this is the same legal definition that applies to corporations)

Quebec is seeking an emergency injunction against nearly 20 defendants, mostly Kanehsata’kehró:non, revealing that soils used to illegally fill in lots on the Lake of Two Mountains were contaminated, confirming long-held suspicions.

Checkpoint training for Oka residents and others aiming to stymie streams of dump trucks carrying potentially contaminated landfill into Kanesatake went ahead as planned, edging the resident-led group one step closer to enacting roadblocks.

Months after a soil sampling attempt led to aggression against two Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) chiefs, prompting Quebec’s environment ministry to cancel the tests, the province has enacted interventions on dumping that could lead to massive fines.

After demands for a meeting with government officials went unheeded, a group of Oka residents pledging solidarity with Kanesatake whistleblowers are taking a step closer to enacting checkpoints to stop dump trucks carrying potentially contaminated soil from entering the territory.