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Brooklyn Leblanc hunkered down with many other people to stand up for Kanien’kehá:ka sovereignty in what became known as the Oka Crisis.

It’s been one year since community members Derek White and Hunter Montour were granted a permanent stay of criminal procedures in a historic tobacco case.

After an arduous Special Chiefs Assembly this week, a proposed $47.8 billion final settlement agreement (FSA) on long-term reform of the First Nations Child and Family Services Program was rejected by the membership of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN).

Though the year hasn’t yielded appropriate conditions for ice racing yet, Derek White was still determined to get some on-ice action, taking to a makeshift ice race route at Clarence Creek Carnival in Ontario.

When we first started writing about the year that was, 2023, we read over the recaps (see pages 6, 9, 21) of the top stories of the year.

Last month, Derek White and Hunter Montour made history, being granted a permanent stay of criminal proceedings in one of the most high-profile tobacco trade cases to date, after a Quebec Superior Court judge gave recognition to historic treaty rights including the Covenant Chain.

The White and Montour tobacco case is a major victory for Kahnawa’kehró:non and a big set-back for the federal government’s unilateral self-government policy.

In the end, barring federal appeal, of course, Derek White beat both Quebec and Canada at their own game, in their own courtrooms, and made history in the process.

After a gruelling, more than seven-year legal battle, Derek White and Hunter Montour were granted a permanent stay of criminal procedures this week by a Quebec Superior Court judge, who recognized the role of traditional law, including the Covenant Chain, in the tobacco trade across Turtle Island.

Derek White hasn’t been allowed to leave Canada since March 2016, when he and 60 others were arrested as part of Project Mygale on suspicion of evading taxes in cross-border tobacco trading.