Category: Featured

The Kahnawake Peacekeepers announcing this afternoon, that pursuant to the incident of April 9^th, where a teenage girl was the victim of an unwelcome approach by a man, an arrest has been made in Montreal, today. The suspect was issued ‘an appearance warrant’ and an undertaking, with conditions not to be in the territory of Kahnawake. On April 9th, the teen was walking towards Kahnawake Survival School, when a male driver, approximately 30 to 40-years-old, with short dark hair spoke to the youth in an inappropriate manner. The girl sought shelter in a nearby residence. The suspect is facing charges of Criminal Harassment.

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) recently approved funding for the creation of a Highway Patrol Division of the Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Peacekeepers and the creation of eight (8) new Peacekeeper positions for a period of five (5) years, effective April 1st. The total 5-year budget for the creation of a Highway Patrol Division is approximately $4,506,871.76. Funding for year one is the costliest due to training requirements and initial outfitting of the officers. Public Safety Portfolio lead Ryan Montour, on the new division:

“The Peacekeepers right now we’re at 36, as per the policeman’s agreement, we obviously the growing needs of the community, so we felt it was a worthwhile investment to beef up our presence on the streets of Kahnawa:ke. It’s going to help in a lot of different areas, not just with the speeding infractions but the enforcement aspect of it and a heavier presence and deterrence for other crime related matter.”

The approximately $1,059,406.59 price tag required for this 1st phase of the project will be transferred immediately, with the remaining annual budget transfers occurring at the beginning of each Fiscal Year, with Montour explaining the costs:

“It is very expensive to hire a Peacekeeper because we actually pay for partial pay for their training, we give them a little stipend to incentivize and help them get through training. They’re away for 6 months at RCMP recruit depot in Saskatchewan, so we do given them some funding while they’re in training. When they come back they have 6 months to get ride around to get experience with the Corporal assigned to them.”

The creation of the Highway Patrol Division was approved by the Peacekeepers Services Board in late 2023, and the recruitment and implementation plan will be carried out by the Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Peacekeepers.

Expect another set of  Mercier Bridge lane closures tonight from 10 pm to 5 am tomorrow. The left-hand lanes will be partially closed in both directions in the middle of the span at the area commonly known as the “crossover.” The closure is required to remove the jersey barriers in preparation for this season’s bridge work.

The Kahnawake Peacekeepers posting that a piece of heavy machinery has broken down on Seaway Road between the pump station beneath the Mercier Bridge and the Mohawk Bridge Consortium. The vehicle is on the side of the road closest to the Seaway. Motorists are being urged to drive cautiously in the area, with the heavy vehicle expected to be removed only by tomorrow morning (April 12^th).

Resurfacing work on Route-132 in Kahnawake will resume this Sunday and last for 3 months. Work will only be carried out nightly between 10pm until 5am.

During the roadwork, one (1) lane will be available in each direction, open to local traffic only, and clients of businesses located on R-132. Work will include the repaving of the highway between the base of the Mercier Bridge to the second set of lights. David Lahache is the Transport Coordinator at the MCK:

“They are also going to be doing some curb work and some work on the median at the base of the bridge, that’s going to require some overnight closures and weekend closures as well, but only 1 direction will be closing at a time. Due to the timing of other projects, works on the Mercier Bridge and the Ville-St-Pierre interchange, planning for these closures is going to be a little on the difficult side, but we’ll provide you with all the information when it becomes available to give you a heads-up.”

Last fall the repaving was performed from the boundary and the second set of lights. The 132-138 west service road is planned for repaving as well at some point.

On Tetawathartha the part line talkshow on K1037 today, Julie Delisle, Carlee Kawinetha Loft, Environmental Projects Coordinator – Policy & Outreach, and Iotshatena:wi Reed, Communications Liaison with the Kahnawà:ke Waste Management Department. They were the invited guests, discussing ‘Earth Month’:

“We’re here to let community members know how they can get involved with some of the events we have going on including community clean-ups. ‘The Eastern Door Annual Spring Clean-up,’ (is on, with) KEPO and Waste management are collaborating with them again this year. Their 20th annual clean-up, it’s going to be on Friday April 19th starting at 7am until 12pm. The clean-up headquarters are going to be at The Eastern Door office on the OCR. We’ll all be set-up there with our tents, they have cleaning supplies, we have all the materials, we are going be doing some giveaways, we have some refreshments. It’s going to be a really nice day, so we’re encouraging community members to get out there that day and just clean-up our community.”

The Kahnawà:ke Environment Protection Office (KEPO) will also be conducting the ‘Nocturnal Owl Survey’ on Thursday, April 11^th, from 8:30pm until midnight. KEPO employees will be visiting 10 stations throughout the community where they will be broadcasting owl calls as part of the survey. The Nocturnal Owl Survey is a nationwide initiative coordinated by Birds Canada and is conducted by volunteers throughout Canada. The surveys are used to monitor the health of owl populations over time. This is KEPO’s fifth year participating in the survey.

There will be a road closure on Kane Road between River and Lahache Roads to repair a sewer line. The Public Works Department of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) saying that the road closure will be in place from 8am until 12pm tomorrow, Tuesday. Additionally, work on a residential water supply will take place on the Old Chateauguay Road, between 10am and 12pm. No road closures will be required for this work.

If you have any questions, you can contact Public Works at (450) 632-5825. The 24-Hour Waterline and Sewer Emergency Hotline is 514-891-9751.

An initiative will be engaging the community to address the town’s housing needs. As a follow-up to the Housing Study that was conducted in 2023, that identified a need to increase potential loans and mortgage amounts, a survey has been launched by The Housing Unit of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK). The survey is intended to gather feedback from current and potential ‘Housing’ clients on specific financial services, such as loans, mortgages, related services, and the future direction of Housing in our community. The survey is now open and will close on Monday, April 22^nd, at 4pm. All Kahnawakeronon can participate in a focus group that will be held on Thursday, April 25^th, to share more detailed feedback and perspectives. Interested participants can register for the focus group through the survey or by contacting Housing Client Experience Manager Shyann White at the Housing Unit at 450-638-2672. The deadline to register is Friday, April 19^th, at 4pm. The survey should take five to ten minutes to complete. All survey submissions are confidential. The information provided will help to determine the scale of interest in increases for existing clients and new agreements and the timing of the new or amended agreements.

Don’t look directly at the sun or the eclipse today. That is the advice from Dr. Allan Spector, the optometrist who holds clinics twice a week at the Old Malone Medical Center in Kahnawake.

“My advice is stay home. Watch it on television. Don’t go outside even though there’s eclipse glasses. Many of your children, if they are going to look at the eclipse, will inadvertently look at the sun and that’s where there could be solar retinal damage. So, you have to be very, very careful out there on this day,” Spector told K1037 News. “It’s a very momentous day, yes, and very exciting for many people around on the East Coast, but I would be very cautionary. I would be very careful not to look directly at the sun. Stay indoors. that’s my advice to my patients.”

As for the certified eclipse glasses, Dr. Spector says those aren’t a guarantee against eye damage.

“The certified glasses, they say, are good, but you never really know,” Spector said. “To me it’s not worth the risk. It’s not something that we’ve all been exposed to as Doctors. But, it’s the unknown that I’m scared of for my patients and for the public.”

On Tetawathartha, the party line talk show on K1037 it was MCK Friday with host Herb Rice. In-house with a ton of announcement and updates were Cody Diabo and Ryan Montour. The clean-up of the fuel leak remains front and center for Diabo:

“Kahnawà:ke’s position is that it’s coming from Chateauguay and if the province wants to take the narrative that it’s not, well then work with us and show us then or prove that there’s another source. Until then, we go off of the 1 spill and the chemical make-up, it’s all the same fuel. So, unless they’re suggesting at the same time, there was another spill with the same type of fuel, you know, for me that’s too much of a coincidence or it’s just too easy to say, well it’s not the same, it’s different.”

Montour with a breaking announcement with another contamination in the community:

“It’s come to our attention, we are issuing another public health warning to another site that came to our attention. We do have raw sewage that has been identified, tested. The area we are asking Kahnawà:ke to stay away from is from the old CSX tracks, and it lines up with the Quarry. KEPO investigators did go out there to test it and it is raw sewage, so: e-coli, high levels of e-coli bacteria was found in the wetland part. There will be a public service announcement with a map identifying the area. We’re asking all Kahnawakeronon to stay away from the area while the next steps are taking place.”

In terms of Public Safety, they too have been very active, with investment coming from the Quebec and Canadian Governments, Montour gave praise and appreciation to the negotiations for Chief Peacekeeper Dwayne Zacharie:

“We just signed an agreement, $1.6 million dollars specifically for equipment allocated, a one-time deal for  equipment for the Peacekeepers to use. Some part of that equipment is for marked police cars, we’re moving away from the ‘ghost cars’ as people call them, to show more of a presence and obviously a deterrence for the police cars. 2 trucks, lots of personal protective equipment for the officers, up-to-date bulletproof vests, finger print kits, also ATV’s, snowmobiles: there’s a whole slew of ‘equipment specific.’ We can’t use that money for officers. It’s much needed, it just gives them the strength of the local law enforcement to use these funds, to upgrade their equipment. I think that was great news for the community and again, hats off to the Chief for doing his job.”