Category: Featured

Corporate Vision magazine has unveiled the winners of this year’s Canadian Business Awards. K1037 radio in Kahnawake has won the award for best community radio station in the country. It was recognized as a non-profit  station owned and operated by the community. The station aims to bring information to Kahnawakero:non and their neighbours through meaningful, culturally entertaining programming, all while promoting the Mohawk language. In its eighth year, the awards recognize individuals and organizations who are improving their sector for their clients and customers’ benefit.

“I think it means a lot of things to a lot of different people,” Joe Delaronde, the Chairperson of the K1037 Board of Directors said. “For some it means getting a little piece of information every day, for others they just really enjoy it. For others hearing the language every day means something. I remember our very first day of broadcasting back in 1981 people were in tears because they never thought they would hear Kanieh:keha on the airwaves anywhere. It means a lot of different things to a lot of different people and I think that’s what makes it special.”

There will be controlled blasting at the Kahnawà:ke Multi-Purpose Building worksite beginning today and lasting through Friday. It will be performed by Enterprises QMD Inc. and The National. A rock blast cover will be used to suppress debris and noise, a warning sound will be issued prior to blasting, and seismographs will be in place to monitor vibrations in neighboring buildings. Fencing has been installed around the site.

There was a morning update from the Crisis Response Team on Kahnawake 911. We carried their live on K1037. Work continues on the clean-up and mitigation of the spill. Environmental Health Services’ Technician Jay Dearhouse:

“The affected home is no longer alerting the combustible gas meter in the sump pit or the house. The smell has been reduced greatly with the aggressive use of the air exchanger in the home, so, we’re hoping that we can help the homeowner get back into their house soon. We are also continuing with routine well-monitoring in the area and we are also adding hydro-carbon analysis tests to the wells we’re doing in and near the affected areas. These tests are in addition to the routine  well monitoring.”

Commissioner of Public Safety Lloyd Phillips on priorities:

“There has been great collaboration internally amongst various departments and organizations within the community, proving that our response is getting results, positive results as we move forward and also that response to any inquires is done effectively and efficiently. For example, last night there was a concern raised with our representative from Kahnawa:ke Environment Protection who went out there, with the air quality monitoring, were able to get results within a matter of hours, all showing that there were no concerns at this point in time. As we always said, we’re continuing monitoring as we move forward to ensure that the situation remains stable and remains safe. Again, safety and health of individuals is our number one priority.”

Phillips saying that the cost of the clean up has yet to be determined, saying that it will only be done once they have the full scope and containment of the fuel. To date, not including man hours, they have so far expended close to 100K. Director of the Kahnawà:ke Environment Protection Office Benjamin Green-Stacey on clean-up developments:

“The outcome from out walk through in Chateauguay, with Canada, Quebec, Chateauguay and many representatives from the MCK has paid off. There is a significant amount of work that’s been planned  and is now starting. Public Work crews in Chateauguay as well as crews from MELCCFP or the Quebec Environment Ministry are on-site right now.”

Ratitsénhaienhs Cody Diabo on the MCK’s pledge of support:

“From the council’s side on Monday, the council did pass a request for decision or ‘RFD’ as we call it, which would allocate $500 Thousand Dollars to Public Safety in terms of administering this whole response. We want to ensure that there’s no interruptions in any type of works or equipment that is needed, can be properly acquired quickly so that there’s no delay in any type of response and just going forward, there’s a lot of commitment to make sure that we are still speaking with community members in the area as well as the parents for the school in the area.”

The money approved by the MCK has been pledged through Public Safety and the ‘Emergency Response Fund,’ for the cleanup. There is more information readily available at Kahnawakeresponse.com

This Friday will feature the MCK’s Community Engagement Kiosk. The Kahnawa’kehró:non Ratitsénhaienhs Community Engagement Kiosk is scheduled to take place at the Golden Age Club on March 15, from 3pm until 5pm. Topics on the agenda include: The recent Industrial Fuel Spill; and the draft Kahnawà:ke Cannabis Control Law Regulations. Community members will have the opportunity to provide feedback and have discussions with the Ratitsénhaienhs, being the purpose of the initiative.

Kahnawa’kehró:non are invited to stop by and ask questions, bring up concerns, make suggestions or comment on any topic in a meaningful, one-on-one respectful setting.

Ietsénhaienhs Jessica Lazare is attending the Iroquois Caucus Harvesting Working Group. The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke saying that Lazare will be in present at the ICHWG meetings in Tyendinaga Territory on both Thursday and Friday this week. The two-day meeting agenda includes discussions on: Harvesting activities and issues; the ICHWG Workplan; the Iroquois Caucus Bill C-53 Statement; the Nuclear Waste Site issue; Indigenous Protected Lands; and the Blackfoot Confederacy.

Lazare is expected to return to the office on Monday, March 18^th.

A new 3.5-million-dollar facility is in the works for the Onake Paddling Club. The announcement coming this morning from the club and Kahnawake Shakotiia’takehnhas Community Services (KSCS). The current structure is now more than 50 years old. According to a release from the 2 groups, the facility is showing its age and can no longer accommodate the programming. The plan is for a 2-story facility that includes a gym, office space, a kitchen, and sufficient storage for all of the boats. A workshop to maintain those boats is also in the plans. Derek Montour is the Executive Director of KSCS:

“I think it reconnects us culturally. We were and are a rive people. We’ve always been connected to the river in many ways and our river was taken from us in many ways to some degree with the Seaway. So, ensuring that our connection to the river remains strong through the next generation I think is critical for us as leaders in our community to stabilize that and doing this investment and supporting the investment of Onake to me is critical for us, because of that cultural connection that we have to maintain.”

Sharon Rice, The Manager of Onake sent a statement to K1037 News. “The Onake Paddling Club is so grateful to be given the opportunity to increase services and ‘quality’ programming for Families, Youth and Community. It is ‘bittersweet’ as we will have to say ‘good-bye’ to the original building but we do plan to have pieces of the ‘club’ present in the new building. The opportunity to build a new facility is a much needed ‘gift’ for the paddlers and families for the next 50 years and more.”

The hope is to break ground this fall and then open in the spring of 2025. The current structure will be torn down and the new building erected in its place. The goal is to secure the funding from Indigenous Services Canada.

Measles is on the uptick and locally, measures are being put into place. Guests on Tetewathá:ren, the Party Line talk show included the KMHC’s Dawn Montour Lazare, Manager of Outpatient Care & Public Health, Mendy Sananikone, Associate Executive Director of the KMHC and Juanita Belanger, infection, prevention and control nurse, with news on the outbreak. Montour-Lazare on the importance of getting the information out:

“All over the world there are cases of measles going on and for Canada up until 1998, they decided there was enough vaccination not to considerate it not endemic and to this point, it’s still not considered endemic, meaning that it’s not from within here or it doesn’t circulate freely but it comes in from another country, so from travelers, which is what happened in this case. So, it started off with 1 case that came in here and now we’re up to 17 confirmed cases in Quebec, thirteen of which are from Montreal and between Laval and the Mauricie/Quebec City area there are 4 more cases there but they won’t tell us the numbers because it’s too low.”

Measles is easily transmissible with so many in Kahnawake travelling, herd immunity is key, but Juanita Belanger the risk for those under the age of 1 is concerning:

“It’s very, very contagious, it spreads by the aerosol route so that means that it becomes tiny, tiny droplets that sit on those little dust particles in the air and they just kind of sit there, they float in the air. What makes it so contagious is the fact that it spreads by that route, it is one of the most contagious infections that exists on the planet, much more contagious than the flu, covid, it’s really one of the most contagious, so, when somebody is exposed, if they are not protected, they have a 90% chance of getting it, where you wouldn’t see that high percentage in other infections. You might have 20 people in a room and only 1 person might get the flu or cold, but with measles chances are that most of them will.”

Today the Lester B. Pearson School Board sent an email to all parents addressing the outbreak and ways to get vaccinated. There is no specific treatment for the disease. More information is available on the Clic-Sante website.

Following on the footsteps of other schools across Quebec, the Kahnawake Education center has decided to turn April 8^th, the day of the once in a lifetime solar eclipse, into a half school day. The decision by the KEC is for safety considerations. Darlene Roberts (assistant to the Director) is the Communications Supervisor at the KEC:

“We actually had conferred and reviewed all of the data that we were getting for the possible damage that might be caused from a solar eclipse during that time and we decided to close for a half a day on April 8th and that’s really for safety reasons, because when the eclipse will be hitting that’s when we are going to be releasing children from school, that lessens our control as to how they would able to see the solar eclipse and possible damage that might happen.”

The KEC is encouraging all Kahnawakeronon to watch the eclipse at the Montreal Science Center where special glasses will be provided to all those attending. The next full solar eclipse in our area will be in 180 years from now.

The Kahnawà:ke Legislative Commission is holding a community consultation on proposed regulations, pursuant to Section 23.1, for the Kahnawà:ke Cannabis Control Law including: a regulation regarding registered suppliers; and a regulation regarding an alternate board member to replace a current member in the event of a vacancy or conflict of interest.

The Kahnawà:ke Cannabis Control Board (KCCB) will be at the Kahnawa’kehró:non Ratitsénhaienhs Community Engagement Kiosk at the Golden Age Club this Friday from 3-6pm, for community members to review and discuss the draft regulations.

In a Facebook Live broadcast on Kahnawake 911, and carried live on K1037,  the oil spill crisis response team updated the community on the progress that has been made in handling the effects of the spill in Kahnawake.  Grand Chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer spoke of political meetings that were held at the end of the week with  the Provincial environment officials and  the city of Chateauguay. She said those meetings had gone very well as had the walk throughs of various areas to plan  what the provinces next steps might be to lessen the impact on Kahnawake.

Also participating in the update Ben Green Stacey of KEPO. He had some good news in the fact that a calmer weather forecast for this weekend means less of an impact on the  situation by high waters in the river and creeks.

You can watch the update on Kahnawake 911 or the K1037 Facebook pages.