Category: Featured

Kahnawake’s Skawaniio Library should be ready to reopen soon. It was closed for 2 months because of structural issues with the building. According to  Shakohahiiostha Kyle McComber from Asset Management at the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake: “The project went well and was completed ahead of schedule. The structural engineers (RJC Engineers) inspected the installation and approved the building as safe. At this time, SOD has already relocated back into the building, and the library should be announcing their grand re-opening soon.”

he Winter Community Meeting held last night at the Golden Age Club. The agenda was filled with conversations on the fuel spill. Ratitsénhaienhs Cody Diabo on the bulk of the conversation steered towards the ever-evolving oil spill:

“It’s still a situation that we need to keep an eye out for, we’re not sure how much diesel is in the territory, we know what we are collecting from the various checkpoints. We still need to get out there and try to organize a larger sweep of the area so we have a better understanding of what we need to do.”

With so many agenda items on the table, Diabo suggests monthly meetings might need to come back:

“There was also brought up again about the quarterly meetings, maybe there are too many things going on right now maybe we have to move back to monthly meetings just so that we can get the information out that because it’s important to do what was brought up at last night at the next community meeting, we need to bring up to say: ‘this is what we’ve done since the last community meeting and the different points that were brought up.”

Diabo saying that another meeting could happen following March Break, in 2 to 3 weeks from now.

Upset over how the oil spill was apparently mishandled, tomorrow, the Kaniekehaka Nation at Kahnawake, People of the Longhouse, will be hand delivering a message to the Mayor and Municipal Council of Chateauguay, concerning the fuel spill. The strongly worded letter is already circulating. In it, the Kaniekehaka Nation alleges a cover-up from the spill at Ford and Industrial that was first reported to Chateauguay’s emergency services on February 1^st, a fact confirmed by K1037 News last week. Kahnawake only became aware of the issue when residents in the Zachary Road area noticed the smell of diesel fuel coming from the Suzanne River nearby more than a week later. Joe Deom is a spokesperson for the Longhouse:

“The Mayor of Chateauguay when the oil spill occurred failed to notify Kahnawake for about 12 days and in the meantime we were trying to find the source of the diesel or fuel oil that was appearing on Zachary Road and we could have been a lot more proactive if we had been notified immediately that the spill occurred that we would be able to better prevent further contamination.”

In the letter, the Kaniekehaka Nation alleges a cover-up from the spill at Ford and Industrial, a spill that was first reported to Chateauguay’s emergency services on February 1^st. This fact was confirmed by K1037 News last week.

The agenda for tonight’s Winter Community Meeting from 7-10 pm at the Golden Age Club. The agenda includes discussions on: Land Allotments; updates on the route-207 safety and JFK Quarry; Bill C-92 update; and the Fuel spill.

The Oil spill has some parents concerned at Karihwanoron Mohawk Immersion school. Their new building is mere meters away from the Suzanne River. For most of the last 2 weeks an oil skimming truck has been parked close to the building as it removes the oil in the river. Joely Van Dommelen is the Administrator at the school:

“Obviously, it’s a big concern not for just Karihwanoron, but for the whole community. Knowing that we have professionals working on the situation, I feel comfortable with it, as they have been coming in to test the water and our air and that there is no immediate dangers that we are aware of.”

As for parents and their concerns, Van Dommelen understands:

“We have some parents who have real concerns and then we have some parents that have the same feelings as a lot of us that we’re really happy that Kahnawa:ke is taking action on this. But there are some parents that are very, very concerned of immediate and not knowing the future effects of it.”

The Kahnawake Youth Centre ‘Cultures of the South Pacific Tour’ is well underway. At 27 degrees, 85% humidity, mostly sunny, +16 hours ahead of our time here at home, the KYC travel journey took a chunk of 2 full days, but after 22 hours of flight time, watching the sunset over Canada and sunrise over the Pacific during the group’s longest flight at 15.5 hours from Vancouver, they finally landed at their first destination, Sydney, Australia. Kyle Zacharie, the Executive Director at the KYC on the experience so far:

“They are having a great time, Day 1 and a lot of it was spent travelling before that, so I’m really expecting today to be more alive and active, I mean we all need to catch our sleep too, all of our internal clocks are backwards right now. They had a lot of questions, they were in awe and they must have taken, collectively, over a million pictures already. They are getting to experience the world in a whole different way, not just through a book but they are seeing it through their own eyes.”

Zacharie says the activity schedule gets wet and heat wavy today:

“Today we are going to the Australian Indigenous Museum, that’s our morning and then in the afternoon we are expecting to see weather of almost 40 degrees Celsius and almost 90% humidity, so we will actually be heading to the beach where the majority of our group has elected to do a surfing lesson. So, that is what we are doing today. From here we are also heading to New Zealand and the Cook Islands later on in the week, so we are going to be in this part of the world for about 12 days.”

Controversy has arisen over the cutting down of trees to begin construction of the multi-purpose building along highway 132 in Kahnawake. The Kanien’kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkhwa Language & Cultural Center and its partners (‘the Building Committee’) issued a press release late yesterday saying that they always plan to protect and preserve trees from the site. However, Additional trees had to be removed in order to regrade the site where the building and parking lot will be placed. And that The Kahnawake Fire Brigade, due to Safety Regulations required a fire lane around the building, as an Emergency Fire Route. The release says there are 74 trees that are covered and being protected for transplant. Also: “As promised, there will also be two trees planted for every tree removed either on site or in the community.” Brayden Homer is on grade 11 Student Council at KSS. They are hoping to protest the removal of the trees:

“What I see is that they cut down a lot more trees than they were supposed to do and then they cut down a lot of maple trees too near the sugar shack.”

K1037 News reached out to the project Manager who has yet to agree to comment. They had an information session with the Executive Director of the KORLCC, Lisa Phillips and Trina C. Diabo who is part of the building committee.

An unfortunate incident involving people taking advantage of free food. Ashley Ross is a Volunteer at the Mohawk Cree Teepee Iah Teiokaraien. She says they prepare meals each Friday and Saturday for upwards of 200 community members in need:

“We were just informed that there were community members were coming to the ‘Free Food for Everyone’ and picking up food and that it was being sold to people and elders in the community. We are very disappointed because we wanted to have more of an open approach like how traditional people and native people used to welcome people and share and come into a base or a home and be able to give what they’ve had. So we kind of just left the door open for people to come when they needed it.”

Instead, now they say they may begin instituting hours and locking the doors. The owner of Camila and Co. restaurant in Kahnawake has spent the last couple of days cleaning up and making repairs after a break-in and serious vandalism on Saturday night. Lisa Williams is the restaurant owner. She says she locked up the shop on the 138 not far from the Chateauguay border. Then Sunday morning the Peacekeepers called her:

“So we got a call, somebody noticed that our door was open, so they went to get check it out and all of our windows were busted out. And I was like, ‘what, seriously.’ So, they were like yeah, we have officers on scene and they’re checking it our, So, I got there and I just checked everything out and I was like wow, this is vandalism, this is damage. They were not going there to rob me, because my machines were still there, the cash register was still there, they didn’t try and take it. I just didn’t understand why, because I’m a very easy going person, I don’t have issues with anybody.”

Williams says she has been in business for about 3 years. She moved to the location on the 138 last August. She estimates the cost of repairs to be in the neighborhood of $8000 dollars. Help from She says she is moving forward and hopes to reopen sometime this week. Part of her plan is to install bars on the windows and security cameras as a deterrent.

Oil seepage. KEPO and volunteers are doing everything they can to prevent more diesel oil from leaking down the Suzanne River from Chateauguay. They filled hundreds of sandbags this morning. Tyler Moulton is the Environmental Projects Coordinator for Aquatic Habitats at KEPO:

“We are building a couple of what are called underflow dams at the border between Kahnawake and Chateauguay on the Suzanne River, at the corner of Industrial Boulevard and Ford. What we’re doing is, we’re building these dams so they basically allow water to pass through at the bottom of the dams and then pipes are angled such that, they are only taking water way below the surface and that’s going to trap anything floating including diesel on the upstream side.”

Moulton says there was a big rush because of the very warm temperatures. He says oil has not leaked in to the water in quite a while, possibly since Feb 2^nd, but this is now coming from areas along the banks and in the reeds, and is being dislodged because of the melting ice.

Car thefts have increased drastically in Quebec and Ontario in the last couple of years. So much so, that the government has been publicly trying to do something about it. Especially since most vehicles are shipped overseas out of the port of Montreal. That car theft crime has not skipped Kahnawake. Kaylia Delisle says she’s sure her Chevy Tahoe was marked for theft while she and her family were out for dinner Saturday in the West Island:

“At 7:30 when we pulled in my driver, my husband got a notification saying ‘Air Tag detected’ and from other people’s stories about car thefts, we knew what could possibly happen with an Air Tag. So, he was going around the truck with the ‘Find My App’, when he got to the front end his phone started to beep like crazy, but we weren’t able to see anything because it was dark out. He went around a few times, and for precaution we ended up calling the Peacekeepers.”

An Air Tag is about the size of ‘toonie’ that tracks your location electronically. The PKs looked at her truck, but couldn’t find the Tag, instead they had her park the vehicle in the impound lot for the weekend in order to keep it safe. Yesterday, she brought it to the garage and her mechanic finally found the air tag. Total cost for Delisle $300. Kayla Jacobs of Kahnawake says she found Air Tags on her Toyota ‘Rav 4’ twice in 8 days. First in Verdun on February 13^th, and again in Dorval on February 21st:

“It’s nerve-racking. It’s kind of scary because the same night that the first night my car was tagged a car on the OCR was stolen. I’ve been swapping vehicles with my parents because I don’t really want it to happen again. I’ve even thought about getting rid of it and getting a new car, but it’s too much of a hassle to do that.”

Kyle Zachary with the Kahnawa:ke Peacekeepers:

” People that have these types of vehicles, extra vigilance is going to be required. Parking in a well lit area, if you have security cameras, you can focus them on the areas where your vehicle is parked. Just take precautions to prevent these  kind of thing from happening.