K1037

Category: Featured

  • Local School Buses Pause To Honour Daycare Victims

    Several school bus drivers in Kahnawake who were still on the road paused at 8:24 am this morning along with their counterparts in the region and observed a minute of silence in honour of the victims of last week’s deadly daycare bus crash. One of those was Carl Gilbert who has been driving a school bus in Kahnawake for 7 years:

    “In honour of the little kids. I mean I carry grade 1 to grade 6, plus kindergarten and nursery and, you know, these little guys they don’t know what’s going on in the world and then something like this happens it’s heartbreaking. There’s just so much that you can do and just a little pause, seemed right.”

    As a driver, Gilbert says there are a range of emotions felt when something like this occurs:

    “From anger to outrage to shock. I really feel bad for the parents of the little kids and the ones who are friends with the little ones. They have a ton of questions now. Yeah, it affects you because we have the most precious cargo you can be carrying.”

    Bus operators working for transit agencies in Laval, Montreal and Longueuil stopped  driving at exactly 8:24 a.m. to pay their respects. It was exactly one week to the minute that two 4-year-olds were killed after a city bus was rammed into the Garderie Éducative Ste-Rose, a daycare in Laval’s Ste-Rose district. Six other children were sent to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

  • KMHC Interim Executive Director Considers Her Future

    Valerie Diabo has begun the training to take over the Kateri Memorial Hospital as its interim Executive Director.

    She is working alongside Lisa Westaway until her departure for a job in National indigenous Health Care in April.

    “I’m going to be doing the job when Lisa leave on the 3rd,” Diabo told K1037 News. “So I will be doing interim ED until somebody is hired.”

    Diabo has been with the KMHC since 1988 where she started as a PAB. There was a seven year gap where she went to work at St Mary’s Hospital between 1990 and 1997. After her return she was appointed as Director of Community and Nursing Care, a job she has held since 2007.

    While she works as the Interim, and the ED job is officially posted, Diabo will decide if she wants to be considered as a the full-time candidate.

    “Definitely I’m going to do it in the interim to see if it’s something that interests me. It does interest me but I do have to get the feel of it because it’s different,” Diabo said. “Director of Community and Nursing Care is clinical, because I am a Nurse. But I feel like I have the history. I feel proud to do this in the interim right now. So I’m going to get my feet wet and see if I make that decision.”

    The job will be officially posted later this week.

     

  • Mercier Work Overnight

    Expect Mercier Bridge and corridor overnight closures leading into Wednesday. The 20 east towards the 138 west (Lasalle/Mercier Bridge) will close completely from 11:30pm until Wednesday morning at 5:00am. There will be a clearly marked detour in place. This as the 20 west for the 138 west will have only 1 of 2 lanes available starting at 10:00pm until Wednesday at 5:00am. As for the 138 west over the Lachine canal, there will be 1 of 3 lanes available from 11:30pm lasting until 5:00am on Wednesday morning.

  • KMHC Interim Executive Director Named

    The Kateri Memorial Hospital Center has announced that the current Director of Nursing and Homecare, Valerie Diabo has accepted the KMHC’s Board of Directors offer to become the Interim Executive Director of the Hospital. Diabo will work closely with current Executive Director, Lisa Westaway to ensure a smooth transition until Westaway’s departure on April 3rd.

    The posting for the Executive Director role will be made this week.

  • Kahnawake Loses a Legend as Two Rivers Passes Away

    Kahnawake has lost another legend. Billy Two-Rivers passed away Sunday morning at the Kateri Memorial Hospital Center (KMHC). He was 87 years old. Two Rivers was a standout lacrosse player in his youth and then went on to become one of the most recognized wrestlers in the world. In 1959 and into the mid 1960’s he wrestled in England over a six year period and rose to fame. Eventually he returned to Kahnawake where he ended up serving the community as an elected official on the Mohawk Council (MCK) for more than two decades.

    “First thing I thought of was it’s the end of an era,” current MCK elected official Lindsay LeBorgne told K1037 News. “I had the opportunity to serve of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake with Billy for maybe seven or eight years, plus he was a family friend to my father and my late father-in-law and his wife and my mother. Growing up he was a larger than life person, being a professional wrestler. His passing, I think it will affect everybody from town.”

    Walter Goodleaf served on the MCK for 12 years, all of them with Two Rivers at the council table. He says Billy’s passing signals the end of an ERA in Kahnawake.

    “It sure is. I’m going to miss him,” Goodleaf said. “He was quite a humorous person. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him mad, or if he was it was maybe one time. He liked to tell stories and boy he could really tell some good ones. We’re going to miss him.”

     

  • Emmanuel Christian School Director Meets With KSS Following Basketball Fight

    Kahnàwake Survival School administrators, representatives from Emmanuel Christian School and Kahnàwake education Center Director of Education Robin Delaronde met this morning in Kahnàwake. This meeting coming to fruition a week after a brawl that broke out after a Juvenile boy’s basketball game that was held at KSS. Delaronde says she has had a discussion with Martin Plante, the Director at Emmanuel Christian. Today’s meeting was productive:

    “The first part of it was for sharing information, understanding and concerns regarding the incident that occurred between the 2 schools and at this point in time is that the next steps moving forward are going to be some collaborations between the schools and both schools administration and we look forward to seeing what the next steps will be collaborating to either, prevent or make sure situations like this don’t occur again, but also to collaborate in which our communities can come together.”

    Martin Plante ECS Director of Operations telling K1037 News that it’s important to deal with this incident properly:

    “It went really, really well. We both agree on everything that ha happened. We’re going to deal with it, internally, both of us. We’re going to work together and then we’ll send out a statement for both schools together. Everything is resolved, in a sense, we’re happy; we’re baically going to work together.”

    Delaronde says the GMAA is still investigating the incident.

     

  • Mercier Bridge Ramp Closures

    Maintenance work will require the right lane to be closed on the 138 east & west ramps, the 132 east & west ramps (one ramp at a time) and on the portion of the Mercier span over the St. Lawrence Seaway. That work is scheduled to begin, according to the MCK and JCCBI, tonight from 8pm until 4am Thursday morning.

    The lane closures are required to effect repairs to the lighting and electrical system.

  • Justice Services: Draft Regulations Feedback Period

    Justice Services Division has drafted Regulations for the implementation and operation of the Administrative Tribunal pursuant to the Kahnawà:ke Justice Act.  The Technical Drafting Committee (TDC) is comprised of Commissioner of Justice Kevin Fleischer, Ietsénhaienhs Tonya Perron, Ietsénhaienhs Jessica Lazare, and Suzanne Jackson of MCK Legal Services. Community consultation on the Kahnawà:ke Justice Act Regulations having taken place on several occasions since October, 2022. There are additional engagement activities planned in the upcoming weeks.

    The Draft Regulations will be available for a 30-day feedback period beginning this Friday, ending on Friday, March 12th.

  • MCK’s Social Assistance Program: Added Benefits

    Due to rising costs and inflation, the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke’s Social Assistance Program has announced that more benefits and supplements will be distributed to Social Assistance clients over the next two months. These essentials include: a winter clothing benefit for all active clients and their dependents; heating supplements (to be issued only to heads of households); and the continuation of the inflation benefit (food and household supplies) for all active clients and their dependents. These special benefits and supplements are intended to assist clients with the increased cost of the items being offered and will vary according to the number of clients per file.

    Additional information and details will be released for clients in the coming days. If you require further explanations, you are asked to contact the Social Assistance Program at: 450-638-0500.

  • Ietsénhaienhs Jessica Lazare: Toronto Languages Forum

    The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke Ietsénhaienhs Jessica Lazare is taking part in the First Nation Languages & Education Forum taking place  in Toronto. The event runs until Thursday and is being hosted by the Chiefs of Ontario and the Technical Committee on Languages & Learning. Agenda items include: information sharing sessions; and breakout sessions focused on promising practices and capacity-building support.

    Ietsénhaienhs Lazare will be one of the speakers and presenters. She is the Lead on the Heritage Portfolio, of which Language Revitalization is a key component.