Expect an emergency road closure tomorrow, Friday, December 16th, that will require South Texas Road to be shut-down. The repair, according to The Capital Unit of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, is for the water line in the area. Therefore, South Texas Road will be closed on the south side of the railroad crossing, weather permitting.
Proper road signalization will be installed to warn of the construction limits with the road affected being closed to all through traffic.
A rally is being organized in downtown Montreal this weekend to honour the lives of 4 Indigenous women who were killed in Winnipeg. They will honour the lives of the Marcedes Myran, Morgan Harris, Rebecca Contois, and Mashkode Bizhiki. The Winnipeg police say they will not search the Prairie Green landfill, where 2 of the women’s bodies are believed to be. Nakuset is the Executive Director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal:
“I just find it really hard for the family members, for the community, the reluctance of the police to do something and it doesn’t really feel like we’re moving forward. So, I’m hoping that we’ll bring people together, that we’ll have some speakers that we’re going to be confirming fairly soon and that people can share their voice and their concerns and send a message to Winnipeg that we are also upset.”
The rally, being organized by the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, will be held on Saturday, December 17th at 1pm in Cabot Square.
The annual Christmas Bird Count is scheduled for this Saturday in Kahnawake. Kahnawa’kehró:non interested in participating in this year’s bird count are asked to contact KEPO to register. Copies of the new Kanien’kéha Bird Field Guide are available for participants. This will be the first year that the Kanien’kéha /English Bird Field Guide is available to participants. Bird Protection Quebec has been conducting the Annual Christmas Bird Count for 87 years in the Montreal area. The area covered by this survey is a 24-km wide circle centered in Montreal West. Julie Delisle is the Environmental Educational Liaison with KEPO:
“They have some really great volunteers that come to the community from Bird Protection Quebec, their usual volunteers and they’re really so knowledgeable about the area and they’ve said to me, in the one’s that I’ve participated in, that this area in Kahnàwake they see some birds that they don’t see anywhere else in the greater Montreal area and that’s because of the diverse habitats we have and the really green area that we have in the community.”
Two teams are scheduled begin at sunrise, continuing until late afternoon, and cover specific areas in the community. The Inland Team will be in the areas of Big Fence, Tekakwitha Island, green spaces along the Seaway, old railroad tracks, Tower Road, the golf clubs along the 207, and common lands near Highway 30. The Seaway Team will be in the area of the North Wall from the Ste. Catherine locks to the end of the Kahnawà:ke land base. All of this is weather permitting and could be moved due to the impending snow storm on Friday.
A former Olympic athlete from Kahnàwake is calling for an inquiry into amateur sport in Canada to address systemic sexual, physical and verbal abuse of athletes. Waneek Horn-Miller is the former co-captain of Canada’s Olympic women’s water polo team who was testifying yesterday in front of MPs in Ottawa about abuse in sport:
“I guess I was speaking from, obviously a place of experience and love of sport. I love sport it has played such an important role in my life, but you know, in water polo, once I made the elite team, of making the national team and the Olympic teams, I talked about the abuse and then what I tried to do myself and some of my teammates tried to do to stop it.”
On advice for future athletes, Horn-Miller has sage advice:
“I encourage them to always to keep in their mind’s eye, when they’re going about their work, that young athletes that’s going into the system and the parents and the families that trust them that they don’t just see them as dollar signs and potential NHL or Olympic team athletes, but they see every single one of them as equally important and should be treated with a ton of respect and that they leave that sport feeling honoured and a better person, more well-rounded. I don’t want them to leave the system anymore feeling used, abused and hurt.”
The testifying was done in front of a parliamentary committee on the status of women looking at girls in sport.
There was a car chase early this morning in Kahnawake. It all began when Chateauguay Police called the Peacekeepers to report a stolen vehicle just before 1 am. The Peacekeepers then spotted the car on the Old Malone Highway passing by Step x Step at around 1:05 this morning. When an attempt was made to pull the vehicle over, the driver sped off heading in the direction of the 138, when he deviated left.
According to the PKs, the 20-year-old non local then crashed the car by the traffic area near the 207-overpass, where he was arrested and subsequently handed over to the Chateauguay police. Once they are done charging him, he will be handed back over to the Peacekeepers in order to charge him in town. There were no injuries reported.
The Kahnawà:ke Environment Protection Office (KEPO) will be conducting a study on fish health this winter. KEPO is looking to collaborate with local community ice-fishing members to collect samples for analysis and are inviting those interested in Kahnawà:ke fish health, including the contribution of fish samples for the study, to join KEPO for an information session and discussion at the Golden Age Club. This gathering is scheduled for Wednesday, December 14th, between 6pm and 8pm with discussion items to include: the review of knowledge of fish health; previous fish health studies in Kahnawà:ke; joint development of methods in the upcoming study; and expectations for upcoming study, as a follow-up to previous studies done in 1997 and 2010.
To get involve, you are asked to contact KEPO at 450-635-0600 or environmentprotection@mck.ca.
Expect weekend roadwork on the Mercier bridge, heading from Montréal towards Kahnawà:ke. There will be only 1 lane available on Saturday with the closure of the 2nd lane running from 12 Noon until midnight.
Residents on War Eagle Road can expect a water shutoff to start next week. The Capital Unit of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke saying that the water service will be temporarily turned off on a section of War Eagle Road on Monday, December 12th or Tuesday, December 13th, between 8am and 3pm, weather permitting. The Capital Construction Crew will be installing a new waterline in the area.
The water service will be interrupted just long enough to complete the required installation and will be turned back into service following the work.
The viewing and the funeral for Dr. Suzanne Jones will be held this weekend in Montreal at the Centre Funéraire Côte-des-Neiges in Montreal at 4525 Côte-des-Neiges: Saturday from Noon to 5pm and 7pm to 9pm and on Sunday between Noon and 5pm. The memorial service will be held on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. and it will be livestreamed. A special free bus service is being offered by the KMHC for 48 community members who wish to attend the funeral on Sunday afternoon. The bus will leave the KMHC parking lot at 3 pm that day. The bus is being sponsored by the MCK with the help of KSDPP. Call Lynn Beauvais to reserve your spot 514-970-6842. Masks are required on the bus and at the funeral.
The COP15 conference on biodiversity continues today in downtown Montreal. Kenneth Deer of Kahnawà:ke is playing a vital role as he has been advising organizers on Indigenous participation and opening thanksgivings at various events:
“Your whole issue of land acknowledgment and we want to make sure that they understood that they were on Mohawk Territory or Kanien’kehá:ka Territory and it was very nice to hear that different organizations and different states are acknowledging that they’re on our territory.”
The Kahnawà:ke Environment Protection Office (KEPO) staff and Ratsénhaienhs Ross Montour will be making a presentation at the COP15 global biodiversity conference this weekend. They will be presenting on the challenges and successes encountered during the Tekakwitha Island and Bay Restoration project. Montour says it’s important that Indigenous voices are heard:
“There will be a section of our presentation on Sunday, 10am-1pm, which will include an history of the cumulative impact that we have as a Mohawk community have been impacted by over, let’s say, the last 100 years, but with a particular focus though on the last 68 years which would be the beginnings of the Saint-Lawrence Seaway, but we’re also going to be talking about the restoration project.”
COP15 is taking place until December 19th, at the Palais des Congress in Montreal. This year’s objective is to negotiate and adopt the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. The framework will contain a series of global goals and targets which will drive conservation priorities to the year 2030 and beyond.