Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door

Months after a soil sampling attempt led to aggression against two Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) chiefs, prompting Quebec’s environment ministry to cancel the tests, the province has enacted interventions on dumping that could lead to massive fines.

Kanehsata’kehró:non have long watched helplessly as hundreds of dump trucks a day have streamed into Kanesatake, bringing potentially contaminated soils from construction sites in the Greater Montreal Area to fill in lots on the shores of the Lake of Two Mountains and elsewhere.

The number of trucks has ebbed and flowed, but never ceased, as the situation finally drew widespread media attention earlier this summer, bringing condemnation of a brewing environmental catastrophe as the community still reels from the damage wrought by G&R Recycling.

Like in that case, the profit motive is undeniable – proper disposal of construction waste is expensive; taking advantage of a spotty enforcement record in Kanesatake is not. But this week’s action suggests the possibility of change, with potential fines up to $1 million for individuals and $6 million for corporations.

“The purpose of this investigation is to identify those responsible for these backfilling activities and to document the nature of the soils deposited on the shore and in the littoral, including fish habitat,” said Frédéric Fournier, spokesperson for Quebec’s environment ministry, which is working with the MCK, Surete du Quebec, and Quebec’s Indigenous affairs ministry.

In response to The Eastern Door’s inquiries earlier this summer, Fournier confirmed there is nowhere in Kanesatake authorized to receive contaminated soils or residual materials.

According to the MCK’s Ratishontsanonhstats Kanesatake Environment department, the ministry advised that the operation would deploy 20 people, including ministry inspectors and wildlife protection officers, to target six sites on the shores of the lake.

The soil tests will analyze contaminants to determine whether they are likely to impact the habitat of fish in contravention of the Environment Quality Act and the Fisheries Act. 

There have been many public pleas for action, including from a coalition of concerned Oka residents who are planning checkpoint training for next weekend in support of Kanesatake whistleblowers. But it is a group of anonymous Kanehsata’kehró:non who have been largely responsible for hauling Kanesatake’s environmental and public safety distress back into mainstream headlines over the past 16 months.

That group put out a press release in June pressuring the government on illegal soil disposal, demanding an end to lawlessness on the territory.

Pink, one of the group’s spokespeople, echoed this sentiment in an interview this week with The Eastern Door.

“We have lost control of our community because certain people in the community that people are afraid of have been allowed to get away with things, and they do it through fear and coercion,” said Pink, who has been granted anonymity in recognition of the dangers in the community to those who speak out.

Just this month, The Eastern Door documented an alarming spike in suspected arsons this year in Kanesatake – at least 10 so far – with zero arrests in the past seven years of criminal fires.

“We need to have security in this community before we even discuss anything else,” said Pink.

Outside forces have preyed on the community by capitalizing on a degradation of moral values and traditional customs, they added. “It’s not just Mohawks. It’s really the silent partners. It’s their garbage, it’s their contaminated soil,” said Pink, adding a handful of complicit community members who have adopted capitalistic values are facilitating the damage.

According to the Quebec environment ministry, transporters of contaminated soils are also targeted by the investigation.

Pink blamed the system in place, including the band council, for failures to confront the issue to date, saying the efforts of their team’s public pressure campaign have forced the hand of colonial powers that would rather see the community implode.

“This is due to the work of grassroots people trying to make people accountable for the destruction of our environment,” Pink said, noting the havoc that has potentially been wreaked on turtle habitats and endangered species.

“This is really the government reacting to pressure that’s been placed on it. They should have done something a long time ago.”

While the anonymous group welcomes this week’s interventions, these are only as good as the outcomes, Pink believes.

“If something doesn’t happen to stop this, I fear for what’s coming in the future,” said Pink.

It is yet to be seen how the ministry will respond if the results show environmental damage.

“The fine had better fit the crime,” said MCK chief Serge Otsi Simon, who, along with Brant Etienne, was one of the Council chiefs targeted in the physical altercation while trying to facilitate soil sampling on May 7.

On that occasion, the Quebec environment ministry heeded the SQ’s advice and called off the intervention, according to Fournier. Simon believes this was a bridge too far for the government, leading ultimately to this week’s action.

“I’m just hoping the fines they’re going to hand out aren’t just going to be symbolic, that they’re actually going to match the costs,” said Simon, adding that the fines need to wipe out the profits, at a minimum.

He was glad to learn of this week’s action, given the community’s lack of enforcement capacity. 

“Oceans and fisheries, at present they have the laws and the resources. Until we get the resources and make our own laws, you can’t leave a vacuum. Someone has to do that,” he said. “We can’t leave it in the hands of these individuals that are filling up the lands with possibly contaminated soils.”

He also emphasized the role of outside profiteers.

“These band members didn’t just come up with this idea on their own. Somebody had to entice them into this. They need to investigate who exactly that is.”

For the duration of the current wave, many trucks that have been noticed have been branded by Nexus Construction, but far from all.

According to Etienne, MCK chiefs have raised the problem in every single meeting with government officials, whether the environment is the planned topic or not.

“I think our constant lobbying and informing, especially providing photos, providing accounts and everything of just what’s actually going on, and especially with the direct dumping into the river that was happening, I think that really put things into high gear,” said Etienne.

“I think especially with just how egregious and the scale to which the landfill was being dumped into the river and just adjoining it, I think really brought home just how serious it is here, just how completely off the wall out of control some of these people have become.”

The May 7 incident is not the only physical danger Etienne has faced in confronting the current wave of illegal soil disposal. In February, moments after informing Gary Gabriel, one of the owners of the toxic G&R Recycling site, that there is a moratorium on dumping in Kanesatake, Etienne was jostled, ending up on the front of a moving dump truck and being carried dozens of feet.

The Eastern Door is in possession of a video of this altercation. The lot that was receiving that soil is not on the bay and would not be included in the current testing, for which warrants were obtained, according to Etienne.

Regardless, Etienne is adamant that any action needs to go beyond the recipients.

“It’s not just them. It’s the companies bringing it, it’s the developers contracting these companies to deliver it. I’m pretty sure the level of corruption spreads all the way from the beginning to the end,” said Etienne.

Nevertheless, he was surprised by the scope of this week’s action.

“The extent to which this is being followed through with is actually surprising and welcome,” he said. “I think for the community, the fact it also includes wildlife officers to evaluate the fish and wildlife habitats that may be affected by these different dump sites in the river is very good news.”

Shortly after being carried on the dump truck in February, Etienne recalled the bay he grew up on, the air filled with the ribbiting of frogs in the summer, smelling of fresh mud in the spring when the water receded, lush with growth when the water rose.

The bay of his childhood is gone, he said. That weekend, he’d dreamt that in its place, there was only an endless slope of stagnant mud and rock.

“Somebody came up to me and said I’m crazy, that truck could have run over me,” Etienne said at the time. “But isn’t it crazy that everything that sustained our people for thousands of years, that we sustained our culture on, is all gone in not even a decade because of people’s greed, because of outside communities, because of municipalities, because of the Regional County Municipality, because people on the outside want to have suburbs and nice houses.

“We’re the ones where the shit flows downhill and ends up in Kanesatake, and it’s washed away.”

On Wednesday evening, SQ spokesperson Marc Tessier confirmed the operation was going well and that the police are on site to ensure the work proceeds peacefully. The investigation is by the ministry and is not criminal in nature, he said.

The Quebec environment industry’s comments were limited, which Fournier said was to avoid harm to the investigation.

marcus@easterndoor.com

The Eastern Door

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