Oka Crisis

Oka Crisis

Patrick Cloutier, a 'Van Doo' perimeter sentry, and Anishinaabe Warrior Brad Larocque, a University of Saskatchewan economics student, facing off became one of Canada's most widely circulated images.
DateJuly 11 - September 26, 1990
LocationOka, Quebec
Result Civil dispute suppressed
Belligerents
 Canada
 Quebec		 Mohawk
Units involved

Canadian Forces

Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Sûreté du Québec
Strength

CF:

  • 4,500 soldiers
  • +1,000 vehicles[1]

RCMP:

  • Small number positioned at various barricades & patrols

SQ:

Non local activists:

  • +2,500 activists/warriors[2]

Local Activists:

  • 75-600 Armed Warriors (at various times; including non-locals)
  • Dozens of unarmed local activists.
Casualties and losses
: 20+ CF wounded.[3]
Royal Canadian Mounted Police: 10 Constables hospitalized.[4]
: 1 SQ Groupe d'Intervention operative killed.		 1 Mohawk elder killed.[5]
75+ wounded.[1]

The Oka Crisis[6][7][8] (French: Crise d'Oka) was a land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada, which began on July 11, 1990, and lasted 78 days until September 26, 1990 with two fatalities. The dispute was the first well-publicized violent conflict between First Nations and the Canadian government in the late 20th century.

Historical background

Mohawk people first settled in the Montreal area in the early 18th century, moving north from their homeland in the Hudson River valley.[9] They displaced the Wyandot people (or Hurons) native to the area, with whom the Haudenosaunee (of which the Mohawk were a tribe) had long been in conflict, and who had been weakened through prolonged contact with French settlers. Mohawk settlement in the St Lawrence river valley was influenced to a great extent by French Jesuit missionaries who sought converts from among the Mohawk and who established Jesuit missionary villages for them at Kahnawake and Kahnesatake.

In 1717, the governor of New France had granted the lands encompassing "the Pines" and the Pine Hill Cemetery, where local Mohawk ancestors had been buried,[10] (and to whom it was considered sacred burial ground)[11] to the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice or Sulpician Fathers Seminary, a Roman Catholic order that was based out of Paris, France. In 1868, one year after Confederation, the chief of the Oka Mohawk people, Joseph Onasakenrat, wrote a letter to the seminary claiming that its grant had included about nine square miles reserved for Mohawk use in trust of the seminary, and that the seminary had neglected this trust by granting themselves (the seminary) sole ownership rights.[12][13] In 1869 Onasakenrat attacked the seminary with a small armed force after having given the missionaries eight days to hand over the land. Local authorities ended this stand-off with force.[14][15]

In 1936, the seminary sold the territory under protest by the local Mohawk community. At the time they still kept cattle on the common land. By 1956, the Mohawk were left to six remaining square kilometers from their original 165.[13][15]

In 1959, the town approved the development of a private nine-hole golf course, the Club de golf d'Oka, on a portion of the disputed land.[13] The Mohawk suit filed against the development did not succeed. Construction also began on a parking lot and golf greens adjacent to the Mohawk cemetery.

In 1977, the Kanehsatà:ke band filed an official land claim with the federal Office of Native Claims regarding the land. The claim was accepted for filing and funds were provided for additional research of the claim. In 1986 the claim was rejected on the basis that it failed to meet key legal criteria.[16]

In March 1989, the Club de golf d'Oka announced plans to expand the golf course by an additional nine holes. As the Office of Native Claims had rejected the Mohawk claim on the land three years earlier, his office did not consult the Mohawk on the plans. No environmental or historic preservation review was undertaken. Protests by Mohawks and others, as well as concern from the Quebec Minister of the Environment, led to negotiations and a postponement of the project by the municipality in August pending a court ruling on the development's legality.

In 1990, the court found in favour of the developers and the mayor of Oka, Jean Ouellette, announced that the remainder of the pines would be cleared to expand the golf course to eighteen holes and to construct 60 condominiums. Not all residents of Oka approved of the plans, but opponents found the mayor's office unwilling to discuss them.[17]

Crisis

As a protest against the court decision to allow the golf course construction to proceed, some members of the Mohawk community erected a barricade blocking access to the area. Mayor Ouellette demanded compliance with the court order, but the protesters refused. Quebec's Minister of Native Affairs John Ciaccia wrote a letter of support for the natives, stating that "these people have seen their lands disappear without having been consulted or compensated, and that, in my opinion, is unfair and unjust, especially over a golf course."[18]

On July 11, the mayor asked the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), Quebec's provincial police force, to intervene with the Mohawk protest, citing alleged criminal activity at the barricade. The Mohawk people, in accordance with the Constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy, asked the women, the caretakers of the land and "progenitors of the nation", whether or not the arsenal which the Warriors had amassed should remain.

The SQ deployed an emergency response unit, the Groupe d'intervention (Intervention group), which responded to the barricade by deploying tear gas canisters, concussion grenades[10][11] in an attempt to force the Mohawks to disperse. In response, gunfire ensued from both sides,[10] and after a 15-minute gun battle the police fell back, abandoning six cruisers and a bulldozer. Although an initial account reported that 31-year-old SQ Corporal Marcel Lemay had been shot in the face during the firefight,[19] a later inquest determined that the bullet which struck and eventually killed him struck his "left side below the armpit, an area not covered by [his] bullet-proof vest".[20]

Before the raid, there were approximately 30 armed Warriors in and around the barricade, following the gun battle, this number grew to 60–70, and would swell later to 600.[1] The Mohawks seized six vehicles, including four police cars, and commandeered the front-end loader to crush the vehicles and use them to form a barricade across the main highway.[21]

Members of the Seton Lake Indian Band blockade the BC Rail line in support of Oka, while a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer looks on. Later in the day, several of the elders protesting were arrested and a confrontation with the band community ensued as Mounties marched the squad cars holding those arrested through the reserve en route to Lillooet.

The Warriors established a network for communications between the Mohawk villages Akwesasne, Kanesatake and Kahnawake, that used hand-held radios, cellular phones, air raid sirens and fire hall bells, as well as local radio stations, and human patrols.[11] The situation escalated as the local Mohawks were joined by Natives from across the country and the United States. Despite pressure to do so, their barricade was not dismantled.[11] The Sûreté du Québec established their own blockades on highway 344 to restrict access to Oka and Kanesatake. Another group of Mohawks at the nearby location of Kahnawake, in solidarity with Kanesatake, blockaded the Mercier Bridge at the point where it passed through their territory, thereby sealing off a major access point between the Island of Montreal and Montreal's heavily populated South Shore suburbs.

At the peak of the crisis, the Mercier Bridge and Routes 132, 138 and 207 were all blocked, creating substantial disruption to traffic and anger as the crisis dragged on. A group of frustrated Châteauguay residents started building an unauthorized, unplanned roadway circumventing the Kahnawake reserve. Long after the crisis, this unfinished roadway was eventually incorporated into Quebec Autoroute 30.

Frustration over traffic congestion and diversion due to the bridge and road blocks were occasionally expressed publicly. Residents of Châteauguay burned an effigy of a Mohawk warrior while chanting "sauvages" (savages).[22] Radio host Gilles Proulx raised tensions with comments such as the Mohawks "couldn't even speak French". These remarks inflamed tempers that had been running especially high from comments preceding this crisis, including those by the federal Member of Parliament for Châteauguay, Ricardo Lopez.[23]

On August 8, Quebec premier Robert Bourassa announced at a press conference that he had, as per Section 275 of the National Defence Act, requested military support in "aid of the civil power". Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was reluctant to have the federal government and, in particular, the Canadian Forces, so involved. Under the act, however, the Solicitor General of Quebec, under direction from the Premier of Quebec, had the right to requisition the armed forces to maintain law and order as a provincial responsibility; this move had precedent in Canada, including two decades earlier during the October Crisis which had been requested by Robert Bourassa at that time as well.

It was around this time that the SQ had apparently lost control of the situation, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were deployed on August 14. They were prohibited from using force and were soon overwhelmed by riots caused by Mohawks and mobs created by the blocked traffic (during the course of which, ten constables were hospitalized).[4]

The Chief of the Defence Staff, General John de Chastelain, placed Quebec-based troops in support of the provincial authorities; some 2,500 regular and reserve troops from the 34 and 35 Canadian Brigade Groups and 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group were put on notice. On August 20, a company of the Royal 22e Régiment, led by Major Alain Tremblay, took over three barricades and arrived at the final blockade leading to the disputed area. There, they reduced the stretch of no man's land, originally implemented by the Sûreté du Québec before the barricade at the Pines, from 1.5 kilometers to 5 meters. Additional troops and mechanized equipment mobilized at staging areas around Montreal, while reconnaissance aircraft staged air photo missions over Mohawk territory to gather intelligence. Despite high tensions between the two sides, no shots were exchanged.

Resolution and aftermath

On August 29, the Mohawks at the Mercier Bridge negotiated an end to their protest blockade with Lieutenant-Colonel Robin Gagnon, the "Van Doo" commander who had been responsible for the south shore of the St. Lawrence River during the crisis. This stand-down eventually contributed to the resolution of the original siege on the Kahnawake reserve, and on September 26 the Mohawks there dismantled and burned some of their guns and returned to the reserve after ceremonially burning tobacco.[24]

Mohawks at Oka, however, felt betrayed at the loss of their most effective bargaining chip in the Mercier Bridge: once traffic began flowing again, the Quebec government rejected further negotiations pursuant to their original dispute concerning the Oka golf course expansion.[24] September 25 witnessed the final engagement of the crisis: a Mohawk warrior walked around the perimeter of the blockade area with a long stick, setting off flares that had been originally installed by the Canadian Forces to alert them to individuals fleeing the area. The soldiers turned a water hose on this man, but it lacked enough pressure to disperse the crowd surrounding him. This crowd taunted the soldiers and began throwing water balloons at them, but the incident did not escalate further.[25]

Among those charged and convicted for their participation was Ronaldo Casalpro (who used the alias Ronald "Lasagna" Cross during the conflict). Casalpro was beaten by Sûreté du Québec officers after his arrest, and while three were suspended without pay, the case took so long to process that they had already left the force.[26] Two SQ officers were suspended and investigated for allegedly beating Casalpro while in captivity, but were not subsequently charged.[26] Cross served a six-year sentence for assault and weapons charges related to his role on the crisis and died of a heart attack in November 1999.[26] Casalpro's brother, Tracy Cross, later served as the best man at the wedding of slain SQ Corporal Lemay's sister, Francine, who had reconciled with the community after reading At the Woods' Edge, a history of Kanesatake.[27]

The golf course expansion that had originally triggered the crisis was cancelled and the land under dispute purchased from the developers by the federal government for $5.3 million.[28] The Oka Crisis motivated the development of a national First Nations Policing Policy to try to prevent future incidents, and brought Native issues into the forefront in Canada.[25] In 1991, Ouellette was re-elected mayor of Oka by acclamation. He later said of the crisis that his responsibilities as mayor required him to act as he did.[29]

In media

The Oka Crisis was extensively documented and inspired numerous books and films. Canadian filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin has made documentaries about the Oka Crisis, including Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993) and Rocks at Whiskey Trench (2000). These and two additional documentaries on the crisis were all produced by the National Film Board of Canada: Christine Welsh directed Keepers of the Fire (1994), which documented the role of Mohawk women during the crisis, and Alec MacLeod created Acts of Defiance (1993).[30]

Montreal Gazette journalist Albert Nerenberg switched careers after smuggling a video camera behind the barricades and making his first documentary, called Okanada. While serving a college internship at the Mohawk Survival School, Ric Oliveira was the only American journalist allowed to live on the reservation during the time of the crisis.[31]

Micheal Baxendale and Craig MacLaine wrote This Land Is Our Land: The Mohawk Revolt at Oka. Geoffrey York and Loreen Pindera's wrote People of the Pines: The People and the Legacy of Oka (1991). Donna Goodleaf wrote Entering the Warzone: A Mohawk Perspective on Resisting Invasions, which was published by Theytus Books in 1995.

Gerald R. Alfred, a Kahnawake Mohawk who was part of the band council during the crisis, and who later became a professor of political science, wrote Heeding the Voices of Our Ancestors: Kahnawake Mohawk Politics and the Rise of Native Nationalism (1995). This was based on his PhD dissertation, which examined the issues.

John Ciaccia, the Minister of Native Affairs for Quebec at the time, wrote a book about the events related to the Oka Crisis. His book, titled The Oka Crisis, A Mirror of the Soul, was published in 2000. Harry Swain, then the federal deputy minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, wrote "Oka: a Political Crisis and its Legacy," in 2010.

Robin Philpot wrote a book about English Canada's use of the crisis as a political tool following the failed Meech Lake Accord: Oka: dernier alibi du Canada anglais (1991).

Anarchist author and activist Peter Gelderloos has argued that the Oka Crisis should serve as a model for activists to get what they want for four reasons.[32]

  1. It was able to successfully seize territory and repel state forces
  2. It did not have the support of political or economic elites
  3. It spread ideas of indigenous sovereignty and social justice
  4. It was successful in stopping the construction of the golf course

In art

Joseph Tehawehron David, a Mohawk artist who became known for his role as a warrior during the Oka Crisis in 1990, developed a body of artistic work that was deeply influenced by his experience "behind the wire" in 1990.

In the 1999 film The Insider, Al Pacino's character Lowell Bergman says "Everybody thinks Canadian Mounties ride horses and rescue ladies from rapids. Mike, they backed locals in Oka in a fight with Mohawks over building a golf course on their burial site, they beat up protestors at Kanesatake".

The Canadian punk rock band Propagandhi wrote a song titled "Oka Everywhere", which was released in 1995 on a 10-inch split album with I Spy. It was later re-released on their 1998 compilation album Where Quantity Is Job Number 1.

Additional sources

A vast amount has been written in both English and French and on the Oka crisis, including, but not limited to:

  • Michael Baxendale and Craig Maclaine. This Land is Our Land: the Mohawk Revolt at Oka (Montreal: Optimum Publishing, 1990);
  • Alan C. Cairns, Citizens Plus: Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian State (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2000);
  • Canada, Parliament, House of Commons. Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, The Summer of 1990: Fifth Report of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs (Ottawa, 1991);
  • John Ciaccia, Oka Crisis: A Mirror of the Soul (Dorval, QB: Maren Publications, 2000);
  • Tom Flanagan, First Nations? Second Thoughts (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000);
  • Donna Goodleaf, Entering the War Zone: A Mohawk Perspective on Resisting Invasions (Penticton, BC: Theytus Books, 1995);
  • Rick Hornung, One Nation Under the Gun: Inside the Mohawk Civil War (Toronto: Stoddart, 1991);
  • J.R.Miller, Lethal Legacy: Current Native Controversies in Canada (Toronto: McCelland & Stewart Ltd., 2004);
  • Linda Pertusati, In Defense of Mohawk Land: Ethnopolitical Conflict in Native North America (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997);
  • Alfred Taiaiake, Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto (Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 1999);
  • Geoffrey York and Loreen Pindera. People of the Pines: The Warriors and the Legacy of Oka (Toronto: MacArthur and Company, 1991).

In French:

  • Gilles Boileau, Silience des messieurs : Oka, terre indienne (Montréal: Méridien, 1991);
  • John Ciaccia, Crise d'Oka : miroir de notre ame : essai (Montréal: Leméac, 2000);
  • Francois Dallaire, Oka : la hache de guerre (Ste-Foy, QB: Editions de la Liberté, 1991);
  • Jacques-A. Lamarche, L'Eté de Mohawks : bilan des 78 jours (Montréal: Stanké, 1990);
  • Robin Philpot, Oka : dérnier alibi du Canada anglais (Montréal: VLB, 1991);
  • Hélène Sévigny, Lasagne : l'homme derrière le masque (Saint-Lambert, PQ: Editions Sedes, 1993).

Documentary films

  • Acts of defiance (Montreal: National Film Board of Canada, 1992);
  • Kanehsatake : 270 ans de résistance (Montreal: Office national du film du Canada) / Kanehsatake : 270 years of resistance (Montreal: National Film Board of Canada, 1993);
  • Spudwrench: Kahnawake Man (Montreal : National Film Board of Canada, c1997);
  • My name is Kahentiiosta (Montreal : National Film Board, 1995).

See also

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 "Oka Crisis, 1990". Warrior Publications.
  2. ↑ Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance. YouTube. 20 September 2011.
  3. ↑ La Crise d'Oka - 11 juillet 1990. YouTube. 22 November 2013.
  4. 1 2 https://prezi.com/eet-fwelw-_h/canadas-aboriginal-people-the-oka-crisis-sovereignty-rec/
  5. ↑ Curtis, Christopher. "Joe Norton makes comeback as Kahnawake grand chief". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  6. ↑ Campbell, Lindsey. "(Re)covering Oka: Alanis Obomsawin's Representation of the Crisis at Oka". Off Screen. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
  7. ↑ "Resisting, reclaiming and reconnecting to culture". CBC Unreserved. CBC. 15 May 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
  8. ↑ Barrett, Paul (2015). Blackening Canada: Diaspora, Race, Multiculturalism. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 165.
  9. ↑ Donald A. RUMRILL, "An Interpretation and Analysis of the Seventeenth Century Mohawk Nation: Its Chronology and Movements," The Bulletin and Journal of Archaeology for New York State, 1985, vol. 90, pp. 1-39
  10. 1 2 3 Scott, Marian (July 10, 2015). "Revisiting the Pines: Oka's legacy". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Lackenbauer, P. Whitney (Winter 2008). "Carrying the Burden of Peace: the Mohawks, the Canadian Forces, and the Oka Crisis". Journal of Military and Strategic Studies. 10 (2). Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  12. ↑ Katlatont Gabriel-Doxtater, Brenda; Kawanatatie Van den Hende, Arlette (1995). At the Woods' Edge: An Anthology of the History of the People of Kanehsatà:ke. Kanehsatake Education Center.
  13. 1 2 3 "The Oka Legacy: Oka Timeline: An Unresolved Land Claim Hundreds of Years in the Making". Firsthand. Canadian Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  14. ↑ York, Geoffrey; Pindera, Loreen; David, Dan (1991). People of the Pines: The Warriors and the legacy of Oka. Little, Brown Publishers.
  15. 1 2 Tekastiaks (September 1990). "Mohawk territory at Oka under dispute". Peace and Environment News. Archived from the original on 7 February 2009. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  16. ↑ "Our Heritage", Kanesatake Website, (accessed 12 March 2008) Archived March 7, 2005, at the Wayback Machine.
  17. ↑ Acts of Defiance, 1992, retrieved 2012-05-31
  18. ↑ Alanis Obomsawin, Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, National Film Board of Canada, 1993, accessed 29 Jan 2010
  19. ↑ Associated Press (1990). "Officer Dies as Mohawks and Police Clash", New York Times, 12 July 1990
  20. ↑ "Officer shot from Mohawk gunmen's location in pines", The Hamilton Spectator, 14 August 1995
  21. ↑ "Officer Dies as Mohawks and Quebec Police Clash". New York Times. New York Times. Retrieved 13 December 2014.
  22. ↑ Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993 film), directed by Alanis Obomsawin
  23. ↑ Hamilton, Graeme (13 September 2008), "Dion ranks a distant second in Quebec Liberal leader haunted by Clarity Act", National Post, Ricardo Lopez, a former Tory MP and Canadian Alliance candidate running for the Liberals in Salaberry-Beauharnois, had recommended in 1988 that all Indians be shipped to Labrador
  24. 1 2 Montgomery, Mark. "History: Oka Crisis Ends". Radio Canada International. RCI. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  25. 1 2 "Oka". Canada History. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  26. 1 2 3 Ha, Tu Thanh (2000-07-11). "Crisis inspired many native people - The Globe and Mail". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  27. ↑ Scott, Marian (July 10, 2011). "Oka Crisis: Sister of slain corporal builds bridges". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  28. ↑ http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/oka-crisis/
  29. ↑ Ouellette, Jean (guest); Medina, Ann (interviewer); Maitland, Alan (host) (11 July 1991). Oka: A year later (Audio clip). The CBC Digital Archives. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  30. ↑ MacLeod, Alex. "Acts of Defiance". Documentary film. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  31. ↑ http://www.wsar.com/personalities/ric-oliveira
  32. ↑ Gelderloos, Peter. The Failure of Nonviolence.

Citations

  • Gerald R. Alfred (1995). Heeding the Voices of Our Ancestors: Kahnawake Mohawk Politics and the Rise of Native Nationalism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-541138-2.
  • Hornung, Rick (1992). One Nation Under the Gun: Inside the Mohawk Civil War. Pantheon. ISBN 0-679-41265-4.
  • Craig MacLaine, Michael S. Boxendale (1991). This Land Is Our Land: The Mohawk Revolt at Oka. Optimum Publishing International Inc. ISBN 0-88890-229-8.
  • Alec G. MacLeod (1992). Acts of Defiance. National Film Board of Canada. IMDb
  • Alanis Obomsawin (1993). Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance. National Film Board of Canada. IMDb
  • Alanis Obomsawin (2000). Rocks at Whiskey Trench. National Film Board of Canada. IMDb
  • Geoffrey York & Loreen Pindera (1991). People of the pines: The warriors and the legacy of Oka. Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-96916-8.
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