As Quebec promises action, residents demand an end to illegal dumping in Kanesatake
CTV
Quebec's Environment Department is taking soil samples from trucks headed to the Mohawk community of Kanesatake as part of an effort to fight illegal dumping in the area.
The Quebec government says it has an “action plan” to fight illegal dumping of contaminated soil in a Mohawk community west of Montreal, but residents of Kanesatake and the neighbouring town of Oka say they’ve yet to see the signs of a permanent fix.
Government officials are back in the area this week, alongside provincial police, to collect soil samples from trucks headed to Kanesatake. The move follows an operation last week to inspect sites and collect samples along the shores of the Lake of Two Mountains, where trucks have been dumping potentially contaminated soil from construction sites around Montreal.
Frédéric Fournier, a spokesperson for the Environment Department, says more inspections could be carried out in the future, and that “no recourse has been ruled out” of the government’s effort to reduce illegal dumping in Kanesatake.
A Mohawk community member using the pseudonym Pink, who requested anonymity because they feared reprisals for speaking out, says the government is just “going through the motions” and doubts that anything will change. “I’m very cynical when it comes to anything that’s performative, because I don’t trust them,” Pink said in an interview.
Illegal dumping has plagued Kanesatake for years, and some residents say it’s just one symptom of a culture of lawlessness that pervades the community. They want the federal and provincial governments to help restore a sense of safety to Kanesatake, which they say is in the grip of organized crime.
“We’re literally being taken hostage by these people who are just ruining the community,” said Pink. “If this was another community anywhere in Canada, this wouldn’t be allowed.”
Kanesatake’s local police force was disbanded in 2004, when internal disputes escalated into violence. Quebec provincial police have patrolled the area since 2005 but rarely enter the community, which was the site of the 1990 Oka crisis, a 78-day standoff over land rights between Mohawk protesters and the Canadian Armed Forces.
