The Superior Court on Monday granted the Quebec government a provisional injunction which requires several residents of the Mohawk community of Kanesatake to put an end to the illegal dumping of contaminated soil on waterfront properties on Lac des Deux-Montagnes.
Judge Benoît Emery issued a 10-day injunction at the Saint-Jérôme courthouse, following a request from the Quebec Ministry of the Environment. Government lawyers will return to court on October 18 to request an extension of this injunction.
The Quebec government carried out a soil sampling operation in Kanesatake at the end of August, which revealed that contaminated soil had been dumped on several properties along the shores of Lac des Deux-Montagnes.
The injunction request follows months of media coverage and public pressure from community members, who say illegal dumping has been a recurring problem for years in Kanesatake.
Government lawyers named in their motion 17 defendants, mostly Kanesatake residents, and two excavation companies that conducted work on properties where the illegal dumping allegedly took place.
The injunction request alleged that the defendants had committed “numerous violations” of Quebec environmental regulations on 17 waterfront properties, including felling trees, backfilling, depositing contaminated soil and erecting buildings on the shores of the lake. The government claimed that some soil samples had been contaminated with hydrocarbons and that the illegal activity threatened fish habitat.
The government lawyer, Simon Larose, argued in court on Monday that this situation had become “intolerable” and that it continued.
In an affidavit, a government investigator said the department was informed last spring that more than 500 trucks were traveling to Kanesatake every day to dump loads of soil. But the injunction does not target construction companies whose trucks were frequently seen traveling from the Montreal area to Mohawk territory near Oka.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment said last month that the government was carrying out a criminal investigation which targeted all those involved in the matter, “in particular the transporters and construction sites which generate this soil”. On Monday, the spokesperson said the investigation was still ongoing.
Contested jurisdiction
Not all of the defendants were in court Monday, and of those who were, only a few were represented by lawyers. Lawyers for Jennifer Lessard and Joshua Smith-Gabriel, both residents of Kanesatake, said it’s not fair to lump all of the accused together, given that not all of them have been charged with the same offenses.
Mme Lessard was accused of filling in the shoreline of her property, while Mr. Smith-Gabriel was accused of cutting down trees along the shoreline. The soil on their properties was not found to be contaminated.
M’s lawyerme Lessard, Fadi Amine, said his client was trying to level her land so her children could build their own house, and she was assured the ground would be clean.
Government lawyers “give the impression that my client and all these individuals are part of a vast conspiracy to pollute,” he argued. “My client wants her family to live on the land she owns. And she obviously wants this land to be clean. »
He also claimed that Mme Lessard stopped work on his property last June for reasons that had nothing to do with the government investigation. However, according to Me Larose, the deposit of soil along the shore constitutes a form of pollution even if this land is not contaminated, because the loose soil erodes into the water and harms the aquatic environment.
The defendants’ lawyers also challenged the provincial government’s jurisdiction to investigate the matter. They stated that the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake is responsible for the environmental protection of the territory.
“The minister has usurped the council’s authority by undertaking these procedures,” said François Gottlieb, Mr. Smith-Gabriel’s lawyer. “And I think this is a violation of the rights of the people, of the Kanesatake defendants. »
Government lawyers argued that the jurisdictional issue could be resolved at a later date.
Sonya Gagnier, an advisor to a Quebec organization offering legal advice to indigenous people, told the judge that many accused have limited access to legal representation, but that they “agree with the questions of jurisdiction and constitutionality raised today.
She announced that the defendants will represent themselves until they can find someone to represent them.
The government alleges that inspections conducted last August revealed that the defendants were using the land to fill in along the shoreline of Lac des Deux-Montagnes and, in some cases, they then erected new buildings on that land.
A government investigator’s affidavit cites two cannabis dispensaries that were allegedly built along the refilled shoreline.