The Superior Court of Quebec orders 17 Mohawk owners from Kanesatake to stop dumping truckloads of soil on the shore of Lac des Deux Montagnes.
The interim order, handed down Monday by Judge Benoît Emery, comes as new evidence shows that spills continued last week on Mohawk territory.
On two occasions last Wednesday, an inspector from the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks (MELCCFP) who was monitoring the coastline from a boat saw the same “colored truck red » come and deposit soil on the bank. Samples seized by the Ministry in August on the same plot of land had already revealed the presence of contaminated soil in the coastline as well as illegal tree cutting.
The inspection documents filed as evidence by the MELCCFP in this case maintain that “more than 500 trucks” per day filled with partly contaminated soil traveled to Mohawk territory during the spring of 2024.
These spills made it possible, in particular, to build a parking lot for a cannabis business on the water’s edge.
A Mohawk citizen where earth dumping was observed, but where no contaminated soil was detected, nevertheless maintained that the dumping of fill was intended to level her land to build a house to house members of her family, pleaded his lawyer Fadi Amin.
The MELCCFP investigation report “suggests that my client was part of a vast conspiracy,” he argued, “but she did not do that to build a vaping store.” “She wanted to build a house to live with her family according to the Mohawk tradition,” insisted M.e Amin.
The grand chief of the Mohawk council of Kanesatake, Victor Bonspille, who had nevertheless said he was in favor of the MELCCFP sampling campaign last August, affirmed before the judge that he was opposed to the request for an injunction to prohibit any new spills.
“When this story started, we had discussions with the government so that it would not come and attack members of my community. And there, we find ourselves with a legal procedure which targets 17 members of my community, when it should have targeted the truckers who transport this land illegally,” explained the great chief in the corridors of the courthouse of Saint -Jerome.
Me Amin and Me François Gottlieb, a lawyer representing another member of the Indigenous community, tried unsuccessfully to argue that the MELCCFP does not have jurisdiction over Indigenous territory, which they say falls exclusively to the band council and the federal government.
The order prohibiting any further discharge is valid for 10 days. A new hearing is scheduled for October 18 to see whether it should be renewed after a more in-depth legal debate.