Illegal Dumping in Kanesatake | Oka Residents Prepare to Take Justice to Their Own Grounds

About forty citizens gathered Sunday in Oka to learn how to conduct road checks. Their goal: to prevent new illegal dumping on the Mohawk territory of Kanesatake, but above all, to attract the attention of the Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel.

At Oka’s Optimiste Park, participants attend a demonstration of road control methods. In the parking lot, simulations multiply. An attempt is made to teach residents how to force a truck to stop through peaceful intervention.

For the moment, the learning is mainly theoretical. No acts of civil disobedience are planned in the short term.

“We hope we won’t have to block any roads,” said Julie Tremblay-Cloutier, spokesperson for the ReconciliAction Oka/Kanesatake citizens’ group. “We’ve reached this point because we’re at the end of our resources.”

Citizens could mobilize again if Minister Bonnardel refuses to meet with them in the next two weeks. Illegal dumping on the territory is possible, according to them, because the Kanesatake territory is perceived as a lawless zone. A hypothesis publicly rejected by the Sûreté du Québec (SQ).

“We denounce that the message that has been sent for years is that in Kanesatake, you can do anything you want and there will never be any consequences. It is a zone of impunity. Since then, organized crime has taken hold,” comments M^me Tremblay-Cloutier.

The collective wants Minister Bonnardel to “sit down” with representatives of the First Nations and with him to discuss an “action plan” to ensure diligent security in the sector.

The office of the Minister of Public Security is “well aware of the concerns of residents,” he said in a written exchange with The PressAn operation is underway “to carry out checks on trucks entering Kanesatake” – a second, after the one carried out in July.

“We invite citizens not to take justice into their own hands and not to interfere in ongoing investigations and operations. We have confidence in all partners and the SQ to continue their work and conduct the necessary investigations to reassure Quebecers, enforce Quebec’s environmental laws and ensure everyone’s safety,” continued François Bonnardel’s office.

Almost done?

For weeks, the local community has been denouncing the passage of numerous dump trucks and the inaction of the various levels of government in this regard. Things have changed since then. Last week, the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (MELCC) took samples at suspect sites, then, this week, stopped trucks and sampled their loads.

The gathered residents are far from relieved by these initiatives, since they note that trucks continue to circulate in the area. If Oka Mayor Pascal Quevillon is anything to go by, the problem of dumping has been “almost resolved” for three weeks.

“We will never be able to stop trucks from driving on the provincial highway,” he reminds us. The SQ conducts road checks on the territory, he assures us. Local transporters who carry out legal dumping would even be stopped as a security measure. “We are not going after the right people right now,” the mayor laments.

Although he believes that citizen protests “can be good,” Mr. Quevillon fears for the safety of citizens if they were to form roadblocks, especially because the perpetrators of the dumping are linked to organized crime.

“We are not dealing with choirboys,” he warns. “It is not true that we are going to put citizens on the front lines like that.”

The spills could contaminate Lac des Deux Montagnes, residents fear. If the spills contain heavy metals, local wildlife, including fish, could be contaminated and local water quality compromised.