The Quebec Ministry of the Environment is conducting a new control operation in Oka, this time to take soil samples directly from trucks suspected of illegally dumping their contents on the Mohawk territory of Kanesatake.
The operation, which is expected to take place over a three-day period, is being conducted in collaboration with the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) and Contrôle routier Québec, says SQ spokesperson Marc Tessier. “Our police officers are there to assist, but it’s really the Ministère de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques (MELCC) that is taking samples directly from the vehicles,” he says.
According to Mohawk Grand Chief Victor Bonspille, trucks were checked Thursday just off Highway 640, about ten kilometres from the sites where numerous loads of soil were dumped on indigenous territory without authorization from the band council.
“Finally, something is happening,” reacts Grand Chief Bonspille, who has been denouncing the dumping of soil near the shore of Lac des Deux Montagnes for several months.
Chief Serge Simon also welcomes the initiative, but at the same time points out that the coming and going of trucks in Mohawk territory has been going on for a long time: “We have several concerns, including the impact of the activities that have been going on for months. Have they filled in wetlands, for example?”
This new MELCC operation comes at a time when a group of citizen activists from Oka and Kanesatake are preparing to hold civil disobedience training on Sunday to “prepare citizens to exercise road control themselves.”
The organizers, who deplore the slowness of the authorities to crack down on the owners of companies who dump their soil on indigenous territory, promise to equip the citizen activists with signs and safety equipment and to show them how to stop a heavy vehicle “according to the standards of the Ministry of Transportation.”
“The collective believes that preparation for a possible citizen control is necessary because of the inaction of the SQ and the Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel,” wrote the organizers of RéconciliAction Kanesatake/Oka in a press release issued at the beginning of the week.
A feeling of impunity
Last week, the Ministry of the Environment conducted a first operation in Kanesatake to counter the illegal dumping of potentially contaminated soil on the shores of Lac des Deux Montagnes, “directly in fish habitat.”
Inspectors took samples from several sites where backfilling activities have been taking place since the spring along the Ottawa River. “These activities are being carried out without any authorization [et] “threaten fish habitat,” the Ministry said in an email.
The Ministry has also opened an investigation to “identify those responsible for these backfilling activities and document the nature of the shortcomings on the banks, coastlines and in fish habitat.”
Despite the presence of the Ministry, trucks continued last week to dump the contents of their bins in Mohawk territory, it was noted. The Press.
Read “Despite intervention by Quebec, soil dumping continues”
On May 7, inspectors from the Ministry of the Environment were supposed to go to Kanesatake, accompanied by the SQ and representatives of the band council. The inspection was ultimately cancelled due to an altercation on the site. The owner of the land and an employee had attacked two Mohawk chiefs who had gone to a site.