Faced with immense “social suffering,” the Mohawk community of Kanesatake acquired the Les Jardins de la Pinède market garden in Oka to allow young people to begin “social healing” and reconnect with traditional values through agriculture. The Kanesatake Health Centre project, funded by the federal government, worries the mayor of Oka, who denounces a “disguised expropriation.”
Every time they go to the Pines to teach the traditional values of the Mohawk people and their place in “the circle of life in the natural world,” Jeremy Tomlinson and his team have to clean up before the children arrive.
“But you can never hide everything,” says Tomlinson, executive director of the Kanesatake Health Centre. The bullet casings, drug bags, broken liquor bottles and other signs of destruction that litter the forest are all “manifestations of the trauma that our people are experiencing,” he says, speaking at length about the “shocking” devastation of residential schools that is passed down from one generation to the next.
Growing up in an environment that went completely against the values they were taught, the youth were lost, he says. So he set out to find a new place “free of trauma,” where the youth could experience a “connection with the natural world.” That’s when he saw that Les Jardins de la Pinède, a market garden farm in Oka adjacent to Mohawk territory, was for sale.
One man’s misfortune is another man’s gain.
Jeremy Tomlinson was familiar with the small family business, which was held up as an example of local agriculture in the region. He himself had subscribed to their organic produce boxes for years. But last year, after investing more than $4 million to build a state-of-the-art greenhouse that turned out to be a “white elephant,” creditors took over the farm and put it up for sale.
“It’s unfortunate,” laments Mr. Tomlinson. “But in someone’s misfortune, we have found a possible solution to our immense problem.”
The Kanesatake Health Centre presented its project to the federal government, which agreed to finance the purchase of the farm at a cost of approximately $4.2 million. The transaction was completed a few weeks ago.
Mr. Tomlinson, who is taking inventory of the facilities with his team, admits from the outset that he has no immediate interest in the ultra-sophisticated greenhouse. He has also begun efforts to find local partners who could benefit from it.
What interests him are the farmland and the vast fields surrounding the greenhouse. They have already found between 30 and 50 different species of traditional medicinal herbs. “Agricultural practices are going to be the basis of everything we do here, but it’s bigger than that. We want to reconnect young people with physical health, healthy eating, animals and trees.” While he plans to do agricultural activities that can “generate transactions,” he says that you have to “get out of your head what you know about a commercial agricultural farm.”
Concerns in Oka
The former co-owner of Jardins de la Pinède Marie-Josée Daguerre, who does not hide her pain at the loss of her farm, speaks of a “superb project [de] the Kanesatake community” in his farewell message to his customers and partners on the company’s Facebook page. “I sincerely wish them the best and above all that they protect this magnificent land.”
Oka Mayor Pascal Quevillon is sorry about the transaction. “It’s a bit sad to see,” he said in an interview with The duty. There was already a company in place, which just needed a little boost to be able to continue. It didn’t get it. And on the other side, we are 100% financing a project which, according to what we have read [dans d’autres médias]does not comply with municipal regulations [en matière de zonage]. »
The real estate broker responsible for the file, David Fafard, assures however that all the checks were made by his client, who obtained the zoning grid.
But that’s not the mayor’s only complaint. He says he’s “worried” that the farmland will be abandoned, that cannabis will be grown there, or that it will “get out of control and be taken over by people with bad intentions.”
He laments that no one consulted him in this matter — even though it is a private transaction between a non-profit organization and creditors on private land. “It concerns the municipality because it is funded and subsidized by the federal government,” he responds.
Territorial claims
The fact that Ottawa is subsidizing the Mohawks to acquire land in the municipality of Oka is problematic for him. He points out that the land claims that have been tearing apart the communities of Oka and Kanesatake for decades could resurface. “Our fear is that the federal government is doing indirectly what it cannot do directly. We see it a bit like disguised expropriation.”
The mayor took his complaints to the federal government. In the response from Indigenous Services Canada, which The duty was able to consult, it is indicated that his fears are unfounded: “This is not an expropriation process or a land claim. The Kanesatake Health Centre is an organization independent of the band council and, during the study of the project submitted by the organization, we received assurances that they do not intend to transfer the land to the band council for a possible addition to the Kanesatake lands.”
In response to the request of the Dutythe press attaché for the Department of Indigenous Services Canada specifies that the project meets the requirements of the Family and Children’s Services program, which is why it was accepted. “Under no circumstances does this represent an expropriation process or a land claim […] Furthermore, any territorial addition to a community is regulated by a legal process that involves all parties concerned, including the municipality concerned.