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CONTESTED SOVEREIGNTIES @ RVH/MCGILL UNIVERSITY

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A cool young kanienkehaka [Mohawk] McGill student wrote this. Pictures were added by MNN:

TITLE: “A Landscape of Contested Sovereignties: Fissure Points Arising from the Archaeological

Investigation at the Old Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Quebec

 by Dallas Karonhianoron Canady

ID: 260987251

Dr. Peter Johansen

ANTH 450: Archaeology of Landscapes

10 December 2023 Canady 1

TIME FOR INDIGENOUS TRUTH

“We shall resist by every means any aggression, any violation of the treaties, any disturbance of our people in the free use and enjoyment of our land, any usurpation of our sovereignty, any encroachment and oppression. We pledge that the noise will be heard from one end of the world to the other.” — Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall (2023:167)

“[The] — David M. Schaepe (2009:244)

Ohèn:ton Tsi Karihwatéhkwen, Matters Before All Else

It is the summer of 2022. I’ve just finished my third year of undergraduate studies in anthropology at McGill University, but any sense of accomplishment I could have experienced was done away with following the death of my father on Easter Sunday. I’ve been bombarded with the responsibilities of handling his estate as his only child, just twenty-one years old. I spend most of my days at home, enraptured in a violent cycle of reminiscing on what used to be and catastrophizing about what my life could possibly become. Somehow, I managed to pick up a job working as a research assistant despite all of this. A professor in my department tasked me with reviewing and annotating some thirty-years worth of archaeological publications as it concerned the discipline’s engagement with Indigeneity, Indigenous peoples, and the concept of reconciliation. I finished my work in August, and it was around this time that I was put in touch with the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera– also known as the Mohawk Mothers. They were preparing to file an injunction in Quebec’s Superior Court to stop a construction project that was going to take place on the northwestern sector of McGill’s downtown campus (Mohawk Nation News 2022).

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Figure 1. A screenshot of a model of the Société québécoise des infrastructures (2023) buildings of the Old Royal Victoria Hospital complex.

Known as the New Vic Project, this endeavor is framed as a collaborative effort between McGill University, the City of Montreal, and the government of Quebec to refurbish the shell of a hospital in the downtown core that has been partially abandoned since 2015. “Classic patient wards and medical facilities will be reimagined and completely reinvented,” notes the university’s website (McGill 2023), as classrooms, dormitories, research labs, restaurants and green spaces. The former Royal Victoria Hospital is considered a cultural heritage property (un immobilier de patrimoine culturel) belonging to the settler state. Further, the land that the hospital was built upon– in fact the entirety of what is now called Mount Royal– is itself considered a heritage site (Culture et Communications Québec 2023). Pursuant to Quebec’s Loi sur le patrimoine culturel (2011), this means that any and all construction taking place was to be subject to, and only to, provincial oversight.

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The Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera raised three potent issues in their application for an injunction: 1) that the land encompassing the Royal Victoria Hospital and Mount Royal fell under Mohawk jurisdiction; 2) as such, in accordance with the Kaianereh’ko:wa (Great Law of Peace) the Kahnisténsera are endowed with the responsibility of protecting the land for the future generations; and 3) also in accordance with the Kaianereh’ko:wa, the Kahnisténsera are entrusted with protecting any and all children of the past, present and future– dead or alive. They came forth with hundreds of articles of evidence detailing horrific crimes that took place at the site of the Royal Victoria Hospital throughout the 20th century, including the now infamous CIA-funded MK-Ultra brainwashing experiments (Burton 2023). Most damning is eyewitness testimony provided by a former patient, Lana Ponting, who alleges that she was institutionalized alongside Indigenous children at the hospital’s psychiatric institute and had reason to believe some of them were buried on the grounds (Annable 2020). In calling for a halt to construction, the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera also demanded that there be an Indigenous-led archaeological investigation to protect any potential unmarked graves on the site.

The role of archaeology in this situation is a complex one. The investigation itself sits on a fragile border between historic and forensic, raising the question of how far in the past must a crime be committed in order to be considered archaeological and not punishable under state law. It is also unique in that it is the first search for unmarked graves of Indigenous children within the province of Quebec, in addition to the fact that this search is taking place at a hospital and not a former residential school site, as is the case elsewhere in Canada (Cooper 2023). But what I will focus on for the remainder of this paper is the way in which the Royal Victoria Hospital– as an archaeological site– has acted as a medium through which contested sovereignties are articulated, imagined and reified. I argue that in mobilizing the concept of, as well as legislation

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relating to cultural heritage, the settler-colonial state of Quebec is in fact making a claim to territoriality and political legitimacy. This is consistent with the historic weaponization of archaeology against the Mohawk nation, which has and continues to be used as a means to usurp our authority and belonging to Land.

A History of Archaeology in Quebec

There are very few scholarly publications concerning themselves with the history of archaeology of Quebec, as compared to the plethora of literature available on the history of archaeology within Canada as a whole. This is despite the fact that the oldest archaeological collection in Canada consists of slate arrowheads found by early 18th-century laborers near Trois-Rivières, Quebec in the town of Bécancour (Clermont 2001:1079). What research does exist primarily concerns itself with the recent development of commercial archaeology in the province (Arpin and Bergeron 2006; Zorzin 2010; Zorzin and Gates St-Pierre 2017; Gates St-Pierre 2018). These academics have largely endorsed the view that there was simply no formal discipline in the province prior to the secularization that took place during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s (Gates St-Pierre 2018:3; Clermont 1999:8-9). Prior to this, it is argued that archaeology was an intellectual domain restricted to the interest of Catholic clergymen (Gates St-Pierre 2018:3-4), anglophone elites and foreigners (Martijn 1998:165-168).

A pillar in the history of archaeology in Quebec and Canada generally, is the re/discovery of the historic Indigenous settlement of Hochelaga in downtown Montreal circa 1860. Named the Dawson site after John William Dawson, a trained geologist and then-president of McGill University, archaeology was mobilized in this instance to “search for traces of […] Jacques Cartier’s voyage up the St. Lawrence River in 1535-1536” (Waselkov 2009:617). The existence of Hochelaga, and whether or not Cartier encountered Hochelaga or another site, have been

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debated at-length since the 19th century. Adding another degree of complexity to the Dawson site is the fact that Samuel de Champlain allegedly found, upon his return to the island of Montreal in 1603, that the village Cartier identified as Hochelaga “had disappeared entirely, leaving no trace of [its] existence” (Hale 1894:2). Dozens of archaeologists, over more than a century, have devoted exorbitant amounts of time and energy in an attempt to identify the ethnic identity of Hochelaga’s inhabitants. Unable to agree on any singular interpretation, this resulted in the creation of the mythic “St. Lawrence Iroquoians” (Trigger 1968). This ethno-historical label describes a group of Indigenous peoples who share traits with contemporary Indigenous nations, but indeterminately so. As described by James F. Pendergast (1975:50):

“[…] There was a large group of Iroquoians in the St. Lawrence River Valley above Hochelaga, present-day Montreal, who were not Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, Huron, or any of the other historic Iroquoian tribes to which they have been attributed. It is postulated that this distinct group of Iroquoians, the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, are the result of an in-situ development in the upper St. Lawrence River Valley during the period A.D. 1250-1575 [emphasis added].”

This narrative profoundly usurps any kind of modern-day claims to political authority and belonging to land made by Indigenous peoples, particularly as it concerns the Mohawks who have insisted that much of the St. Lawrence Valley was known and inhabited by our ancestors (Hall 2023; Gabriel-Doxtater and Van den Hende 1995; Delaronde and Engel 2015). By establishing the St. Lawrence Iroquoians as an entity separate and distinct from contemporary First Nations, and therefore non-existent in the present, archaeologists have created an imagined landscape. This landscape can be understood as res derelictae– that is, abandoned by its original inhabitants. Unoccupied territories fall under the domain of the Doctrine of Discovery: “the legal means by which Europeans claimed rights of sovereignty, property, and trade in regions they allegedly discovered” (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada 2015:192). This blatant, yet unchallenged denialism has formed the roots of archaeological theory and practice in the

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province of Quebec, and beyond. In the next section, I will outline the ways in which archaeology has affirmed the authority of the settler-colonial state following its absorption into the Quebec government post-Quiet Revolution.

Archaeology, Colonialism, and the Codification of Heritage

Due to time and page constraints, I’m unable to discuss the particularities of the Quiet Revolution. However, there are two primary outcomes of the Revolution that are relevant to my endeavor here. The first of which concerns secularization and the centralization of public services under the provincial government, and secondly, the rise of Quebecois ethnonationalism. Both of these factors were influenced, in part, by growing anxieties about Quebec’s ability to determine its own place within Canada and an increasingly globalized world. It is within this socio-political milieu that archaeology came to be seen as an exploitable resource, one that politicians in particular needed to draw upon were they to advance their claims of a culturally distinct and/or sovereign Quebec (Zorzin and Gates St-Pierre 2017:415-16). Additionally, the government’s investment into archaeology as an institution manifested as a form of ‘speaking back’ to the minority of anglophone elite that dominated in the realms of politics and the economy since Quebec came under the jurisdiction of the British Crown in 1763. In many ways, the Quiet Revolution signaled the commitment of a majority of Quebecois to securing the right to self-determination.

1961 saw the establishment of a provincial archaeological regime in the creation of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and its Service d’archéologie et d’ethnologie (Martijn 1998:150). L’Université de Montréal and McGill University founded their departments of anthropology soon thereafter, in 1961 and 1968, respectively (Gates St-Pierre 2018:3). The first piece of legislation to be passed concerning archaeology and cultural heritage in Quebec was the Loi sur les Biens

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culturels (“Cultural Property Act”) in 1972. This, alongside the concurrent Loi sur la qualité de l’environnement (“Environmental Protection Act”) mandated developers in the private and public sectors to investigate the archaeological potential of sites prior to construction or demolition, and report their findings back to the Minister of Cultural Affairs (Zorzin and Gates St-Pierre 2017:414). This included the newly incorporated infrastructure conglomerate, HydroQuébec. In fact, commercial archaeology largely developed in response to the overwhelming number of hydroelectricity projects taking place in Northern Quebec throughout the 1960s and 70s– projects that the provincial Service d’archéologie et d’ethnologie was ill-equipped to finance (Martijn 1998:171). Ultimately, archaeologists working in the province throughout the late 20th century were tasked with identifying and protecting aspects of cultural heritage while navigating the intense infrastructural demands associated with nation-building and modernization.

How exactly is cultural heritage defined under the provincial legislation? Under the Loi sur les Biens culturels, there was no definition of cultural heritage per se. Rather, a bien culturel (literally, “cultural good”) was defined as “a work of art, a historic property, a historic monument or site, an archaeological property or site, or a cinematographic, audiovisual, photographic, radio or television work” (1985 [1972]:3). In contrast, the act that succeeded the original 1972 legislation, the Loi sur le patrimoine culturel (2011) elaborated on several heritage-related terms. An objet patrimonial is classified as “a movable property […] that has archaeological, artistic, emblematic, ethnological, historical, scientific, social or technological value, in particular a work of art, an instrument, furniture or an artifact” (2011:5). Further, paysages culturels patrimonials (“cultural heritage landscapes”) are defined as lands “recognized by a community for [their] remarkable landscape features […] and are worth conserving and, if applicable, enhancing because of their historical or emblematic interest, or their value as a source of identity” (2011:5).

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It is never explicitly stated whose heritage or culture is being referred to in the act. Legally speaking, objects and sites of cultural heritage themselves are stated to “belong to the owner (whether private or public) of the land where they are found” (Gates St-Pierre 2018:5). This is a reflection of the Quebec government’s disengagement with the management and implementation of archaeological practice since the 1990s, wherein it has relegated more and more power to municipalities and private corporations. This does not, however, reflect a diffusal of Quebecois ethnonationalism or a disinterest in cultural heritage. Rather, I would argue that Quebec’s release of much of the control it originally allotted itself in the Loi sur les Biens culturels signifies two things– one being a certain comfortability/air of stability with narratives surrounding Quebec’s history and Quebecois identity, and the other being the implication of private entities in the protection/enforcement of the province’s authority and claims to territoriality. In other words, neither colonialism nor archaeology have disengaged from their reliance on each other– their relationship has merely transformed to fit the demands of capitalist settler-colonial realities.

Kahentinétha et al. vs. Société Québécoise des Infrastructures et al. (2023)

My historical overture of archaeology and heritage law in Quebec serves as a framework that one can use to understand in greater depth the situation that has arisen at the site of the Old Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, which I described briefly in the introductory section of this essay. Here, I aim to dig into the specificities that make this archaeological site a landscape of contested sovereignties. Given that the parties involved remain in court and fieldwork is on-going, my analysis should be taken with a grain of salt, insofar that the situation could develop significantly from now (December 2023) onwards. The case brought forth by the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera is precedent-setting in the context of Quebec, and even more so

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for First Nations across Canada who are engaged in on-going searches for missing and murdered Indigenous women, children and two-spirit folks. As the New Vic Project is taking place within a site registered as a heritage property (the Old Royal Victoria Hospital), which itself sits within the context of a greater heritage landscape (Mount Royal), it is subject to the oversight of the government of Quebec. This includes the Ministry of Culture and Communications, which is responsible for approving archaeology and construction permits, as well as the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), an intergovernmental entity that acts as a property manager for the province. Under the Loi sur le patrimoine culturel, public and private institutions alike have no requirement to notify or consult Indigenous peoples about infrastructure work, archaeological investigations, or changes to heritage legislation/status. Rather, the Minister of Culture and Communications is merely entrusted with the power to “enter into agreements […] with a Native community represented by its band council” should such an agreement lead to the development of “knowledge of cultural heritage and protect, transmit or enhance that heritage” (2011:26). This framework is problematic for several reasons: 1) it establishes the acknowledgement of Indigenous presence and authority as optional; 2) the only Indigenous political body that could possibly be acknowledged or collaborated with is the federally-imposed band council system, and; 3) such agreements should only be drawn up if they are perceived as being beneficial to the settler state.

McGill University (2023), as a party leasing land from the SQI for its portion of the New Vic Project, alleges that it “engaged Indigenous communities” as early as 2019, in an effort towards “making the New Vic welcoming and culturally safe for the entire Montreal community.” This included, among other things, notices sent to the three Mohawk band councils surrounding the island of Montreal– but no notice was sent to the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera,

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whom I will reiterate are the traditional title holders under the Kaianereh’kó:wa (Hall 2023; Hill 2017). In my personal experience working with the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera, I’ve come to conclude that Indigenous involvement in the New Vic Project was either an afterthought, or a thought given very little critical attention. For example, McGill University, the SQI and its contracted archaeological firm Arkéos, proceeded with archaeological fieldwork during the two days that the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera’s motion for an injunction was being heard in Quebec’s Superior Court in October 2022 (CBC News 2022).

Only after the judge mandated collaboration did McGill and SQI enter into negotiations to do so. This resulted in the creation of a settlement agreement between the parties in April 2023. A legally enforceable contract, the agreement outlines the nature of the parties’ collaboration as well as the parameters that the archaeological investigation must follow. Crucially, this included the following: 1) the investigation must be Indigenous-led; 2) must conform to Indigenous laws and protocols; 3) must be in accordance with archaeological best practices, as outlined by the Canadian Archaeological Association; and, 4) must be undertaken in the spirit of reconciliation (Falconers LLP 2023a). Additional safeguard measures were put in place by the settlement agreement to ensure these articles were followed, including the establishment of a third-party expert panel of archaeologists and a body of Indigenous cultural monitors to survey fieldwork as it progressed.

A degree of collaboration took place in the summer of 2023, especially after the allegations of unmarked graves were verified by historic human remains detection dogs in June (Fournier 2023a) and ground-penetrating radar in July (Grewal 2023). However, any trust that existed between the parties was shattered after the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera and Indigenous cultural monitors were assaulted on-site by an SQI-hired security guard in July (Fournier 2023b).

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Tensions were further exacerbated that same month when McGill University and the SQI signaled their intent to dismiss the expert panel and most, if not all, of their recommendations for best practices (Falconers LLP 2023b). Additionally, throughout my time working as a cultural monitor at the New Vic site, I either experienced firsthand or witnessed service providers’ (archaeologists, GPR technicians, among others) open hostility to any questions or concerns raised about their methods and/or analyses. Then in October 2023, the SQI stated that they were no longer going to allow the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera to be present on the site, regardless of whether or not archaeological digs were taking place. With the safeguards they had fought so hard for made void by McGill University and the Société québécoise des infrastructures, they turned once more to the court for help. On November 20th, 2023, a judge once again ruled in their favor, finding McGill and SQI in breach of the settlement agreement (Falconers LLP 2023b). But no degree of punishment or enforcement of the law has been seen since, even as archaeological work has increasingly given way to full-on construction and demolition efforts.

Conclusion

What the case put forth by the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera does in this instance is disrupt the normative assumptions that Quebecois political authority and territoriality are inherent, unquestionable and absolute; and further, that a landscape or aspects of a landscape are ‘things’ that can be owned. In demanding to not only be consulted but to lead the archaeological investigation, the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera are asserting Mohawk sovereignty and their unrelinquished title to land. The inability of colonial institutions such as universities and governments to recognize Indigenous political authority outside of the band council system, and therefore, the inability to recognize Indigenous authority as existing beyond the confines of the reserve system, reflects an inability to accept Indigenous peoples’ rights to self-determination

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and sovereignty. These profound disconnections, notes David Schaepe (2009:244), “remain as points of contention and conflict” so long as the same relational dynamic exists between colonial and Indigenous bodies, and/or as long as one continues to assert an existence that negates the life of the other. At the site of the Royal Victoria Hospital, divergent understandings of landscapes and sovereignty has resulted in an almost complete divergence from the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera’s mandate: to find and protect the unmarked graves of children.

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Mohawk Nation News 2023 Mohawk Mothers File Case August 25th, 2022. Webpage, accessed December 7th, 2023. https://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2022/08/27/mohawk-mothers-file-case-aug-25-22/.

Pendergast, James F. 1975                                                                                                                                                                          An In-Situ Hypothesis to Explain the Origins of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians. Ontario Archaeology 25(1): pp. 47-55.

Schaepe, David M. 2009                                                                                                                                                                      Identity and the Cultural Landscape of S’ólh Téméxw. In Be of Good Mind: Essays on the Coast Salish, edited by B. G. Miller, pp. 234-259. UBC Press, Vancouver.

Société québécoise des infrastructures 2023                                                                                                                      Requalification du site de l’ancien Hôpital Royal Victoria. Webpage, accessed December 7th, 2023. https://projetroyalvictoria.com/.

Trigger, Bruce 1968                                                                                                                                                                        Archaeological and Other Evidence: A Fresh Look at the ‘Laurentian Iroquois.’ American Antiquity 33(4): pp. 429-440. https://doi.org/10.2307/278594.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada 2015                                                                                                              Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Library and Archives Canada: Ottawa.

Waselkov, Gregory A. 2009                                                                                                                                                                    French Colonial Archaeology. In International Handbook for Historical Archaeology, edited by Teresita Majewski and David Gaimster, pp. 613-628. Springer Publishing, Cham.

Canady 16

Zorzin, Nicolas 2010                                                                                                                                                                      Archéologie au Québec: portrait d’une profession. Archéologiques 23(1): pp. 1-15. https://proxy.library.mcgill.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=t rue&db=ahl&AN=56518674&scope=site.

Zorzin, Nicolas and Christian Gates St-Pierre 2017                                                                                                                                The Sociopolitics of Archaeology in Quebec: Regional Developments within Global Trends. Archaeologies 13(1): pp. 412-434. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-017-9328-4.”

This is celebration time. So come on. Bring the good times.  Stand up and move your feet with Kool and the Gang: 

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EVERYBODY KNOWS

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MMN. Jan, 1 2024. Everybody knows and agrees that the defendants violated the judge’s order. If there is no more agreement, then the case reverts to the original mandate. The judge can force the defendants to obey his order of October 27th 2022. In our way, if two indigenous people work out an agreement, and one  violates it, then there would be some kind of serious confrontation. According to all parties, “this was agreed to so that the differences could be resolved in a nice way”. The plaintiffs did all they could to fulfill the agreement. We’ve never withheld any information. Now they lost another argument and have appealed it. 

Finding our children is our destiny. Our three issues are: finding our children, who killed them, and who is accountable. We are unfamiliar with the white man’s court system. We know our system of justice, the kaianerekowa. These children were brought here to McGill and its institutions and they died here. We must find them. Those responsible must be held accountable. Everybody knows murder is a crime. We want proof. Our murdered children are being found all over turtle island. Obviously the institutions do not want to be charged or held accountable. 

The corporation of Canada and its institutions are concerned about money. Their investors want to keep McGill going to make military and mental hardware. They don’t appear to be concerned about students. Quebec Premier Legault wants a French Quebec Republic on indigenous land! Impossible! Mcgill wants to keep everybody at bay. We came to this court because it is their way of law. We have our own justice system with checks and balances that far outweigh the colonial corporate construct of Canada. Since they appear not willing to follow our justice system, the only appellant court we will recognize is the World Appellant Court in The Hague.  

Remember, this is a crime scene. Everybody knows no one is suppose to contaminate a crime scene. If the victims were other than indigenous, nobody would tolerate such tampering of evidence. It is not in McGill’s interest for the truth of the crime to be revealed. 

Sections 35 and 52 of the Constitution Act of Canada 1982 states clearly that Section 35 recognizes the indigenous culture and principles; and Section 52 acknowledges the supremacy of the indigenous way on mother earth. All other laws are null and void. We must find our children. Even Prime minister Trudeau vowed, “We’re going to find those bodies”. 

The judges of the appeal court are appointed by the Prime Minister. So there is a bias here. Our great peace does not recognize the white man’s system. The colonial Constitution Act of 1982 provides that Canada has recognized aboriginal rights which lays the groundwork for the supreme court of Canada to deal with this issue. This ground breaking precedent applies throughout turtle island. McGill and SQI are trespassing on turtle island of which we are the caretakers since time immemorial to the end . We cannot give it up as we belong to the land. Today we are imprisoned in reserve compounds throughout turtle island.  

The appeals court judges must become acquainted with us to understand our natural position on our motherland. We are constantly being bashed with procedural rules from a foreign system of lawyers who take oaths to foreign entities. They create procedural swamps of foreign sewage. 

They try to erase the reality of the murders of our children to stops us from saying anything. They make it like nothing ever happened by putting the genocide into foreign concepts.

The same entity sets up the courts, appoints the judges, makes up those biased laws to cover up their crimes and also carry out the crimes without impunity. This is a “stacked deck”. Like las vegas the house always wins. The “house” is the court of appeal. 

The kasatstensera kowa soiera is the ‘great natural power’ that provides us with the ‘way’ that we are to live, according to the instructions of creation with all our brothers, sisters, families, which includes the natural world of which we are a part.  

No one ever asked us if we agreed to their reservation system or their Admiralty Court system. The citizens of Canada today have never been asked if they agree to be ruled by a Governor General and Privy Council mocking a foreign autocrat.  We wonder what is wrong with the Canadian people who do not event think of these things. The shareholders of the company of Canada don’t ever want their corporate property/citizens to vote on any constitution.

Leonard Cohen says that “Everybody knows”:

Thahoketoteh@ntk.com. Court communication

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MCGILL MAMBO APPEALS JUDGE’S ORDER

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MNN. Jan, 1, 2024. The McGill Mambo is very similar to the Toronto “two-step” where the provincial and federal governments dance amongst each other while absolutely ignoring the indigenous ways and court procedures.

McGill is not following the rules of the court. Judge Moore’s direction is being ignored. Also they are not giving us the data on their excavations of the Indigenous-owned McGill landscape. We must investigate every shovelful they take looking for our babies.

It is now over a month since the judge of the Quebec Superior Court made the order to restore the Expert Panel to find our murdered children, the victims of MKUltra and other experiments. McGill pays no attention. They fired the expert panel on July 6, 2023.

We have worked very hard to bring this application to the court and how duplicitous are McGill and SQI. In court on December 1 they said they were not applying it. In fact, they were appealing it! We want a court order to stop all work right now or they will land in jail!

McGill is taking the tuition fees of the students to stop us from finding our murdered children.

This investigation must be put back on track as soon as possible. This situation Is chaotic and shameful. They show no respect for us indigenous women.

It looks like they will do anything to stop the investigation and to prevent the expert archaeological panel from investigating.  We won the appeal. We have no money nor lawyers to deal with this. Breaking the court order indicates to us that they are delaying any legal procedures that would delay their renovation of our lands, Mount Royal, Montreal and McGill University.   

It’s detrimental for them to continue their ‘denialist’ approach. They dismiss what the search dogs found. Then they used mechanical sifters to break up the soil so that the bones could not be identified so it cannot be established as to whether they are human or animal. The material is now too fine to identify.

We have to go to court again on January 16, 2024.

Nobody has ever heard of this kind of treatment of human remains except for Jimmie Rodgers who was out in the field looking to get mules to skin for his family: “Good morning, Captain. Good morning to you, son.  Do you need another mule skinner out on your new mud line. yodelayhee”…..[Sing along with Jimmie, “mule skinner blues”]:

Mule Skinner Blues Jimmie Rodgers with Lyrics

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UNREST IN THE COURT DEC. 1, 2023

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Mister Justice, the Kahnistensera made a submission regarding that motion on Case Management, as follows:

MNN. Dec. 1, 2023. “Shekon Judge. I unfortunately have to remind you of a very grave matter about the Defendants TOTAL DISRESPECT for the law. There have been some exchanges between the Special Interlocutor, the Defendants and us since the latest Court Order that you issued.. unrest in the courtMr. Justice, on November 20th 2023, these exchanges are EXTREMELY concerning.  One comes to wonder whether the Defendants consider themselves to be bound by the law as everyone else is in Canadian society.  We wrote to the SQI and McGill immediately after we received your judgment, proposing that we write a joint message to the Expert Panel to share the Judgment and prepare updated information on the archaeological interventions that took place on the site since the Panel was wrongfully disbanded. 

The Defendants responded on November 23rd 2023, that they were “currently studying Judge Moore’s latest decision”, and that “excavation work can continue without interruption”. The language is similar to the email McGill sent to all its students and faculty on November 21st 2023, where they said, “We will study the decision and its implications more fully in the days to come. In the meantime, as per the court’s decision, the work at the site may continue”. The main decision within the Judgment to reinstate the Panel was not mentioned.

Ten days after your Judgment was rendered, we still haven’t heard back from the Defendants. I don’t know how much time it will take them to study the 12-page Judgment you issued, Mister Justice. It took us a couple of hours, without any lawyers to help us. It might take them a few months, or a few years, after the New Vic Project is completed, to actually read the Judgment and contemplate ways to implement it! They seem to have all the time they needed to plan and execute excavation work on the site, which continued ceaselessly.

The patch in front of the Hersey Pavilion McGill where the dogs detected the scent of human remains has now become a huge hole. Ethnoscop produced a report regarding the investigation of the dog alert. They say they didn’t find a burial. More precisely, they say that they sifted 150 bone fragments most of which are too small to determine whether they’re animal or human, and ended up suggesting that they must be animal because of the “archaeological context”, not even explaining what the context was. As far as we know, the context is that search dogs smelled human remains there. 

We recall the Defendants had decided to move the piles of soil excavated where the dogs smelled human remains to another location so they could start their project there. We opposed this because we feared that it would damage any bones contained in that soil.

So the piles were moved elsewhere against our consent. They were sifted using a huge machine normally used for mining.  After being moved around and sifted in a huge machine, all that was left of the bones were fragments that are impossible to identify. This report was written on November 22nd, 2023 two days after the Court Ruling that reinstated the Expert Panel. But the Defendants were too busy to implement it. They just let everything continue in the meantime. 

On November 21st, the counsel for the Special Interlocutor shared a letter with all parties suggesting to “work together to enable the Expert Panel to resume its work” by setting a meeting “to outline draft contracts for the Expert Panel” and to discuss whether to replace Justine Bourgignon-Tetrault or to continue with a two-person panel, in accordance with your suggestion, Mister Justice. What did the Defendants do? They never responded. Were they too busy rereading the Judgment? Your Judgment was clear, Mr. Justice, in stating that continuing the work without the oversight of the Expert Panel creates irreparable harm. It’s written in black and white. 

So it’s obvious that if anyone receives a Court Order to have supervision of your excavation work by a Panel of Experts, your priority is to respect that Court Order and reach out to the Panel.  

It’s now been 11 days since the Court Order was issued, and nothing was done to implement it. That’s in addition to the month that passed since the hearing on October 27, 2023, which was in addition to the almost two months that passed since the Expert Panel was unilateraly fired by the Defendants, transforming this investigation into a blatant insult to our intelligence. The Defendants proved these last 11 days, including the three months before, that they have no intention whatsoever of respecting our concerns and even respecting the law. 

They now want to get rid of the Special Interlocutor to leave us without any oversight from any qualified person committed to the sacred work of protecting unmarked burials. The Special Interlocutor and her attorneys played an essential role in allowing the settlement agreement to happen and to bring some sort of agreement and legibility to this mess.

We’re sorry that it comes to that point, but we have no choice but to ask this court to act upon its own rulings and to compel the defendants to respect its decisions. The Court Order issued on November 20th clearly acknowledged the irreparable harm caused by the Defendants’ refusal to abide by the recommendations of the Expert Panel. Eleven days after the Court Ruling was issued we’re still at the same point. The Panel hasn’t even been told that it’s been reinstated because the Defendants keep postponing the very first step which is to announce the Court Ruling to them. It appears their bad faith is such that they won’t do anything cooperative if it’s not directly ordered in black and white.

If the Judgment doesn’t say that the Panel has to be contacted by the specific date, they’ll just never tell them that they’re reinstated! And during that time, we are being hurt and hurt and hurt every single day the excavation moves forward.

Here’s a story. We’re in the desert and we have a gallon of water for two people, and the court orders that we should share the water. But I actually have the water bottle, and when I learn about the court order I start saying that I have to read and re-read it and think about it. But, in the meantime I actually end up drinking the whole gallon of water. What would that mean? To me it’s crystal clear. It means that the law is breached. That’s all there is to it. 

That’s all I have to say”. Kahentinetha of the Kahnistensera Mohawk Mothers.

Ted Nugent, the Motor City Madman, exclaims: “Sabotage on the downtown streets. Police cars overturned. Can’t do nothing to beat the heat. And if you don’t, you’ll get burned. Sleek women behind every door. Cost more money than you got. You best be up if you want some more cause if you don’t, you’ll be shot. Dog, dog eat dog. [4 times].

Kamikaze from the 100th floor, swan dive to the street. He couldn’t handle this mad house no more. He craved that sweeter meat. Yeah, dog, dog, dog eat dog…..”

thahoketoteh@ntk.com MNN Court Correspondent

Kahnistensera@riseup.net

MohawkMothers.ca

mohawknationnews.com kahentinetha2@protonmail.com

INCONSISTENT ACCESS TO INFO FOR MOHAWK MOTHERS

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MNN. Dec.2, 2023. In the “Admiralty law of the seas” the judge is the Captain of the ship, which is the courtroom, and the banker, who decides who will pay what to who. He decides who will be overthrown or put in the brig. On Friday he told everybody to “Figure it out” and left the ship. Everybody was put on “shore leave”!  See Mohawk Mothers Statement.

On Nov. 1, 2023, the Mohawk Mothers went to Montreal Quebec Superior Court to ask the judge to help get the files on the genocide of the indigenous supposedly commissioned by McGill University and the province of Quebec. These documents are being kept in top secret vaults by the supposed perpetrators. The few who survived one of the biggest holocausts in all humanity are being grossly studied. Indigenous were given numbers, their names changed, they were moved all over, experimented on and “disappeared”. Now the state and its institutions whick are in charge do not want the indigenous to have this information. Shouldn’t the indigenous decide who can have this information about themselves? The so called perpetrators and their lawyers presently have total control!

The indigenous want to go into these vaults to review what is left in the stored boxes. Confidentiality clauses were enacted to allow only certain researchers they permit to see them. The indigenous never consented to their children being taken and never seen again. Now the perpetrators hide behind their confidentiality laws to create books and papers about the indigenous people.

The trauma only becomes worse with each betrayal. Each time Mohawk Mothers make agreements these promises are broken so the genocide continues to be hidden. 

The historians and politicians of the corporation of Canada have been trying to wipe out the indigenous from their history. The land and resource owners, placed on onowarekeh, turtle island, by creation, just don’t fit into their ideological needs of the evolving ‘national’ identity of Canada. Free indigenous are not to be part of the public and educational memory. They are to remain hidden deep in the ground, never to be seen or thought of. The historian’s mission is to organize the historical information in a new way – without the indigenous. 

Maybe we should be looking ahead like Zager and Evans:

In the year 2525, if man is still aliveIf woman can survive, they may findIn the year 3535Ain’t gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lieEverything you think, do and sayIs in the pill you took todayIn the year 4545You ain’t gonna need your teeth, won’t need your eyesYou won’t find a thing to chewNobody’s gonna look at youIn the year 5555Your arms hangin’ limp at your sidesYour legs got nothin’ to doSome machine’s doin’ that for youIn the year 6565You won’t need no husband, won’t need no wifeYou’ll pick your son, pick your daughter tooFrom the bottom of a long glass tube
In the year 7510If God’s a coming, He oughta make it by thenMaybe He’ll look around Himself and sayGuess it’s time for the judgment dayIn the year 8510God is gonna shake His mighty headHe’ll either say I’m pleased where man has beenOr tear it down, and start again
In the year 9595I’m kinda wonderin’ if man is gonna be aliveHe’s taken everything this old earth can giveAnd he ain’t put back nothing
Now it’s been ten thousand yearsMan has cried a billion tearsFor what, he never knew, now man’s reign is throughBut through eternal night, the twinkling of starlightSo very far away, maybe it’s only yesterday
In the year 2525, if man is still aliveIf woman can survive, they may find

 thahoketoteh@ntk.com court reporter

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MOHAWKS SHOOT THE RAPIDS Press Release

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PRESS RELEASE For Immediate publication

 

 

We indigenous are part of mother earth who continue to be targets of this ongoing genocide by foreigners. 

“Mohawk Mothers Win Superior Court Judgment.

McGill and SQI Ordered to Comply With

Settlement Agreement and to Reinstate Expert Panel”

Tio’tia:ke [Montreal]. After obtaining, one year to the day, a precedent-setting injunction halting excavation at the former Royal Victoria Hospital site to search for the unmarked graves of the victims of medical experiments, the Mohawk Mothers, also known as the Kahnistenaera, have won their bid for a safeguard order they presented at the Superior Court of Quebec on October 27, 2023.

On November 20, 2023, Justice Gregory Moore issued a judgment ordering McGill University and the Societe quebecoise des infrastructure [SQI] to abide by the Settlement Agreement they had signed with the self-represented Indigenous plaintiffs on April 6, 2023, and to respect the recommendations of the Expert Panel of archaeologists they had jointly selected. 

Justice Moore’s statement that the SQI’s and McGill’s position ending the Expert Panel’s mandate “does not set a term for the Panel’s mandate on July 17th is “too restrictive,” as the settlement agreement “does not set a term for the panel’s  involvement in the on-going search for unmarked graves” [para. 34]. According to the Judge, “The delay and costs of the overall project cannot justify the SQI’s and McGill’s unilateral reduction of their obligations under the settlement agreement, especially when doing so will cause irreparable harm to the plaintiffs” [para. 39].

For Mohawk Mother kahentinetha, the Judgment is a relief. “We’ve fought so hard for two years to search for these missing children.  Our community was targeted for genocide and our children were used as guinea pigs in these horrific experiments by the CIA to see how to kill the Indian in them.  But since  McGill and the SQI fired the Expert Panel we had no way to keep track and trust the results of the investigation, which was now being controlled by the perpetrators of crimes against our children.  The point in signing of the Settlement Agreement was to allow the Experts to do their job, and we were betrayed. We had to do it all alone without lawyers, facing such powerful institutions. It wasn’t easy but we made it. The Judge understood that the only way this can go is in a professional way, with independent experts to oversee everything and make sure our community is informed”. 

The Mohawk Mothers submitted that McGill and the SQI had failed to implement numerous recommendations of the Expert Panel, notably refusing to share data from the Ground Penetrating Radar surveys, refusing to adopt forensic precaution to protect the chain of custody of evidence, and depriving the Mohawk Mothers of access to crucial information such as contracts with specialists.

Justice Gregory Moore found in favor of the Mohawk Mothers’ argument that the purpose of the Settlement Agreement was to rely on an independent and impartial Expert Panel to provide ongoing recommendations, in order to ensure that the New Vic Project would not result in the desecration of human remains, which survivors and search dogs indicated were on the site.  

In August 2023, McGill and the SQI fired the Expert Panel, one of whom had recently resigned, after they asked to implement forensic measures and peer review data from Ground Penetrating Radar. 

Although Historic Human Remains Detection Dogs had detected the scent of human remains in the area in front of the Hersey Pavilion, McGill and SQI declared that there was no evidence of burials there, suggested it was a false positive, and started large-sale non-archaeological excavation in the zone. The Mohawk Mothers were concerned that development work in the area could start before the source of human remains in the zone was established, especially inside the Hersey Pavilion, because the dogs signalled remains next to the building’s wall and because unexplained demolition work took place there. 

Judge Moore’s court ruling will allow for the independent Expert Panel to provide updated irecommendations regarding the zone and the larger site, after being cut off from the investigation since August. 

On November 5, 2023, search dogs detected the scent of human remains in yet another zone, close to the Allan Memorial institute, where the CIA’s MK-Ultra experiments on brainwashing took place in the early 1950’s and 1960’s.

The parties will be back in court on December 1st 2023. to address a motion ordering the release of records withheld by the defendants. 

The Kanien’kehaka:ka Kahnistensera [Mohawk Mothers] is a Kahnawake based group that helps Indigenous women accomplish their traditional cultural duty  as caretakers of the land, to protect all life, including their children and ancestors. They have been engaged in a legal challenge with promoters of the New Vic project to stall future excavation of the former Royal Victoria Hospital until a proper archaeological investigation is conducted, using the traditional protocols of the Kaianere’ko:wa. [Great Peace].

https:// www.mohawkmothers.csa/Contact for press: kahnistensera@riseup.net [514]463-8835 Kahnawake, P.O. Box 991, Que. J0L 1B0.

In 1990, not so long ago, the kanienkehaka Mohawks defended the land and people which speaks who hears their own way. This is our people. This is our song. It’s about peace:  

Magik Squirrel: Mohawk War Song

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“SPACES OF EXCEPTION” Genocide of Indigenous & Palestinians

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Photo: Debra White Plume, Oglala Lakota, in the film, “We Love Being Lakota,” which evolved into the film, “Spaces of Exception.”


Spaces of Exception Film Exposes Atrocities and Genocide of Native People and Palestinians

 

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, November 17, 2023


MONTREAL — The film Spaces of Exception revealing the atrocities and genocide of Native people — Lakota, Navajo, and Mohawk — and of Palestinians — was shown in Montreal at McGill University. It is here at McGill that Mohawk Mothers have an ongoing court battle to search for graves of Native children at the hospital where the CIA conducted MK-Ultra torture experiments.

 
Among those who were involved in the series of films in the project were Debra White Plume and Olowan Sara Martinez, our Oglala Lakota friends of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, now in the Spirit World. Their bold stance as defenders of the water and people was manifest at the Red Warrior Camp at Standing Rock, during the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.
 
At McGill University, the event included the co-editors of the book, The Mohawk Warrior Society: A Handbook on Sovereignty and Survival, with Philippe Blouin and Kahentinehta Rotiskarewake. The film showing was given a small room by the university in an obvious attempt to limit the number attending.
 
‘Spaces of Exception’ is the latest in a series of films, which began with ‘We Love Being Lakota.’
 
Alex White Plume says that the ancient people, the Palestinians, and Native people have been oppressed in the same way. “They are committing genocide after genocide over there.”
 
Debra White Plume says the connection goes beyond solidarity.
 
“It is a spiritual connection.”
 
Debra said that the genocide is rooted in the quest of the oppressors to separate the people, for occupation, and to take the minerals and the land — both in Palestine and on this continent.
 

Matt Peterson and Malek Rasamny, who co-edited The Mohawk Warrior Society: A Handbook on Sovereignty and Survival, directed the feature-length documentary film Spaces of Exception.

The filmmakers said, “Profiling the American Indian reservation alongside the Palestinian refugee camp, Spaces of Exception was filmed from 2014 to 2017 in Arizona, New Mexico, New York, and South Dakota as well as Lebanon and the West Bank. It is an attempt to understand the significance of the land—its memory and divisions—and the conditions for life, community, and sovereignty.”

‘Spaces of Exception’ Standing Rock, Oceti Sakowin Camp, water protectors resisting Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.


Filmmaker Matt Peterson said ‘Spaces of Exception’ includes the Dine’ battling relocation because of Peabody Coal at Black Mesa, the Mohawk Warrior Society and the people of Palestine.

 
“The film investigates and juxtaposes the struggles, communities, and spaces of the American Indian reservation and the Palestinian refugee camp. It was shot over the course of three years in the West Bank and Lebanon, as well as in Arizona, New Mexico, New York, and South Dakota,” Peterson said.
Spaces of Exception film trailer 

“Spaces of Exception features interviews with members of the American Indian Movement, the Mohawk Warrior Society, and Diné families resisting displacement on Black Mesa, as well as members of Fatah, Palestinian environmental and media activists, autonomous youth committees, and the families of political prisoners and martyrs.”

“The film is an attempt to understand the significance of the land – its memory and divisions – and the conditions for life, community, and sovereignty.
 

Akwesasne Mohawk ‘Spaces of Exception’
The first Native land that the filmmakers visited was Pine Ridge in South Dakota, and through activists, were able to reach Olowan Sara Martinez, whose mother had visited Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in 1979 as part of a delegation with the American Indian Movement.


“Once she heard about our project she was excited to meet and talk with us, and from that first trip we made the short video We Love Being Lakota with Ojibway artist Adam Khalil,” the filmmakers said.

 

“The video became something of a calling card to introduce and explain our project and approach. As we continued traveling, meeting people, making and showing short films, it became easier and easier.”

We Love Being Lakota is the first in a series of videos and texts from our documentary project The Native and the Refugee, connecting the struggles taking place on Indian reservations in the United States with those in Palestinian refugee camps in the. Middle East.

Olowan Sara Martinez, Oglala Lakota, Pine Ridge

Olowan says in the film, “For us, as young Tokalas, we don’t wanna be stuck in the waiting process, waiting for a handout, waiting for something to go our way. Waiting, waiting, that’s what Fat Taker did was he trained us to wait, trained us to stand in line.”

 

“Watch out. Join or get the hell out of the way.”

The filmmakers said, “RIP Olowan Sara Martinez (1974-2022), who was instrumental in inviting us to film at both Pine Ridge and Standing Rock, and who appeared in our films We Love Being Lakota (2015), Indian Winter (2017), and Spaces of Exception (2019). She was a brilliant, eloquent, inspiring, courageous, and incredibly strong woman who will be greatly missed.”

‘Spaces of Exception’
In Montreal, Spaces of Exception held its Canadian premiere at McGill University.

The “Spaces of Exception” event at McGill University was sponsored by Stasis- groupe d’enquête sur le contemporain, GRIP UQAM and the Critical Media Lab.
 
Watch “We Love Being Lakota,” with Debra and Alex White Plume, Olowan Sara Martinez, and scenes from the Occupation of Wounded Knee 1973.
 


The series


We Love Being Lakota Adam Khalil, Matt Peterson, Malek Rasamny, 2015, 12 min
This video was taken during our December visit to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Home of the Oglala Lakota, “the fiercest warrior tribe on the continent”, the film takes a meditative look at Lakota identity in the face of US colonialism, and their relationship to the sacred land they have been pushed out of after two centuries of warfare and theft.Men’s Council of the People of the Way of the Longhouse

Adam Khalil, Matt Peterson, Malek Rasamny, 2015, 12 min
Taking place on the Mohawk territory of Akwesasne–on the borders of New York, Ontario and Quebec–this video juxtaposes footage of a special January gathering at their longhouse, featuring elder Paul Delaronde; archival footage of the Mohawk Warrior Society; and shots of the polluted, decaying industrialized remains surrounding their territory.INAATE/SE/ (excerpt)

Adam and Zack Khalil, 2015, 10 min
“Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil (both Ojibwe) provide a raw take on their ancestral community within the Sault Ste. Marie area — documenting the harmony and debauchery of the Indigenous experience today. This experimental film, now in the works, juxtaposes the voice of the romanticizing settler with contemporary Ojibwe perspectives.” — Gloria Bell, First American Art Magazine.
 

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Ry Cooder reminds us everybody has a natural home provided by creation:

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MCGILL: GLOBAL DEMAND FOR CEASEFIRE IN GAZA

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MCGILL TRIBUNE Nov. 2, 2023

 

PROTESTORS DEMAND UNIVERSITY ACTION AND CEACEFIRE IN GAZA midst growing global movement for Palestine-021120231

https://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2023/11/02/judge-overturns-mohawks-tobacco-conviction/

Content Warning: Mentions of violence, death, antisemitism, and Islamophobia

Students flooded out of class at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 25 to join a growing crowd at the Y-intersection, many donning keffiyehs, waving Palestinian flags, and holding signs in support of the Palestinians in Gaza. The protest eventually moved to the James Administration Building, where members of Students for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill blocked the entrance in an attempt to pressure the university to meet their demands.

The protest was part of a wider walkout movement across North America in solidarity with the people of Gaza. In Montreal, SPHR McGill, SPHR Concordia, Solidarité pour les droits humains des Palestiniennes et Palestiniens at Université de Montréal (UdeM) and Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), and Al Raya Dawson partnered to organize and promote the walkout. The organizations listed three demands on their social media platforms: “Divestment from weapons’ manufacturers which arm Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” “an immediate end to Israel’s siege on Gaza and U.S. and Canada funding for Israel,” and “to cease exchange programs with Israeli institutions and cut ties with current and future Zionist donors.”

On Oct. 7, Hamas staged an attack that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and resulted in more than 200 people being taken hostage, according to the Associated Press. Israel has retaliated by launching an extensive bombing campaign, and now ground incursions, in Gaza. Estimates place the Palestinian death toll since Oct. 7 at over 9,000 and the number of people displaced at over 1.4 million, according to Al Jazeera and the Associated Press.

McGill has sent out a series of university-wide statements following the Oct. 7 attack, including one that specifically mentions SPHR McGill, accusing the group of “celebrating violence” on social media and demanding that the group stop using the McGill name. Other McGill communications have encouraged “looking out for each other in sorrowful times” and referenced the university’s Initiative against Islamophobia and Antisemitism (IAIAS). 

Protester Salma El emphasized the importance of everyone—not just people from the Middle East—demonstrating support for the Palestinian cause, and called for an immediate ceasefire.

“I am North African, so we’re kind of brothers with Palestinians,” she said. “To be seeing a genocide happening all over again and no one is talking about it just makes you lose hope in humanity, lose hope in leaders. And I just think that maybe, if anything would have happened to Ukrainians, maybe the world would have reacted another way. Just because it’s Palestinians, no one is saying anything.”

As the crowd grew, SPHR McGill organizers started by leading chants and then delivered a land acknowledgement, drawing a parallel between settler colonialism in Canada and historic Palestine. Chants of “FREE, FREE, FREE PALESTINE” and “VIVA, VIVA, PALESTINA” echoed through the centre of campus as a large Palestinian flag was hung on a rolling whiteboard behind the speakers.

Following the land acknowledgment, an SPHR McGill member reiterated the groups’ demands and voiced support for the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers)—a group of Kanien’kehá:ka women resisting McGill’s New Vic project over concerns that there may be Indigenous children buried in unmarked graves on the site.

Professor of Arabic Literature Michelle Hartman and representatives from SPHR McGill, Socialist Fightback, and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) addressed the crowd. Organizers then called for the crowd to travel up from the Y-intersection to the steps of the Arts Building as the chants continued.

Organizers led the crowd in cheering, “RESISTANCE IS JUSTIFIED, WHEN PEOPLE ARE OCCUPIED” and “PALESTINE IS OUR DEMAND, NO PEACE ON STOLEN LAND,” followed by chants in Arabic.

The Mohawk Mothers—who held a teach-in on the archaeological work happening on the New Vic site from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. in the Leacock building—then addressed protesters from the Arts Building steps, reaffirming their solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

After the Mohawk Mothers’ speeches, protest leaders continued their rallying calls before announcing that SPHR McGill members had blocked the entrance to the James Administration building, and the protest would be walking to meet them. Much of the crowd followed suit and relocated to the site of the sit-in.

At the James Administration building—which hosts various key McGill decision and policy makers, including the Office of McGill’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Deep Saini—the crowd swarmed to surround the small group that was occupying the area in front of the entrance, blocking office workers from going in or out. One protestor climbed the scaffolding, planting a Palestinian flag above where the student protesters sat. The Tribune talked to an SPHR McGill spokesperson who was part of the sit-in while it was happening.

“The demand is basically to end this bizarre and angry genocidal campaign that’s being imposed on the people of Gaza right now, and also for our universities to divest from arms manufacturing companies, which are actively funding this regime,” the SPHR representative said. “McGill-specific demands were, of course, to revoke the threats that were made about changing SPHR McGill’s name [….] The threat of revoking our name, it came from a place of this university refusing to associate itself with a policy and student movement, but also to pretend that there is no segment of the McGill population which stands up for Palestine.”

In front of the blocked entrance, various professors spoke out in support of the movement, including associate professor of political science William Roberts, associate professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism Lara Braitstein, professor of Islamic Studies Rula Abisaab, and Hartman.

“The administration’s response so far has been timid and cowardly. Generally, the McGill administration cares more about the appearance of civility than about the truth and more about the opinion of a few vocal donors and alumni than about the academic freedom of young scholars,” Roberts wrote in an email statement to the The Tribune after the protest. “I don’t expect that to change. Happily, the students don’t need the administration’s approval or assistance.”

A Palestinian student who wished to stay unnamed expressed the importance of those at McGill and in Canada speaking out.

“It’s important to show solidarity. Especially, you know, we have a lot of privilege here, where we have free speech, we should use it,” they said. “I would like to see the university send an email to us condemning what’s happening to Gazans and also divest from all the money they’re pouring into Israel’s pockets.”

The student, like Salma El, expressed disappointment in the lack of support they’ve received from the school, pointing to the difference between how the university responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the current Israeli attacks on Gaza.

“When everything was going on in Ukraine, they sent a very supportive email to Ukrainian students, they announced their support for Ukraine because it was, you know, being occupied, and they were against it,” they said. “So, it’s not that McGill doesn’t want to be political, it can when it wants to.”

In a statement to The Tribune, McGill Media Relations Officer Frédérique Mazerolle expressed that “Members of the McGill community are free to express themselves and to associate within the bounds set by our university’s Statement of Principles Concerning Freedom of Expression and Peaceful Assembly, Charter of Students’ Rights, and Policy on Academic Freedom.”

“Free association and free expression are rights we affirm. But these freedoms are not absolute, and the words we choose, and how we communicate them, matter. We are staunchly committed to building and sustaining a campus community where our diverse identities are honoured and celebrated, where we are safe to express our identities, and where we can all flourish,” Mazerolle went on to write, echoing an Oct. 8 email sent out by Associate Provost (Equity and Academic Policies) Angela Campbell and Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Fabrice Labeau.

The university did not answer questions pertaining to divestment from companies that support the Israeli military or the state of Israel, McGill’s Oct. 10 email demanding that SPHR McGill stop using the McGill name, or differences between how the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Israel-Palestine conflict have been handled.

While there was a large turnout, some students have expressed concerns about the walkout. A portion of the Mohawk Mothers’ speeches, which was posted on Instagram by SPHR McGill and later deleted, gained traction on X, formerly called Twitter, where users felt it appealed to antisemitic tropes that characterized Zionism as monetization, corporatization, and control. 

“The Kahnistensera stand in solidarity with all oppressed groups,” the Mothers wrote in a statement to The Tribune after the walkout. “When seen through the lens of our own struggles for liberation, it is clear to us that the struggle in Palestine is the same as the struggle of all oppressed groups in the world including Jewish people. The common oppressor is European colonialism.”

“It is very detrimental to consider any criticism of Zionism as a criticism of Judaism,” the group added. “Zionism is not Judaism: it is a modern nationalistic ideology weaponizing antisemitism to displace Jewish people and use them to get rid of Palestinians whom they dehumanize.”

Others pointed to language throughout the protest that they felt lauded Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and criticized a pro-Palestine sign that depicted the Star of David, a symbol of Judaism, instead of utilizing the flag of Israel or words.

“Antisemites often find their way into anti-Zionist spaces. This goes the other way, too, by the way, there’s anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia within right-wing Zionist movements. And it’s on those Zionist movements to stamp that out, as well,” a Jewish student who wished to remain anonymous said to The Tribune after the walkout. “Yet, it is so black and white on campus,  that […] there’s seemingly no room for Jewish allies of ending the occupation, Jewish allies of the Palestinian cause—those of us who want to see an end to violence.”

SPHR McGill did not respond to The Tribune’s request for comment before the publication deadline.

The protest continued until around 6 p.m., with the organizers distributing QR-code petitions in support of the people of Gaza.

Our Arawack brother Bob Marley states it clearly: “Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everyhere is war. Everywhere is war. Me say war. That until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of no nation, until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance then the color of his eyes. Me say war.’ 

Bob Marley War

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JUDGE OVERTURNS MOHAWK’S TOBACCO CONVICTION

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Jason Magder  •  Montreal Gazette Nov. 1, 2023

Judge overturns Mohawk pair’s tobacco conviction, citing centuries-old treaties

A judge found that White and Montour were exercising the rights of the Mohawk nation to direct its own economy.

Derek White in a NASCAR suit
Derek White was convicted of fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and profiting from organized crime for not paying federal excise tax on tobacco that was imported from the United States. A judge ruled those charges are invalid. PHOTO BY CHERYL SENTER /The Associated Press files

The Two men won’t face criminal charges thanks to ancient treaties written in the 1600s and 1700s, a Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday.

In a much-anticipated and precedent-setting trial, Judge Sophie Bourque ruled that the Crown was wrong to charge Derek White and Hunter Montour with criminal charges related to smuggling tobacco.

The pair were among 60 people arrested as part of Operation Mygale on March 30, 2016, an investigation into alleged tobacco smuggling from the United States and evasion of millions of dollars in taxes that should have been paid to the provincial and federal governments.

Police alleged tobacco was traded between North Carolina, New Jersey and Canada. They claimed more than 20 shipments totalling nearly 2,300 tonnes of tobacco were shipped to warehouses in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and St-Rémi. White was charged with defrauding Quebec of $44 million in tobacco taxes.

In 2019, White, a former NASCAR driver, was acquitted on one of the two charges of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. However, he was found guilty of fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and profiting from organized crime for not paying federal excise tax on the tobacco that was imported from the United States. Montour was found guilty of aiding organized crime. 

White was facing up to 14 years in prison, while Montour was facing up to five years.

Tobacco is used to communicate with creation.

The pair launched a constitutional challenge to that ruling, arguing that Excise Tax Act tariffs on imports are not applicable to Mohawk people based on Section 35 Constitution Act rights as well as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and rights to trade tobacco tax-free.

They argued that the Mohawk nation has the right to control its economy based on ancient agreements with the British colonial powers.

On the other side, the Crown argued that the Covenant Chain was never considered to be a treaty that is protected under the rights of Indigenous people to self-government.In her 365-page judgement, however, Bourque found that the Covenant Chain was still valid, and that it superseded the other 10 treaties. The Covenant Chain concludes that the Mohawk nation has the right to freely develop its economy, she said. This right is inherent for all Indigenous people and it is protected by the Haudenosaunee traditional justice system. She found that White and Montour were exercising those rights, so the criminal charges against them were not valid.She also found that Article 42 of Canada’s excise law was an unjustified violation, giving the Ministry of Revenue a large discretionary power on issuing licences on the tobacco trade without considering ancestral rights.
Bourque said the trial served as an opportunity to re-evaluate ancient agreements with Indigenous communities in light of Canada’s adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The trial lasted from October 2021 to April 2022. It took Bourque an additional 18 months to render her judgement. The ruling is considered to be an important and precedent-setting one, and as such it may be appealed.

jmagder@postmedia.com

twitter.com/jasonmagder

Message to the government of Canada comes from our great friend, Willie Nelson: “Say goodnight, the party’s over”. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR2xuvKldok

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MOHAWK MOTHERS DISPUTE DISBANDMENT OF EXPERT PANEL

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KANIENKEHAKA KAHNISTENSERA APPEAR IN COURT TO DISPUTE
DISBANDMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PANEL BY MCGILL AND SQI

MNN. Nov. 1, 2023.
https://www.thetribune.ca/news/kanienkehaka-kahnistensera-appear-in-court-discuss-disbandment-of-archaeological-panel-31102023/

The Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) appeared at the Montreal Courthouse for a five-hour case management hearing on Oct. 27. The hearing came as part of the Mothers’ ongoing investigation into McGill’s New Vic Project site—where the Mothers fear that there may be unmarked Indigenous graves—alongside McGill, the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH), the City of Montreal, and the Attorney General of Canada.

The Mothers gave the first statement before Justice Gregory Moore. Beginning with Mohawk Mother Kwetiio, the Mothers urged the court to enforce the settlement agreement, which, in Kwetiio’s interpretation, states that all parties are bound to the recommendations of the court-appointed expert archaeological panel. Kwetiio further alleged that McGill had sent contracts to the three members of the panel—which disbanded on Aug. 3—with three-month termination dates. The Mothers were not informed of these contracts until they had already been signed and were irreversible.

Kwetiio argued that Ethnoscop—the archaeological firm hired for the investigation—did not use appropriate methods to protect the forensic chain of custody of any potential evidence, as they were touching evidence with their bare hands and not using tamper-proof bags. She also stated that the defendants were strategically choosing which information they would share with the Mothers in order to continue the investigation without delays.

“There’s been a lot of cherry-picking of what [the defendants] are going to use to help themselves to further their construction, and not the investigation,” Kwetiio said in a press conference after the hearing.

The court then heard from Mohawk Mother Kahentinetha, who shared that potential anomalies were excavated on the site in rapid time which did not allow for proper significance and care to be given to each anomaly. She said that on one day, nine anomalies were excavated with a mere 45 minutes allotted to each anomaly. Kahentinetha claimed that the soil was not sifted properly, and any bone fragments found were immediately deemed to be of animal origin.

In a written statement to The Tribune, the SQI asserted that all excavation is being carried out in accordance with proper archaeological regulations by expert firms, with proper methods used to ensure soil is not mixed or contaminated.

Kahentinetha also shared that after facing verbal assault from SQI security guards on July 25, the Mothers had asked to be accompanied by Indigenous security personnel from T.D. Security while onsite. However, it took three weeks before the defendants complied with this request.

Kwetiio continued, asserting that the Mothers deserve to be treated with respect on the site and should not be subjected to “uncontrollable anger” from the defendants when they ask questions. She ended the Mothers’ statement by contending that the defendants had breached every part of the settlement agreement.

The court took a fifteen-minute break, after which Julian Falconer—the lawyer for the Office of the Independent Special Interlocutor, Kimberly Murray—gave his statement, alleging that the defendants were being denialistic. He stated that the Mothers already had an insurmountable burden placed on them throughout this case, and this burden had “quadrupled” the day the panel was disbanded. He condemned the disbandment of the panel and alleged that McGill and the SQI had replaced the panel with their own archaeological experts so that they could inform the public that they were relying on the advice of experts.

“Today was about bringing back the experts that know how to do this work, to find unmarked burials,” Murray said in a press conference after the hearing. “We have a lot of companies that can do scans. We don’t have a lot of people that have expertise in analyzing the data.”

Later, the court heard from the SQI. Their statement was delivered in French and translated for the Mothers by anthropologist and associate of the Mothers Philippe Blouin. Members of Take Back Tekanontak—an advocacy group in support of the Mohawk Mothers—were stationed outside of the courthouse after the hearing to show solidarity. In an interview with The Tribune, an organizer of Take Back Tekanontak, Diane, who chose not to give her last name, shared her belief that the lack of a court-provided English translation of the SQI’s statement for the Mothers was appalling and oppressively exclusionary.

“The Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera come to court, and they speak Kanyen’kéha, their own language, and their colonial language is English,” Diane said. “It’s not okay to ask them to learn French as a second colonial language, and yet there is no translation provided for them. I cannot believe my eyes.”

McGill’s lawyer, Doug Mitchell, provided the next statement before Justice Moore. He stated that the university believes that it has abided by the settlement agreement wholly and respectfully, arguing the occasional disagreements between parties are not an indication that the agreement is being violated. He asserted that the defendants are bound by the recommendations of techniques by the panel, not to anything else.

Mitchell additionally claimed that Falconer had “theatricized” his speech to the court so that Justice Moore would rule in the favor of the Mothers.  He stated that the Mothers needed to take the emotion out of the investigation, alleging that the Mothers and Murray only wanted to enforce their interpretation of the contract and were not suffering any irreparable harm by the way McGill was carrying out the investigation.

Falconer responded to Mitchell’s statement, saying that Mitchell should apologize for asking the Mothers to be less emotional about the investigation. He also argued that all parties should acknowledge that the panel’s recommendations have not been followed, as the panel itself believes its suggestions have not been entirely executed.

“It is absolutely essential that McGill, the Quebec government, [and the] SQI come to their senses and understand that it is very short-sighted to essentially terminate a panel they agreed to be bound by in order a further a development,” Falconer said in a press conference after the hearing. “I promise you, whatever few dollars [the defendants] make on their development, the [societal cost] and the [further erosion] of trust is absolutely innumerable in terms of the size of the expense.”

Kwetiio also replied to Mitchell’s statement, stating that Mitchell’s words were “deeply offensive,” and reiterating the fact that all parties would not be back in court if the recommendations of the panel had been respected.

“I think it was pretty disgusting that the defendant said ‘Oh, there’s no irreparable harm done here.’ […] There’s never a situation where any one of us is going to bargain without children of the past, present, and future,” Kwetiio said in response to Mitchell’s comment in a press conference after the hearing.

Justice Moore adjourned court with no decision made, explaining that he would need some time to review all submissions and testimonies. McGill media relations officer Frédérique Mazerolle told The Tribune in an email that McGill will provide a comment on the hearing once Justice Moore makes a decision. A tentative subsequent court date is set for Dec. 1, during which all parties will discuss the issue of archives and records related to the investigation.

“We demand that we have a proper best practice investigation for our children and for those that were disrespected on that site,” Kwetiio said. “I think our children are looking for us to find them, and this is what’s important, and I’m so glad that all these people are here today in support.”

Led Zeppelln knows the way of betrayal; “Lying, cheating, that’s all you seem to do. Messing around with every guy, putting me down for thinking of someone new . . . Your time is gonna come. Your time is gonna come. Your time is gonna come. Your time is gonna come. . . . 

Led Zeppelin - Your Time Is Gonna Come (Official Audio)
KIMBERLY MURRAY SPEAKS:
https://ckut.ca/listen.php?show=15943d&archive=15893