[IPSM] Aboriginal media just whistling Dixie (re: Kanehsatake)

[Devin Butler]

  May 3 - 2004
 >
 > Aboriginal media just whistling Dixie
 >
 > MEDIUM RARE
 >
 > Dan David, Windspeaker Columnist
 >
 > In mid-January, Kanehsatake exploded in the national consciousness
 > once more. Looking back at the media coverage of the events, familiar
 > patterns emerge.
 >
 > Major Canadian news organizations immediately pumped up the volume by
 > resurrecting images of the 1990 Oka crisis, masked Mohawk warriors
 > and all. They soon transformed the story into one of criminals versus
 > a crime-fighting chief. Then journalists painted Kanehsatake as a
 > community with never-ending problems, doomed by petty family
 > squabbles. The Montreal Gazette finally declared the story "a small-
 > town drama or farce." Few journalists, including Aboriginal
 > journalists, looked much deeper into the story or deviated from these
 > easy stereotypes.
 >
 > Kanehsatake Mohawk Territory is dysfunctional. It has a population of
 > about 2,500. It's millions of dollars in debt. It has escalating
 > legal bills in excess of $1 million, thanks to the endless court
 > fights between various factions on band council. It can't afford the
 > $1.5 million it takes to run the community. Services have been cut or
 > cut back drastically.
 >
 > Teachers worry about jobs. The school is in jeopardy. Parents worry
 > about their children. Families that should have had homes must wait
 > because monies earmarked for housing, education and social services
 > have been diverted to cover the on-going mismanagement at the band
 > office. Yet, reporters didn't ask why this community is in such bad
 > shape or why the federal and provincial governments not only support
 > Chief James Gabriel, but throw more money at him.
 >
 > The Department of Indian Affairs put Kanehsatake under third-party
 > management late last year. However, this didn't prevent the federal
 > solicitor general from signing a secret deal with Chief Gabriel on
 > Christmas Eve, when offices were closed and no one was watching,
 > worth $900,000 to bring into the community 60 Native cops from across
 > the province to take over from the local police force. Nobody asked
 > what happened to that money since those Native cops were sent
 > packing.
 >
 > Residents have accused PricewaterhouseCoopers, the third-party
 > manager, of withholding payment on a variety of necessities in the
 > community until Chief Gabriel first approves of the expenditure.
 > People complain that some bills were paid while others were not
 > depending upon which side of the political fence one sat. But
 > journalists weren't interested in pursuing these stories nor were the
 > people at Kanehsatake surprised. They'd seen it all before.
 >
 > Take that policing deal, for example. For months, they'd heard rumors
 > about it. They'd asked, but "King James," as people began to call
 > him, refused to explain. He operated in secret, even with most of his
 > council. People at Kanehsatake only learned details of the policing
 > deal when an outsider obtained a copy of the agreement from Ottawa.
 >
 > Ever since taking office, the chief wanted to settle a deal with the
 > federal government over lands it had purchased for the community. In
 > late 1999, he had an agreement-in-principle, negotiated again in
 > secret and never fully disclosed to the community.
 >
 > So it came as a surprise to many when, in March 2001, then-minister
 > of Indian Affairs Bob Nault introduced the "Kanesatake Interim Land
 > Base Governance Act."
 >
 > The minister didn't go to the House of Commons with it, where full
 > debate of the act might have taken place. Instead he took it to the
 > Senate, an unusual move for a bill with far-reaching implications for
 > Aboriginal and treaty rights.
 >
 > Over the next few months, Bill S-24 was rushed through hearings, most
 > held in camera and away from prying eyes. The Senate Aboriginal
 > affairs committee tabled a report, but kept it quiet. On May 15, 2001
 > the House of Commons passed Bill S-24 on third reading. Some MPs had
 > asked questions, but they didn't have much information to go on. On
 > June 14, Bill S-24 became law.
 >
 > It took three months, an amazing-almost unheard of-feat!
 >
 > Ellen Gabriel, one of the few Mohawks to attend those Senate
 > hearings, urged caution about this deal, about her cousin, James
 > Gabriel, and of the consequences the deal had for the people back
 > home.
 > "Within the band council system." Ellen testified, "there is a group
 > of people that makes unilateral decisions on behalf of the whole
 > community. The whole community does not know what is going on. It
 > only knows what is happening when James Gabriel calls a press
 > conference."
 >
 > In late 2001, somebody shot at Kanehsatake's police station. In the
 > past, it was "never-will-be" warriors shooting up the place.
 > Something was different this time. It wasn't gang-related. It was
 > politically motivated. It came after Chief Gabriel signed the
 > agreement that transferred $14 million worth of land purchased by the
 > federal government to the control of a private corporation-not the
 > band-called Kanesatake Orihwa'shon:a Development Corporation.
 >
 > Two band councilors-Pearl Bonspille and John Harding-were listed as
 > directors of this company and involved in the negotiations. Rumors
 > circulated about shady dealings, conflict of interest and corruption.
 > Nothing could be proven; everything was done in secret.
 >
 > The only band meeting about this deal ended suddenly when one of the
 > leaders of a rival faction in the community assaulted Chief Gabriel.
 > A few months later, Chief Gabriel pushed through, and narrowly won, a
 > referendum to accept the deal despite a massive boycott by band
 > members who demanded more information first. The vote was 239 to 237.
 >
 > No one had explained to the people of Kanehsatake that Chief
 > Gabriel's deal would turn their lands into "fee simple" ownership,
 > remove tax exemption, require "harmonization" of band by-laws with
 > the town of Oka. Or that the "Kanesatake Interim Land Base Governance
 > Act" was the first step in turning Kanehsatake Mohawk territory into
 > a municipality.
 >
 > Everyone was asleep at the switch while this was going on, except for
 > people at Kanehsatake. But they couldn't get anyone's attention.
 > Federal Indian Affairs Minister Andy Mitchell and the Quebec
 > government support Chief Gabriel and his faction no matter how
 > serious the situation at Kanehsatake gets or how many lives are
 > affected. They'll overlook serious problems with band officials in
 > order to prop up this system.
 >
 > Where was the Assembly of First Nations or other Mohawk communities?
 > Phil Fontaine (and Matthew Coon Come before him) and his Quebec
 > lieutenant, Ghislain Picard, won't say or do anything. As
 > an "organization of chiefs," they say they can't interfere in the
 > internal affairs of a band. Better to support a ridiculous chief at
 > the "Laval band office," a hotel near Montreal, than protect the
 > welfare of the people at Kanehsatake.
 >
 > Joe Norton of Kahnawake spoke up, but only because S-24 also affected
 > lands held jointly between his territory and Kanehsatake at a
 > northern reserve called Doncaster.
 >
 > True, a mob burned Chief Gabriel's house, threatened his family and
 > his life, drove him into exile. The people responsible for that must
 > be charged and, if found guilty, suffer the consequences. But neither
 > the federal and provincial governments, nor Aboriginal leaders, have
 > acknowledged that the tribe has spoken on numerous other occasions
 > and in more peaceful ways saying they don't trust Chief Gabriel or
 > the band council.
 >
 > Everyone had, and still has, an excuse for doing nothing-including
 > the Aboriginal media. It isn't difficult to understand why. This was
 > never a story about a chief abusing authority, in love with secrecy,
 > distrustful of his people, responsible for rendering it
 > dysfunctional. Instead, the media was mesmerized by age-old
 > stereotypes that portrayed the Mohawks at Kanehsatake as little more
 > than feuding families unable to run their own lives. The pity is that
 > in doing so, they missed the real story.
 >
 > Editor's note: Windspeaker columnist Dan David is a Mohawk journalist
 > from Kanehsatake working in Ottawa.

Concerned Kanehsatake Community Members

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Premium: Up to 11 personalized e-mail addresses and 2 months FREE*   
http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines