Mohawk Council of Akwesasne
Daily Briefing
June 5, 2009
10am
This morning and throughout the afternoon, the united leaders from the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council, and the Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs have been continuing their efforts to begin having respectful discussions with the federal government. At this time, there continues to be no formal or direct communication since MCA Grand Chief Tim Thompson had a telephone conversation with CBSA Vice President Luc Portalance stating his willingness to meet. During that conversation, the CBSA Vice President clearly stated that it was CBSA’s decision to close the bridge crossing.
Since then, the community of Akwesasne has indicated the need to open the bridges for traffic. The leaders and people of Akwesasne want to reiterate that the bridge closure has disrupted the ability of our own residents to travel within our own community. It has also prevented other travelers from reaching surrounding communities. The inability to use the bridge crossing is the result of outside agencies enforcing CBSA’s decisions to close the bridges.
We understand that discussions are taking place within the federal government about the situation at Akwesasne. We encourage federal officials to contact Akwesasne Leaders to discuss reasonable solutions. The solutions reported in the media have been the creation of previous discussions to establish a liaison position and cultural sensitivity training, yet those were measures proposed by the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne several years ago, not recently by federal officials.
To limit solutions to just these two is adding ‘insult to injury” and should have been implemented years ago. In addition, the community’s meaning of “cultural sensitivity” is not the same as federal officials having a meeting at a local restaurant with a University professor. What the Government of Canada is proposing by just limiting it to these two items is being viewed as a broken and mangled olive branch.
Only through constructive and positive discussions will Akwesasne leaders and federal officials be able to identify more reasonable and peaceful solutions to our community’s concerns and issues. Only through meaningful negotiations will solutions be derived at that will help address the wrong and hurt that our community members have endured over the years.
There are documented complaints filed with the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne’s Department of Justice against individual CBSA Officers for acts of racial profiling, harassment, intimidation and verbal abuse in their effort to seek justification for arming. As well, there are a number of atrocities committed by CBSA Officer against our people that are inhumane and violate their individual rights, some include subjecting a 17-year-old to a cavity search, putting a pregnant mother through a vehicle x-ray machine twice, pushing an elder to the ground, and other disturbing reports. Two of these complaints have been filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, with no favorable results thus far.
The Akwesasne community states that a “one policy fits all approach” will not work in the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory. Before any decision is made about Akwesasne, federals officials must recognize and understand our community’s history, our geographic uniqueness, our people’s issues and concerns, and must have our leaders at the table before any discussions can begin.
Akwesasne leaders continue to be available to have meaningful discussions with the federal government, but federal officials need to contact us directly first.
6pm
In an ongoing commitment to keep the Mohawk community of Akwesasne and supporters informed of developments and efforts to oppose the arming of CBSA Officers at the Port of Entry on Kawehnoke. The following statement is provided by the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne on events that occurred this afternoon:
At 3pm today, the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne held a teleconference call with Canadian Liberal Party Leader Micheael Ignatieff to discuss Akwesasne’s opposition to CBSA’s arming initiative and efforts to address our community’s concerns. Mohawk leaders from the Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe were unable to participate, but the results of the discussion will be shared with them.
During the call, MCA leaders expressed the past and continuing attempts by the united leaders of Akwesasne and supporters to have consultation with the federal government on the national policy. They noted that repeated requests to have the Minister of Public Safety meet with Akwesasne leaders have been and continue to be ignored.
To help facilitate the urgent need to address the situation at Akwesasne, Liberal Party Leader Ignatieff will be posing questions to the House of Commons during Question Period on Monday, June 8th. Through a series of questions that will begin at 2:15 pm, the Liberal Leader will seek information from the Government of Canada and call upon the Conservative Government to account for the actions of border guards at the Canada Border Services Agency on the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory.
On behalf of the people of Akwesasne, the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne expresses its appreciation to Liberal Party Leader Ignatieff for his willingness to support our community’s ongoing efforts to seek a peaceful resolution to our issues. We encourage other party leaders and federal officials to do the same and request that Minister of Public Safety Peter Van Loan contact Akwesasne leaders and begin having respectful negotiations.
