MCK receives petition and issues response

06/07/2011

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) wishes to inform the community that it has received a petition from a number of community members who are dissatisfied with the recent interim agreement between the MCK and the Québec government.

The petition reads, in part, “We Kanien’kehaka of Kahnawake do not support any efforts to negotiate anything to allow CCQ, CSST and the federal and provincial agencies to impose their laws within the territory. Kahnawake is a soverign (sic) native territory, non-native governments and their agencies such as the CCQ, have no jurisdiction in Kahnawake, and we do NOT support any degree of their involvement in Mohawk territory.”

This is a position that the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke strongly agrees with. The MCK would like to clarify that the interim agreement, in fact, is an important step in enhancing and building Kahnawà:ke jurisdiction. In a media release issued last week, the community was informed that the interim agreement creates a mechanism to accomplish this goal. Thus, Québec is expected to change their existing laws in order to formally remove CCQ and CSST from the works being conducted on the Mercier Bridge. In effect, Québec is agreeing with us in this matter. 

“We’re actually close to being on the same page here, although one outstanding issue remains – union dues – which we will do our best to address,” said Grand Chief Michael Ahríhron Delisle, Jr. “I’m quite confident that these most recent developments will create opportunities to build institutional capacity on several levels. And the more capacity we have, the stronger we are as a community.”