MCK receives petition and issues response

06/07/2011

The Mohawk Council of Kahnaw�: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 Qu�bec 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 Kahnaw�:ke strongly agrees with. The MCK would like to clarify that the interim agreement, in fact, is an important step in enhancing and building Kahnaw�: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, Qu�bec 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, Qu�bec 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 Ahr�hron 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.�