MCK receives request for creation of Constitution for Kahnawake

01/29/2015

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) wishes to inform the community that it has received a request for the ‘Creation of a Constitution for Kahnawà:ke.’ The request was actually brought to the Kahnawà:ke Legislative Coordinating Commission in late 2014 but a decision had to be made to determine whether the request was within the scope of the Community Decision Making Process.

“Because the request to create a constitution is not technically a request to create a law, the KLCC decided to bring the issue to Chief & Council for discussion,” said Grand Chief Michael Ahríhron, Jr. “We agreed at our meeting yesterday that Chief & Council have an obligation to address this request and bring the question to the community for further discussion.”

“Kahnawà:ke already has a Constitution – the Kaianere’kó:wa,” he added. “It goes without saying that we (the MCK) cannot and will not do anything that could compromise the integrity of what already exists. That being said, the young man who presented the request seems to have done a pretty solid analysis of our current situation and offers a basis to begin discussion and debate on a topic that has needed to be addressed for a long time.”

The request was made by community member Robert Kennedy, Jr. as a means to ‘solidify Kahnawà:ke’s claim to sovereignty’ and to move away from the constraints of the Canadian Constitution and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by creating a local (Kahnawà:ke) charter or constitution to work under the Kaianere’kó:wa.