A real estate development is once again raising tensions between the town of Oka and Mokawks in Kanesatake.
The development calls for four hundred new homes to be built adjacent to The Pines — the land which touched off the crisis in the summer of 1990.
Mohawk activists, led by Ellen Gabriel, say the proposed development encroaches on their sacred land, and that trees on Mohawk territory have already been cut down.
“We’re here to say not anymore,” Gabriel says. “Twenty-seven years ago they didn’t listen to us. They never settled the problem and it still continues today. So we’re asking is if the federal government really thinks, if Prime Minister Trudeau really is sincere, about the First Nations being his most important relationship, then he has to intervene here today.”
“This is not going to go away,” she added. “We’ve been stomped on for centuries and generations have had to pick up the struggle. We want peace, that’s all we want…we are not going to allow any more development on our traditional territory.”