A TALE OF CRIME-FIGHTERS, HOODLUMS AND COPS

Despite hours of coverage by major news networks and thousands of
words in newspapers and magazines, chances are you're confused by that
conflict at Kanehsatake Mohawk Territory near Montreal in January.

It began as a story about a crime-fighting chief. It evolved into a
tale about mob rule. And it wound up as an account of a government
taking the bull by the horns. By that time, the media should have
known better, but they'd moved on leaving us wondering just what is
happening in this community.

Reporters were on the story almost as soon as the conflict began,
except for APTN News, which arrived nearly a week late. Three members
of the band council had discovered that the other four, a faction led
by Chief James Gabriel, had arranged to replace the territory's chief
of police with someone who had previously held the position, and bring
in 50 or so Native "police" in order to rid the area of drug dealers
and organized crime.

Chief Gabriel said hoodlums had taken over the community, hoodlums who
used violence and fear to intimidate, had ties to biker gangs, dealt
drugs and laundered money. Gabriel had signed a deal with the federal
solicitor general's department to raise a small army of Native
"police" to clean up the mess. That was his story anyway. Chief
Gabriel's opposition on council said it was really about abuse of
power. This faction said the chief never informed the rest of the band
council or the community-appointed police commission about the deal
reached with the solicitor general. They said the chief's actions were
illegal and the 50 or so Native cops, drawn from across the province,
represented a foreign army of occupation. In Mohawk country, them's
fightin' words.

The so-called dissident faction organized a mob. When that small army
of "police" arrived (not really trained police but heavily-armed
security guards), they were penned into the police station. The mob
took over the band office and drove Chief Gabriel and his faction into
hiding.

That night on national TV, we watched the mob burn down the chief's
house. The next day, Quebec's minister of Public Security recognized a
fiasco, reinstated the fired Mohawk chief of police and sent the 50 or
so Native rent-a-cops packing. Quebec's top cop then assured us that
everything was "normal" again at Kanehsatake.

Missing from the news coverage of these few days was context. This
story didn't develop overnight. This latest confrontation had been
brewing for months, even years. But the news media didn't seem
interested. As usual, with stories involving Aboriginal peoples,
reporters took officials from all sides at face value. They reported
events but failed to seek the reasons why the events happened. By the
time a few reporters clued in, it was too late. Their bosses decided
it was time to move on.

The real story is actually as old as politics. It's a story of "you
scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." And the folks doing the
scratching were the chief and the federal and provincial
governments.

The federal and provincial governments wanted the cigarette shops that
dot the Mohawk territory shut down. They didn't want to do it
themselves. They wanted Chief Gabriel to do it for them.

The smoke shops aren't illegal. The smokes are made by Mohawks, on
Mohawk territory, are not smuggled, and are tax-exempt. Even the
police said they aren't illegal. But the governments didn't like white
people buying these cigarettes and avoiding taxes. Instead of pissing
off white voters by nabbing white customers, better to hire a chief to
do their dirty work for them.

Chief Gabriel had a police force that wouldn't go about fulfilling
this agenda, so what was needed was a new force. And to get that, the
existing Mohawk police needed to be crippled and their credibility
called into question.

There is a long history of political interference by the band council
in the business of the Mohawk police. It didn't start with this chief,
and it didn't end there either. To rectify this ongoing problem, the
community demanded and got an independent police commission. But
political interference is a tough habit to break.

The commission complained that the Grand Chief and company refused to
sign cheques that would help operate the force. It complained that
phone bills weren't paid or police vehicles insured and kept on the
road. It complained that money that should have been used to operate
the force was actually being used to pay legal bills from the lawsuits
generated by the two opposing factions on council.

Kanehsatake was so poorly managed, its affairs in such a mess, its
financial situation so bad, that last year the department of Indian
Affairs stepped in and put the band under third-party management.
Nothing could be done without the approval of the third-party manager.
Nothing, that is, until government came in offering Chief James
Gabriel and company a bagful of money - $900,000 - to hire, house,
feed and pay a new "police" force, and the only thing that was
required in return was to shut down those smoke shops.

There's a lot of blame to spread around in this situation. The people
who incited the mob and burned down Chief Gabriel's house should be
identified and charged. The federal and provincial officials, who
devised and signed the deal that brought in the new police force,
should be disciplined or fired. Chief Gabriel and the entire band
council have proven themselves unfit to lead and should be prevented
from making decisions without first consulting with and obtaining the
support of the entire community.

The existing Mohawk police, and provincial police detachment in nearby
Oka, should be fired for incompetence, because they turn a blind eye
to the real criminals operating in this territory, thugs who deal in
drugs and intimidation of community members; thugs who drive by both
the Native and provincial police stations day in and day out, even
when there are arrest warrants against them begging to be enforced.

What this community needs is a Mohawk police force removed from all
interference by the band office and placed under control of the
community-appointed police commission. Nothing will change in
Kanehsatake and all attempts to clean up crime or re-establish order
will be a futile waste of money so long as efforts cater to one
faction or another and the community as a whole is not involved in
operating the community.

But Chief Gabriel has already said this isn't his plan for doing
business. The problem with the last operation, he said, was the lack
of secrecy. Next time, he says, he'll make sure nobody knows what he's
doing. If that happens, you can expect more of the same trouble we saw
in January, and so can the people at Kanehsatake.

Dan David is a Mohawk journalist from Kanehsatake working in Ottawa.