Capacity crowd turns out for Meet the Candidates Night

A packed house turned out to the Knights of Columbus Hall to hear those vying for a spot on the next Mohawk Council of Kahnawake and they were not let down, getting a little bit of everything.

The crowd of about 250 people heard from the three candidates for MCK Grand Chief, as well as the 18 people vying for seats around the council table.

Hot topics included housing, gaming, land claims and public safety.

The three Grand Chief candidates – incumbent Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer, Cody Diabo and Gina Deer – all tackled housing, gaming and public infrastructure in their speeches.

Sky-Deer said since her election as the first LGBTQ Grand Chief in the community’s history, she had helped guide the community down a profitable and healthy path.

“Where’s the housing? Our community needs housing,” she said. “Onake’s going to get a new building. We’re getting what we’re calling a blue-collar park. We want to get water out to the extremities of our community.”

“I’m really hoping in this next term that you will see more housing. You are going to see a tremendous amount of housing and the CMHC is coming,” she said. “Everybody’s doing their part. We’re all accountable. We’re trying to do the best that we can. I think we’ve done the best job possible. I will continue to try to do the best job that I can.”

Diabo, who has sat on the MCK since 2019, said he has been there for the community at every turn – and will make community collaboration a cornerstone of his leadership.

“Nothing we aim for can be accomplished alone. We want to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard. People can remember what’s happened,” Diabo said. “From COVID to the fuel spill, I was there. Some files have slowed, but we kept going in the face of adversity. We must listen to the needs of the community and as Grand Chief that’s what I’ll do. There will be better supports for elders and vulnerable community members, and so many other concerns. Dental-care coverage. Housing costs. Access to centralized water systems -- and we need projects that reduce our dependence on outside food services. River turbines can reduce our dependence on outside energy sources. We need innovative solutions and the ability to adapt to circumstance. Collaboration and transparency will be the cornerstones of my leadership. I will work with you to make sure nobody is left behind.”

The first speaker of the night was former MCK Chief Gina Deer, who ran for Grand Chief in 2021. Deer said she was concerned with the lack progress on some files that concern the community.

“I didn’t hear much more about those things and it was disappointing to me in the light of how hard I worked to push those files forward,” she said, citing a lack of transparency on council, including the council media blackout, which went into effect last month. “Active censure of chiefs in front of an election. That made me look at running again. There have been things I saw on council that I didn’t like. These are community dollars being spent and there needs to be accountability.”

Following the candidates for Grand Chief, all 18 council candidates took the stage to state their positions and make their case for election.

One council candidate – Robert Kennedy Jr. – advocated for the immediate abolition of the MCK and vowed to introduce a motion weekly that would call for the immediate dissolution of the council. His comments were followed by an angry outburst from one community member who said “on behalf of women from the community” that he allegedly harassed to immediately step down from his candidacy. He could be heard saying “No.”

Incumbent chiefs running for re-election are Ryan Montour, Ross Montour, Stephen McComber, Iohahiio Delisle, Arnold Boyer and Tonya Perron. The other candidates running for council seats are David Diabo, Jeffrey Diabo, Marnie Jacobs, Jeremiah Johnson, Joshua Mayo, Myles McComber, Melanie Morrison, Paul Rice, Blue Sky, Carla Diabo and Nihawennah Lahache McComber.

Johnson called on Kahnawake to get 911 emergency call access.

“Do you know the Peacekeepers number off the top of your head in an emergency? No!” he said. “Every other community has access to the 911 system, but not Kahnawake. That has to change.”

Support for a return to some form of traditional government was a common thread amongst most candidates, with Johnson calling for “a separation of the community’s legislative and administrative bodies.”

Deer agreed, saying, “I support traditional government. I can see us being an administrative body in traditional government, and until we reconnect with our own traditions, it’s just a bunch of talk.”

In the question-and-answer portion of the evening, questions about Bill 96 were raised, with two of the candidates for Grand Chief addressing it and two other council chiefs as well.

“In terms of Bill 96, we need to apply more pressure on Quebec,” said Diabo. “It’s not over. There are things we can do legally, as a community. We have to band together and push back on that.”

Iohahiio Delisle said he expects a class-action lawsuit against the provincial law to be led by the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador.

“We need to stand strong,” he said. Fellow candidate Marnie Jacobs suggested it was time to “get aggressive with this law.”

Paul Rice summed it up finally saying it was long past time the Quebec government listened to what the community has to say.

“We need to make outside governments respect Kahnawake,” Rice said. “Fear Kahnawake.”

Concerns about Bill 96 – which obliges CEGEP students to take more French courses and pass a French test to graduate – morphed into concerns about youth representation at the council table.

Tonya Perron suggested the creation of a youth representative to sit in on council meetings.

“We need to have a spot for youth to be able to present their concerns, and for council to be able to address some of those issues,” she said.

The audience was excited to hear a couple of other questions – looking for a show of hands, one audience member asked which candidates would support a requirement of a written monthly report, with the majority of candidates agreeing, while another audience member asked which council members would be involved with the community if there were no paycheck in it for them.

Both questions were greeted with thunderous applause.

Language and culture also took center stage, when yet another audience member asked what the candidates might do to protect the language going forward.

“There are things we can do,” Delisle said. “We can build colleges, universities and infrastructure. This is how we identify ourselves. This is our history. They can’t argue with that.”

Ross Montour may have said it best.

“Who we are is up to us,” he said.

Sky-Deer said she would be thrilled to take back the Heritage portfolio if that’s something the community wants.

“If I’m re-elected on July 6, then we will continue the work we are doing with the schools, with the Language Nest. Hopefully, we’ll be able to continue that work. If I have to take back the Heritage portfolio, which I held for nine years previously, that’s something I’ll do,” she said.

Diabo agreed, saying if he is elected as Grand Chief, he’ll pour more money into local language programs and look to continue to increase the resources available for language instruction.

With the election slated for July 6, both former environment portfolio lead Diabo and Sky-Deer were both forced to face tough questions about the ACM that remains in the community on Lot 106 and hasn’t yet been cleared.

“These questions are for Cody and Kahsennenhawe and no one else,” one audience member asked.

Diabo said for a long time, asbestos was almost all he thought about.

“Asbestos and ACM was my life for a while. The point is we learned a lot. I kept on pushing and pushing and pushing for that to get done and even did some things outside of council to move that along, which I was reprimanded for,” he said. “I’m not here to knock operations, but it needs a champion. I was that champion for a while. I admit I took a bit of a break at the end. I was tired. Unfortunately, I guess things fall off the table.”

When that land is cleared, Diabo said that will clear out some land for extra housing or potential Elders’ Lodge or respite home.

“We need to open up the lands and be able to put homes on those lands,” Diabo said. “We need to build bigger, better homes for this community. I want to thank all the people who put all the work in on the ACM working group, and again, it’s on me.”

Sky-Deer said she wouldn’t assume responsibility for the ACM that remains on Lot 106, but agreed it remains and issue of concern in the community.

“I’m not going to sit here and say I dropped the ball, but obviously the operational side and the administrative side got their wires crossed and that didn’t get resolved,” she said.

Shortly thereafter, an audience member asked what council has done for elders living in community-owned housing units in the wake of power failures that forced tenants to toss out hundreds of dollars worth of food.

Stephen McComber suggested the creation of a *65 phone number that seniors could use to inform the MCK and the housing unit of issues that may arise.

“I remember my late grandfather,” he said. “When it comes to all these things, that if I get elected, we can continue to look into the wants and needs of our people. I’m in that demographic.”

Rice agreed, saying “these types of things that are easy to resolve, and here we see again paralysis by analysis. This is an easy thing to resolve.”

Diabo said the problem can be easily addressed if and when there is appropriate housing for all in the community.

“Simple problems can be solved by simple solutions,” he said, “but the fact is the six-plex social-housing unit should never have been mandated to be used for what it’s being used for.”

One audience member asked if the MCK would consider paying to man checkpoints at the community’s entrances and exits.

“I would support the creation of checkpoints,” Jacobs said, who has a long history of working with young people in the community. “Years ago, my child was approached. I would definitely support checkpoints.”

Johnson estimated the cost of running and staffing the checkpoints at around $1.4 million and said he would also support the creation of those.

Ryan Montour, on the other hand, said “checkpoints are not the answer. I think further investment into essential services is the answer here. The Community Watch – Jeremiah is a great partner in the community watch – is a great investment and so if we have checkpoints, like if Club Rez was making deliveries? The 207 is an entrance to the community. It’s not going to work.”

Montour, who held the Public Safety portfolio on council, said the “Peacekeepers are the community’s best defence against criminal elements.”

Deer suggested the community look into gating off certain residential neighbourhoods, and also said tolls might be answer for generating some revenue and curbing traffic roes.

Marc Lalonde, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Iori:wase