Oka acts on burned Mohawk lot

Hamilton Spectator

16-05-2025

After around a year of being repeatedly targeted for arson, a property on Kanesatake Mohawk Territory in Oka Village has finally been cleaned up – by Oka.
'It was a health concern, and environmental concern, and the time to act was a long time coming,' said Oka mayor Pascal Quevillon. He said the city received reports of smoke coming from the pile of debris, which he said would have been ninth blaze, and had to act, saying there were spontaneous combustion risks with the property at 167 St. Jean Baptiste Street.
Oka's fire chief declined to comment, referring The Eastern Door to the city. Meanwhile, the Surete du Quebec (SQ) said there was only smoke in the debris the day the property was cleaned up and that no police presence was required.
'I find this a little coincidental that it gets done the way it was done and then he moves as a justification,' said Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) chief Serge Otsi Simon, who portrayed the cleanup as an overstep by the mayor.
Council had been contacted by email by the mayor this week saying the lot was smoldering and something had to be done, according to Simon, but he said the MCK was not told a cleanup was ensuing.
'It's unfortunate the way it happened, but we were moving in the direction of working it out with the family, and he cut the legs out from under us,' said Simon, noting the property's owner, Martine Trottier, only recently died.
'It's really disrespectful to Martine and her family. It's really uncalled for. It's disrespectful to the Council here that was trying to deal with it. It's really disrespectful, I tell you. I'm really ticked off at him for that.'
Asked whether he saw it as an affront to the territory's sovereignty, he said 'There's no other way to look at it,' adding he first heard about the cleanup when asked about it by The Eastern Door.
Quevillon defended the city's position and disagreed that it was an infringement.
'On our end, there was some urgency in the need to act. The request was made multiple times to clean up that lot, so we didn't act without telling anyone. There have been multiple requests to the band council to have that lot cleaned up,' he said, adding that it is Oka that is tasked with providing emergency fire services.
'Because of the fire safety regulations that also apply on Kanesatake's territory, given that we serve that territory for firefighting services, we needed to make sure that that area was safe, whether it is federal or not. As the fire safety agency for the Indigenous territory, we must make sure that the areas are safe and secure for everyone,' he said.
'This is all for the safety of everyone, as much for the Indigenous members of the community that live close by as for the residents of Oka and as for the tourists, as there is the Oka-Mont St-Hilaire bike path that passes next to it.'
The situation had plagued the neighbourhood, including its Kanehsata'kehró:non residents, for about a year, with fears for community safety because of the nature of the debris, the risk of fire, and the presence of people with criminal intentions, not to mention the nuisance of the property.
Quevillon described how the situation worsened from the first to the second blaze, with fridges, freezers, and pantries full of abandoned food, and the fire department having to take the house down to avoid collapsing walls during the second fire.
'When the machinery demolished the house, the fridges and freezers opened themselves up, and the smell that was coming out of there was horrible. All that put together meant that we had no choice but to intervene,' said Quevillon.
Quevillon said Oka has paid for the cleanup but that the municipality will sit down with the MCK to come to an agreement on the cost. Meanwhile, Simon vowed the city won't see a dime from Council after unilaterally cleaning up the property.
As of last month, there had been no arrests in any of the arsons.
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Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter