July 11, 2025: the Kanesatake resistance

Thirty-five years ago I awoke to this broadcast coming in over the CBC airwaves during the 8am news. Laurent Lavigne narrated the moment at which the Mohawks of Kanesatake were forced to defend their territory against the Surete de Quebec who were forcibly removing barricades that were set up to defend their lands. One police officer was killed (and the story of how his sister reconciled that death is interesting) and a summer of hatred, racism and resistence began. At Trent University we kept a fire going and raised supplies for the Mohawks who were besieged in the Kanesatake treatment centre. Across the country First Nations rallied in support of the Mohawks and the standoff itself and the defence of the land led directly to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and subsequent intergovernmental negotiation processes including the modern day treaty process in British Columbia.

The best record of the Kanesatake resistance is still Alanis Obamsawin’s film, Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance which includes footage from inside the treatment centre where the Mohawk land defenders were trapped. You should watch it.

It was a summer that changed the history of Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations in Canada, and it changed my life. I later went to work for Terry Doxtator, one of the Oneida chiefs who served as intermediaries between the Army and the Mohawks. He and I actually watched the premiere of Obamsawin’s film together in 1993, the evening before a meeting of provincial Aboriginal Affairs ministers in Toronto. It was incredible watching the film and listening to Terry’s narration of the events from his perspective, and then going to meet with the ministers the next day and watch them still struggle to understand why Indigenous rights were an essential part the fabric of Canadian governance.