James Gabriel: a native version of Eliot Ness? photo: Courtesy of The Eastern Door

Another volatile standoff threatened to get ugly. Only this time, the cops involved were native and the Mohawk protesters were angry at their own Grand Chief, James Gabriel. By evening, Gabriel's house was burned down.

The spin in the media was that the protesters didn't like Gabriel's plan to crack down on drug trafficking and organized crime, which the Grand Chief said were plaguing the small Mohawk community. A story in the Montreal Gazette compared Gabriel to legendary Chicago lawman Eliot Ness, who brought down Al Capone.

But many community members disagree with this assessment and say that Kanehsatake has been demonized. No one condones the burning of Gabriel's house, but many say the issues behind the conflict have been garbled in all the coverage.

"I think it stinks. Everyone who is against James Gabriel is being painted as organized criminals and thugs," says Ken Deer, an editor of The Eastern Door, a Mohawk weekly in nearby Kahnawake.

The great divide
Kanehsatake has been the scene of bitter divisions since the 1990 Oka crisis. The wounds festered while the main issue in 1990 - the community's attempt to reclaim its ancestral land - went unresolved.

The schism got worse when residents voted to turf Gabriel in a non-confidence referendum in 2001. Sixty-one per cent of community members voted against Gabriel, but he kept his job after a court granted his injunction. Tension increased last year when Ottawa put the band under trusteeship.

Crippled by mounting debts, the band could do little about the community's sky-high unemployment. A key source of jobs was the 14 Mohawk-run cigarette stores lining Highway 344 that sell native-made cigarettes tax-free to non-natives.

The RCMP calls the stores illegal. Gabriel didn't like them much either. The tobacco stores were the spark that would set the tense community ablaze.

The events were set in motion in November. Gabriel signed a secret agreement with the Indian Affairs Department for $900,000 in "extraordinary and enhanced" funding for the community's police force. Gabriel revealed the deal only to his three loyalists on the badly divided six-person band council. Kept in the dark were the other three council members and the band-appointed police commission, which oversees the police force's budget and hiring under an agreement with Quebec and Ottawa.

Gabriel started quietly recruiting cops in native communities across Quebec for a secretive police operation in Kanehsatake. When word got out about the deal and operation, the community was in an uproar. Rumours circulated that Gabriel's goal was to close down the tobacco sellers.

Gabriel prevaricated. He told reporters he just wanted to crack down on crime. But later, he told the Montreal Gazette: "Let's get a police force in there that will investigate all the angles of whether the cigarettes are legal or not, and we'll settle the issue."

It was an incendiary statement that cut to the heart of a sacred issue for Mohawks: the right to engage in commerce without taxation. "Mohawks look at [cigarettes] as a political issue, not a criminal issue," says Deer, who represented the Mohawks at the UN during the 1990 Oka crisis. "Cigarette sales are widely accepted. It sounded like Gabriel was bringing in the police to go after cigarettes."

Even the community's interim police chief, Tracy Cross, disavowed Gabriel. Cross told the Gazette that the Grand Chief was interfering in police work.

Gabriel, for his part, believed that Cross was soft on crime. In early January, he held another secret meeting with his loyal band-council members to replace Cross with a more loyal police chief. Again, the police commission was not told.

The men Gabriel chose to take over the police could not have been more controversial: Terry Isaac and Larry Ross. The band council and police commission had earlier removed Isaac and Ross from the police force for "aggressive behaviour," says Barry Bonspille, the band's executive director and a member of the police commission.

Both men had been involved in a botched 1999 operation in which Kanehsatake cops shot Joe David, a well-known Warrior involved in the 1990 Oka crisis. David was left paralyzed. In October, the Quebec police ethics commission recommended that Isaac and Ross be disciplined for poor judgment.

"It was like waving a red flag in front of the community when he did that," says Deer of Gabriel's decision to bring back Isaac and Ross.

Good cops, bad cops
On January 12, Isaac and Ross led a force of 67 heavily armed native cops into Kanehsatake to take/replace Cross. Many community members feared it was the start of the tobacco raids. They were also furious that Isaac and Ross were back.

"People confronted the police because of cigarettes, not because of dope," says Ronald Giroux, a non-native retired tree surgeon who has lived in the community since 1980. "If it was dope, people would not have been here."

Protesters surrounded the police station. In the evening, the cops fired tear gas at the protesters. Shortly after, Gabriel's house was torched.

The standoff threatened to explode when Isaac called on Quebec to send in the Sûreté du Québec - the same force that had precipitated the Oka crisis. Protesters vowed to resist the SQ with bullets.

Inside the police station, some of the cops were having misgivings. They had come thinking they were assisting a narcotics raid but were surprised to find that the goal was to replace the police chief.

Cree chiefs who had lent several cops to the raid sent a fax demanding the Cree officers be allowed to leave. "It was a Keystone Cops operation. It was done very unprofessionally," says Bill Namagoose of the Grand Council of the Crees.

Namagoose is flabbergasted by Isaac's decision to call in the SQ. "Talk about reckless, and endangering people's safety," he says.

In the end, cooler heads prevailed. Instead of sending in the SQ, Quebec Public Security Minister Jacques Chagnon sat down with the police commission and Mohawk leaders from Kahnawake and brokered a deal to give Isaac and his men safe passage out. The police commission restored Cross to his post, saying he had done a good job.

Gabriel, who did not participate in working out the truce, was livid, saying that Chagnon had betrayed him. He accused the Minister of caving in to the "criminal element." Gabriel and his loyal council members did not return several calls.

The opposition Parti Québécois, most journalists and even the Assembly of First Nations sided with Gabriel. "What's going to stop any group in any community now from seizing control?" asked the AFN's Ghislain Picard at a press conference. The Journal de Montréal declared: "The Warriors have won."

In Quebec City, Daniel Thibault, a spokesman for Chagnon, bristles at the suggestions. While he won't comment on Gabriel's operation to replace the police chief, Thibault says the Kanehsatake police commission is supposed to oversee the community's police force. "They have the mandate to run the police on the territory," he says.

Back in Kanehsatake, the tensions are greater than ever. And the Assembly of First Nations is partly to blame because it sided with Gabriel, says Namagoose. "That was a terrible mistake. You exacerbate a situation when you side with one faction in the community. The divisions are even deeper now because of that."

 
 

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How do you defend against a Madman???     It is very difficult to believe in a man whose ideals are contrary to the whole of the community. James was asked to cease his war with the Mohawks of Kanehsata:ke and yet he battled forth unrepentant and smug. Our elders were put in danger because of his latest stunt, so were the children of the community at the hands of the invading and reckless police force brought forth by James Gabriel. For 8 straight years we have been kept in the dark, people's lives were destroyed, and families were split apart. Yet our "leader" makes an apology for the harm done to us but immediately states he "would do it all over again exactly the same way" -RDI- I'm sorry but that's a pill way too hard to swallow. People make comments that "we" elected him in power and yet they still neglect to mention his removal in 2001. The Vote of Non-confidence was a community initiative backed and followed by the Mohawk Council of Kanehsata:ke, including James, He lost the re-instated by foreign influence, funny situation considering he spearheaded the campaign to remove and replace another Grand Chief back in 1995. The elders of my community gave him a chance to make good of his leadership and he spit it back in their face, walked away from them when they had concerns that needed to be addressed and worst of all, he has the brass to call them troublemakers and criminals. I've recently returned to school in Ottawa in hopes of building a future for myself, yet I find it very disturbing when I get strange stares from students and faculty, who know where I come from, who read articles from the Ottawa Citizen stating "Hells Angels rule the Mohawk Reserve". They know my position on James Gabriel and that puts me in the category of "Criminal Element" according to James and the Press. These days I have ignored ALL the media coverage and public opinion, all that is focused on now is the will of the people of Kanehsata:ke because in the end, that what it's about? Love it or Hate it...
Jonathan Peltier	{4 votes}	February 3rd, 2004
The importance of exposure is important     It seems as if the band members think that only through extreme violence will they get what they want. I agree that it is important for aboriginals to maitain their culture, but striving for a way of life that is outdated and unable to cope with today's society is unreasonable. Their frustration with their situation is shown through these unreasonable acts. These types of events would not occur if this band was better integrated into society. It will allow them exposure to new ways of doing things and better opportunities. one can maintain one's culture while existing with the rest of society. The most painful part for me, is that the Canadian government is ready and willing to subsidize that. The only problem is that there doesn't seem to be a willingness to do so. If they wish to remain a closed society, then they must have a framework for survival. The fact that their prosperity depends on the very lands that were taken away from them is sad. But, in order to survive, one must adapt. Burning down houses when feeling disenfranchised does not show a good face to neighbours.
Ravi Sharma	{5 votes}	February 3rd, 2004
Native issues in Canada     You know issues that arise from Kanehsatake are not localized to this area alone or are just about cigarettes. In past treatment of these people has led to them being absorbed into a society that they were never really apart of anyway. In the early days when we first arrived here our first reaction was to kill them all off because they were "Savages". Then we decided that was not the right idea so we stole their youth and tried to force them to become like us. Educated in Catholic schools and forced to ignore or forget their own cultures to be reprogramed into our "Civilized Society" of the time. The problems that are present with the Native issues that are around today are confusing at the best of times because many of us forget that they were here before us and that we showed up in their yards claiming the land for ourselves. Through history it can be seen how unfair the natives have been treated but the treatment that they have received in the past makes it twice as hard for us now to make it right. We have tried to do so by providing the natives with some form of breaks through government but unfortunatly it is sometimes not enough for the people to get by on. We give them tax-free items but because of the rising cost of cigarettes there have been a few natives that have seen a oppurtunity to make themselves some money. Money that they may not be able to get elsewhere and it is easy money at that too. Sell the cigarettes to the people who do not get them tax-free and reap the profit for yourselves. If you ask me that is a good idea because it is far better then selling drugs and other illegal activities that can go on within the native municapalities. In my honest opinion the natives are not going to get the full reparations that they deserve just because we could never afford it but I think that working towards incorperating the communities together is the best idea anyway because that way we can work together to make the nation a better place.
Joshua Martin	{3 votes}	February 3rd, 2004
Getting it right     The common theme among the people commenting here for the most part are based upon those things reported in the popular press. Alex Roslin did an excellent job in reporting very accurately the conditions which led to James Gabriel fleeing the community. However, it is not this isolated incident that led to his demise. This was the culmination of many that ended in the burning of his house. No one condones this act but many of us understand the extreme high levels of frustration that led to it. When all legal and moral avenues are closed to you, when the media simply spins the truth and you are left powerless, the only two remaing options are apathy or violence. James Gabriel recognized this and realized that apathy was not likely. He wrongly assumed that a brigade of armed police officers would be able to counteract any violence. He guessed wrong and has paid the piper. James Gabriel admitted during an interview on RDI that he does sometimes break the law. He justified this as being a necessary evil to control the criminals in Kanesatake. There is never any justifIcation for breaking the law, it is immoral and criminal and Gabriel has broken the law too many times in an attempt to remain in power. His tenure is at an end. The community will move forward and he will be forever ostracized in it. The truth surrounding his regime will come out. He will be seen as we know him, certainly no champion of native rights.
Dave Harding	{2 votes}	February 2nd, 2004
James Gabriel must leave!!     In the last referendum. Gabriel did not have the confidence of his community! The population wanted him to leave!!! Why? Many dealers opened stores along the main road to sell packs of cigarets for a very cheap price. The police of this community could not do anything to stop them because they were really violent. Population was fed up that Gabriel did nothing to solve the problem. There is no reason why Gabriel is astonished about the fact that his house was burnt!!
Mathieu Romero	{1 vote}	February 2nd, 2004
Major loss of control...     Since the beginning of the crisis with Kanehsatake, I find James Gabriel very professional. All that the inhabitants made him go through, it is unacceptable. It is about a political elected official who makes decisions to improve the life of the majority of the population that he represents and it is horrible that they treat him that way. I do not understand that higher authorities did not already intervene because the attitude of the inhabitants of the region says much on the current situation. I did not know that a place so criminalized exsisted in Quebec and that frightens me. We lost all control on these criminal groups which rise now openly over the top of any law. James Gabriel does not let himself get influence, but he cannot risk his life either. He needs help quickly and they should give it to him before its too late.
Joshua Walker	{2 votes}	January 31st, 2004
Who controls the press     This is the first article that accurately portrays the circumstances leading up to the demise of Gabriel. Having first hand knowledge and the background to the complete story in Kanesatake I can vouch for its accuracy. What should strike any reader is how differently the popular press reports the story and the spin they generate. Gabriel is lionized and elevated to an almost saintly position in white society while he is in fact considered a Judas within his own. Why such stark contrasts in reporting ? The popular press has access to the same facts and the same sources yet continually refuse to publish the truth or any article that is detrimental to Gabriel. Submit a " letter to the editor" and if it is critical, it will not be published. Several reporters from the Montreal Gazette have confided that there is a media ban on Kanesatake and all stories are vetted prior to publication. Make no mistake, Gabriel is the man that our government wants in Kanesatake and not without reason. Kanesatake is unique in its position as the only native band in Canada that is not subject to the Indian Act due to its status as a "settlement" and not a reserve. It is a tremendous problem for Canada. They will not contemplate a "reserve" status simply because of the land claim and untold millions in compensation they would face. Their solution is to turn it into a quasi municipality which they have mostly accomplished with Bill S-24. In Gabriel they found a perfect dupe. Easily manipulated, awed by authority and lacking idealism he bought their arguments of the benefits of S-24. Canada set the agenda, they created the conditions and most importantly, they threw their weight behind the power of his title to insure its passage. There is still some unfinished business relating to S-24 that needs to be resolved. The so called dissident chiefs have been fighting furiously to prevent it. They will not be cowed, nor bought, nor pressured by government manipulation of the press.
Nicole Lacroix	{1 vote}	January 31st, 2004
Backgrounder on Kanehsata:ke Governance - the heart of the problem     Kanehsata:ke is a very complex place with some very complex issues. To begin to have an understanding of the current situation in Kanehsata:ke, one must first appreciate the two fundamental differences between governance in a Mohawk Community, and governance in non-native society. Primarily, what is important to understand about governance in Kanehsata:ke, is that the People, not the Chiefs, are the final authority on all matters relating to ourselves and our territory. Kanehsata:ke has 6 duly elected Chiefs and 1 duly elected Grand Chief who serve a term of 3 years. Secondly, decisions taken by the community on important issues must be exercised with responsibility. Responsibility dictates that decisions be reached by consensus, not by a slight majority vote. In Kanehsata:ke, selection of Chiefs is a right exercised under the custom of the Mohawks of Kanehsata:ke, and not under an act of Parliament such as the Indian Act. We are, and always have been allies to the Crown, not a creature or creation of the Crown. The Grand Chief and Chiefs do not have any special authority or powers allowing them to make important decisions on behalf of their people. What Chiefs do have, are duties. Those duties consist of acting in the best interest of their people. This includes, but is not limited to, consulting their people on those matters having a direct impact on their rights, their lives and their lands, then responsibly carrying forward those decisions made by their people. Responsibility dictates that to keep the community intact, decisions must be reached by consensus, and not by 51 percent of the population. Incidentally, The sole difference between the Grand Chief and Chiefs, is that the Grand Chief has one specific additional duty, that of communicating the decision of the community. A thorough review of the decisions taken in isolation by James Gabriel will help you understand how the abuse of his position culminated in the events of January 12-13 200
Chief John Harding	{2 votes}	January 31st, 2004
Way to fight for your rights!     All I have to say about this entire debacle, is that burning a man's house down, threatening his life and the lives of his family, and holding a police station - and the police - hostage, is surely the way to win supporters to your cause. In fact, why not kill a few dissenters while you're at it? Heck, BURN DOWN the police station too! And the TV station! There are ways to protest ill-treatment at the hands of your leaders, but this kind of violence and vandalism is simply horrible. Whether or not the people responsible have cause, there is never JUST cause for these kinds of acts. And yes, the situation is rather complicated, and there is indeed a lot of history behind these actions, but that can never excuse or justify this kind of irresponsible - and highly ILLEGAL behaviour.
Ben Kalman		January 30th, 2004
Sickening     I think that is disgusting that this conflict has been able to snowball into what it is. It is unfortunate that James Gabriel's house was burned down; it is obvious that there is much discontent in Kanehsatake, but this is now a matter of public safety. How are the people of Kanehsatake supposed to feel safe in their own homes? If there is a disagreement in the band council then does that mean that those that disagree will possibly lose their homes or even worse their lives? This is not democracy and I think that there is a need for some intervention on the part of the Provincial government. They need to wake up and control this before someone dies.
Bee Sharma	{2 votes}	January 30th, 2004
Untouchable mess all our own..     Oh, where to start, where to start... Firstly, I suppose I should mention in passing that I think that smoking is a filthy destructive habit that should utterly be stamped out of existence. It's destroyed more than a few lives that I've known so I'm not a terribly big booster in principle of the 14 Mohawk-run cigarette stores lining Highway 344...but having said that, there is nothing we can ever do to repay the natives of this land for the way that we utterly raped them of everything and left them hollow shells of the people they once were. But what's done is done. If this is the little we can afford them so that they can eek out an existence, so be it. I'm sorry but the levels of wrongness involved in this whole mess is beyond the pale. Even Eliot Ness would't touch this mess. Who's the villain? Who's the victim? Even with a chart and cue cards I'm pretty sure you can't really say who should be drawn and quartered. Backroom deals are made to enforce "the law"...a police station is laid siege to...a house get burned to the ground...what in the effing Hell is going on?! This whole things makes for some pretty good TV...if it weren't actually really happening. It's unbelievably sad what these people have been reduced to. Even worse, is what they've become. We hear the sound bytes & read the lies and in the end all we have is an ugly little mirror of man's worst nature caught on tape. Hey, I know I'm not the only one who saw the mysterious video footage of the blaze being (allegedly) set by a group of native thugs. I'm not gonna say that this whole thing has gotten completely out of control because frankly that's bloody redundant. No, I'm not even going to say that something drastic needs to happen because I doubt any of us would ever agree on what that should be. We all know the various pieces to the puzzle but I'm afraid that the only way any of us will ever see the picture clearly is when blood actually gets shed.
Pedro Eggers	{38 votes}	January 29th, 2004
The cause of dissension     It is clear in the article the recent deplorable events in Kanehsatake were caused by internal problems and dissensions in the community.But why is there so much dissension ? Could it be a small group is in power,against the will of the majority (we could call that a mafia to stay in the Capone versus Ness allegory),and this group is responsible of illicit behaviours at the detriment of the community as a whole ? They were pretty quick to burn down the house just because they were annoyed by a decision they we're not happy about.That's not the way non-criminal people generally act.Moreover,James Gabriel is still the one they elected. The saddest thing about all this mess is that,one more time,the only occasions we hear about the natives is when shit happens.That can only reinforce racial prejudices.I'm looking forward a time we'll talk about Kanehsatake for matters having nothing to do with crime, cigarettes, guns,dope ... And i know a lot of people living there is way more eager than me to see their dirty image in the media a thing of the past.But we'll have to begin somewhere.Do we have the guts to give the same treatment we gave the Hell's angels to the criminal elements inside the population of Kanehsatake ?
Mathieu Doucet	{5 votes}	January 29th, 2004
The people should have the one and only say     You can't have freedom without defending it.That is exactly what the people in Kaneh satake did they defended their homes and independence. Where was Gabriel when the community met to disscus this issue of outside voting and it's weakness as far as voting irregularities. The government says that they will only recognise Gabriel but at the same time he gets to meet with forieners to disscuss internal mohawk affairs.All the while our other three chiefs can't even get a phone call from the prime min.,the min.of indian affairs or the public safety min. If you ask me i think James Gabriel has to go for the community to have some peace.Also i find it treason to run to out side foriegn governments to enlist their help in suppressing the voice of the people.He (Gabriel)should be treated as such as well as the other chiefs who signed that illegal agreement.
Brian Marquis	{6 votes}	January 29th, 2004
On: Burning questions     There you have it, folks: it turns out that Chief James Gabriel is more a politician than a police officer... Who would actually be surprised about that? I would be quite naive to think that the head of the Kanehsatake police department was blameless in all the events that took place some weeks ago. Hopefully, Gabriel will have now learn that trying to prevent everyday people from having a income, and bring back rotted cops simply because they know how to kiss your ass is not a good move if you want your community to back you up in time of crisis. The guy pretty much did everything wrong and doesn't seem willing to apologize about it - worse, he'd rather take on the role of the victim, even though everyone in Kanehsatake seem to think that he got what he deserve. Meanwhile, everybody else tries to find someone to blame for this whole mess: the PQ and the Liberals have taken the incident to promote their own agenda (of course), without even trying to find solutions for what is at the roots of the debate, the lack of jobs on the reserve. Same bell ring for the province's newspapers, who all seem more interested to report the sensational side of the story, but didn't not seem to care about the core issue. Hell, even Alex Roslin's article is one-sided; alright, he could not talk to Gabriel and his loyal supporters, but couldn't he find ANYONE ELSE that supports the Chief's position on the subject? Not only that, but Roslin even seems to try to apologize for Gabriel's house fire! No, James Gabriel ain't no Elliot Ness. But calling Quebec Public Security Minister Jacques Chagnon a "cool head" doesn't seem to make sense, either. All in all, I predict that, unless the present government does his job and finds work for the citizens of Kanehsatake, this whole disaster is just the tip of the iceberg.
Joseph Belizaire	{26 votes}	January 29th, 2004
Haha     im actually writing an essay on this for school on the last 25 years of aborginals and canadian government .. it seems that the aborginals have been put through alot since (residental schools ,etc) but the more i read the more i find many have been taking advantage of the situaction of getting free money for example:this jame gabriel man he had to get his "own force" against fighting crime , and he just recieved money fromthe federal and provincial government his so greedy and the fact so many people dont even like him because his phoney to his own community!
Jillene Shwetz		May 14th, 2008

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