Oka crisis healing sought as leaders meet

Community leaders on Montreal's south shore are working to healwounds remaining 20 years after the Oka crisis.

Carole Freeman, the Bloc Qubcois MP for the riding of Chteauguay-Saint-Constant met on Tuesday with Kahnawake Grand Chief Mike Delisle.

The meeting is the beginning of a process meant to bring residents of the two communities closer together, they said.

Freeman acknowledged that her constituents know little about their Mohawk neighbours and that many harbour negative feelings and misconceptions, dating back to the1990 crisis.

"I think it's now time for reconciliation," said Freeman.

Kahnawake residents also have feelings of mistrust about those living in neighbouring communities, Delisle said.

He remembers what the crisis was like for people living in Kahnawake.

"Being locked out of my own community, having a one-year-old boy and my wife sitting at home my elderly mother and father I felt [like a] victim," said Delisle. "I know how it was portrayed later in [the] media.

"Seventy-eight days, it was very devastating to my family."

Both leaders are encouraging all Quebecers to attend the annual Kahnawake Pow-Wow.

The event will be held on July 10 and 11 which coincides with the anniversary of the start of the Oka crisis. Itflaredin July 1990 after provincial police and later the Canadian army were asked to intervene in a dispute between the town of Oka and the Mohawk community of Kanesatake.

At the heart of the issue were plans to expand a golf course onto land the Mohawk claimed was a traditional burial ground.

In solidarity with the Mohawk community, residents of Kahnawake blocked Highway 138 and the Mercier Bridge, connecting Montreal to its south shore.

At one point during thestandoff, some residents of Chteauguay pelteda convoy of cars leaving the Mohawk community with rocks. They also burned effigies of Mohawk people.

Quebec police officer Marcel Lemay, 31, died of a gunshot wound during the dispute.

Pow-Wow organizer John Mayo said everyone is welcome.

"Many people have worn a bandage on their wound for 20 years," he said. "Take the bandage off let the wound heal.

"Let's move on with life. We can't change the past, let's start changing the future."