The Oka Crisis in the Summer of 1990: A Particular Land Dispute

In a newspaper article entitled Un déluge d’informations souvent inutiles (A Flood of Often Useless Information), anthropologist Serge Bouchard described in a nutshell the media hype surrounding the Oka Crisis in the summer of 1990: [TRANSLATION] “We knew when a Warrior (an armed, masked Mohawk warrior) was having trouble digesting his dinner, but we were starved of information about unexplained issues.” (Bouchard 1990: La Presse, B-3) How did this crisis, which marked Québec society, come to be?

In the early morning of July 11, 1990, the Sûreté du Québec launched a large-scale police operation to dispel a group of Mohawks who had erected a barricade at the Pines in Oka to protest against the planned expansion of the golf course (from 9 to 18 holes) and the construction of luxury condos on the edge of the golf course. In a show of support, the Mohawks of Kahnawake blocked the Honoré-Mercier Bridge, a key transportation link for thousands of workers driving into Greater Montréal every day. Back in Oka, following ultimatums and a few hours’ wait, the Sûreté du Québec tactical squad was ordered to remove the Mohawk barricades. (Trudel 2009) Violence immediately broke out. Gunfire ensued from both sides and Corporal Marcel Lemay was killed. The Sûreté du Québec retreated. And so began the Oka Crisis, a major, highly publicized crisis that would last until September 26, 1990 and ended following intervention by the Canadian army.

On July 11, 1990, Quebecers had no idea they were witnessing the dramatic end to a 200-year-old land dispute. (Rochon and Lepage 1991)

To understand the depth and nature of the dispute, one has to go back to the French regime, or even further according to Mohawk oral tradition. (Gabriel-Doxtater and Van Den Hen 2010) The Society of Priests of Saint Sulpice, or Sulpician Fathers Seminary, had established a mission at “Fort de la Montagne” (Mount Royal) in Montréal to shelter Indians, mostly Mohawk (as well as Algonquin, Nepissing and Huron) (Lepage 2009). To protect them from bad influences, the Sulpicians convinced the Indians to leave their settlement and move to the new Sault-au-Récollet mission, where they settled in 1704. But 20 years later, after the Indians had cleared the land, the Sulpicians promised them a tract of land, as their property, if they consented to move again and go settle on the shores of Lake of Two Mountains, near Oka. In large part, therein lies the crux of the problem. In the meantime, in 1717, the King of France ceded “sole ownership” rights to the Seigneury of Lake of Two Mountains to the Sulpicians on the condition that, among other things, they establish a mission for Indians.

When the Seigneury was established, the possibility of granting a portion of the land to Indians and another portion to the Sulpicians was clearly envisaged. (Boileau 1991, 98) However, the Sulpicians opposed the idea, resulting in a concession for which title to the property and right of usufruct were not what was promised to the Indians. The small Mohawk community established at Oka would be joined by Algonquins, Nepissings and Hurons. (see Lepage 2009)

Historian Serge Laurin pretty well sums up the beginnings of a painful chapter in the regional history when he writes:

After the seigneurial system was abolished, the Sulpicians disposed of most of the lands of the Seigneury. The sale of land accelerated around 1870 following an escalation of conflict and the departure of the Algonquins for a new settlement at the Desert River (Maniwaki). In 1912, a ruling by the Privy Council in London upholding the Sulpicians’ right to sell the land did not put an end to the dispute. Finally, a large portion of the Seigneury lands were sold to a Belgian-Canadian real estate company in 1936. However, Aboriginal people never stopped claiming that the lands had been promised to them and that the Sulpicians, as trustees of the land, had no right to dispose of Aboriginal property, that is, to sell what they claimed to be their land.

In 1945, the Government of Canada acquired most of the lands of the old Seigneury of Lake of Two Mountains that had not been sold by the Sulpicians in the 1930s. Aboriginal people were allowed to live on the lands and pursue a number of activities. They were given individual title equivalent to a Certificate of Possession. But because the lands were never designated as an Indian reserve under the Indian Act, the Mohawk Band Council had no administrative authority over the lands. The lands were federal enclaves within two municipalities: the Village of Oka and the Parish of Oka. The federal government still owned the land, making payments in lieu of taxes to the two municipalities. (Lepage 1991, 99-100)

In the 1980s, despite refusing two Mohawk land claims, the federal Minister of Indian Affairs recognized the Canadian government’s moral obligation to establish a better territorial base for the Oka Mohawks and initiated a program to repurchase the lands. The process focused on lands known as the “Commons” (the Pines), lands traditionally used by the Mohawk community. Those lands were the site of the municipality of Oka’s project to expand the golf course and build luxury condos that triggered the crisis in the summer of 1990.

In 2008, 18 years after the crisis, the federal government finally admitted that it had failed in its fiduciary responsibility and that it should have prevented the Sulpicians from appropriating and selling the Common Lands that were used by Mohawks in the 1930s and were at the heart of the land dispute in the summer of 1990. (DIAND, April 14, 2008: Letter to Grand Chief Steven Bonspille and Chief Clarence Simon). To the federal government’s credit, this admission opened the door to discussions to settle the land dispute at least in part. The discussions are ongoing.