There was no urgent need for the SQ to attack a Mohawk barricade on July 11, 1990, says coroner Guy Gilbert.
In a 500-page report, Gilbert called the raid that led to the Oka Crisis unjustified and blasted both levels of government for failing to resolve the land dispute at Kanehsatake before it turned ugly.
Gilbert conducted 18 months of hearings into the death of SQ Cpl. Marcel Lemay in the shootout. Sam Elkas, minister of Public Security during the standoff, testified that the SQ attacked the Mohawk Men’s Society barricade without his authorization or knowledge.
“When social order and public security are threatened, the problem should be taken in hand by the government and not left to a police decision,” wrote Gilbert. “The Sûreté took it upon themselves to resolve the social conflict at Oka, a confrontation between Natives and a municipality, and a complex judicial situation, part of a 250-year-old issue.” Gilbert also said Tom Siddon, then federal minister of Indian Affairs, let the Oka situation deteriorate by refusing to listen to members of the traditionalist Longhouse government at Kanehsatake, who went to see him in Ottawa. Siddon argued that the Band Council was the only authorized voice of the Mohawks.
The Nation was not able to obtain a copy of Gilbert’s report at press time, but it is already apparent it contains several errors. Gilbert names Eastern Door editor Kenneth Deer as one of the leaders of the group that fired on the SQ from the Mohawk barricades, something Deer disputes. He says he was home that day in Kahnawake and had nothing to do with plans for the barricades. He was not even called to testify at Gilbert’s hearings.
After the botched police assault, Deer was asked to act as a negotiator for the Mohawk side.
“There is no doubt that the Sûreté du Québec is responsible for what happened,” Deer told The Montreal Gazette. “They called the raid—they took the initiative—maybe too much initiative, which is why the coroner is holding the government responsible.”
