Amended notice issued in Lake of Two Mountains dumping case

Attorney John T. Pepper Jr. who represents defendant Robert Gabriel, has filed an amended motion citing Gabriel’s intention to plead that certain Quebec environmental laws do not apply to the Kanesatake Mohawk interim land base because they are constitutionally inapplicable, invalid, or inoperable on the land base.

Robert Gabriel is one of several individuals who were charged under the federal Fisheries Act last year, after being accused of illegal dumping and doing unsanctioned work on the shores of the Lake of Two Mountains. Many of these individuals, including Gabriel, also received statements of offence under the province’s Environmental Quality Act.

Last year in August, a summons was issued against Gabriel, accusing him of having violated the Environment Quality Act in doing a business operation that allowed for the deterioration and destruction of a natural fish habitat, and for not requesting a provincial permit for the work.

These alleged breaches of the Environment Quality Act, which are argued by the Quebec prosecutor’s office (DPCP), are penal rather than criminal in nature.

The motion argues that provincial law invades over the federal government’s legal jurisdiction and renders the provincial law inapplicable to Gabriel.

“Parliament has exclusive legislative jurisdiction over ‘Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians.’ Because of this exclusive jurisdiction, provincial laws cannot impair the use, management, or protection of ‘Lands reserved for Indians,’” reads the amended motion.

“Parliament has declared that the lands in the Kanesatake Mohawk interim land base are

‘lands reserved for the Indians’ within the meaning of this provision. As the context, text,

and Parliamentary record indicate, the entire purpose of this declaration was to remove

these lands from provincial jurisdiction.”

Under class 24 of Section 91 of the 1867 Constitution Act, “is the principle that the provinces do not get to dictate how Indigenous peoples use the lands reserved for them, for the reason that the provinces dictate the use of all the other lands in Canada despite the fact that these lands were taken without compensation from Indigenous peoples,” the motion reads.

The motion includes a second argument if the first is not accepted, being that Quebec’s provincial law conflicts with laws governing the Kanesatake Mohawk interim land base and Mohawk control over activities on the land.

“In the alternative, the impugned provisions of the EQA and the Regulation enter into

operational conflict with the Kanesatake Interim Land Base Governance Act and the Land

Governance Code by assigning discretionary control of activities on the land to an

authority other than the Mohawks of Kanesatake,” reads the motion

“Defendant Robert Gabriel, after having been interrogated, asserted his right, his acquired

right as a band member of the Mohawks of Kanesatake, and to this effect his acceptance of no other authority but that exercised by the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake.”

Last week, a hearing occurred with the Quebec Court Gabriel’s motion submitted as part of the two-day hearing on August 31 and September 1.

This case is separate from the charges laid to 13 individuals and companies under the federal Fisheries Act, where most of those charged are Kanehsata’kehró:non.

hadassah@easterndoor.com

Hadassah Alencar, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter