The Quebec Environment Ministry said it is “taking action” to end illegal contaminated soil dumping and backfilling in the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) community of Kanesatake north of Montreal.
The ministry (MELCCFP) said in a news release that “measures have been taken in response to reports of illegal transport and disposal of soils in the territory.”
Wildlife officers, along with environmental inspectors and investigators, are expected to conduct field searches this week along Highway 344 (Rang Sainte-Philomena), which runs directly through the community on the shores of the Lac des Deux Montagnes, north of Oka, Que.
“The most recent reports concern disposal and illegal backfilling activities all along Rang Sainte-Philomeme, on the bank and shoreline of Lac des Deux Montagnes directly in fish habitat,” the ministry said. “These unauthorized activities threaten fish habitat.”
The ministry said the investigation will attempt to identify who has been backfilling in the area and will closely monitor the situation.
Kanesatake’s leaders and community members have long complained that trucks from off the territory have entered the area for decades and dumped contaminated soil, including concrete and construction materials.
In August of last year, Quebec’s Environment Ministry ordered the company Top Layer Distribution inc. in Kanesatake to stop backfilling and depositing decontaminated soil on its land. Prior to that, the company received similar notices.
Community member and former council chief Teiawennisarate Tomlinson said the dumping issue is part of a much bigger problem in the community.
It is, he said, a result of the compounding effects of trauma resulting from colonization, the residential schools tactic and “the unresolved consequences over decades.”
“It’s a double-edge sword, but it is unfortunately where we find ourselves,” he said. “We are left with a community suffering across all aspects of the social determinants of health. It creates ripe conditions for outside entities to come in and profit from the resulting dysfunction and suffering.”
Tomlinson is now executive director of the Kanesatake Health Centre and said outside organizations target vulnerable community members to pay them to dump on their land rather than follow protocol.
“It’s cheaper to pay individuals on reserve land than to follow decontamination procedures,” said Tomlinson.
The G&R Recycling site in the community was another place that drew media attention in 2023 when toxic materials were found there, which many feared would leak into the water supply.
Tomlinson said that children who suffered through past policies, such as residential schools, were born into a suffering social environment that perpetuated trauma from one generation to the next.
“We are a people indigenous to this land, but we have been violently disconnected from the land, our teachings and cultural values,” he said. “What we live today is a direct result of that, and it won’t be solved by targeted interventions on isolated manifestations/issues.”