Case Study: Oka

Oka is a village of about 1300 people is located west of Montreal, Quebec. In 1990, the village of Oka decided to expand its private members nine-hole golf course to eighteen holes in a development that would also include 60 luxury condominiums. The land needed for this expansion included land the nearby Mohawk people believe is a sacred burial ground. For 260 years, the Mohawk nation had been pursuing a land claim for this area, which included one of the oldest hand-planted stands of pine trees in North America, a sacred grove to the Mohawks. Two hundred Mohawks from the nearby reserve of Kanesatake protested the development proposal and spent a year going through the courts to establish their rights to this land. The mayor of Oka claimed the land was owned by the municipality. After a year, the frustrated Mohawks set up road barriers and occupied the land, known as The Pines, where the village wanted to build the golf course. By the spring of 1991, people from the 10 000 member Kanesatake reserve set up sympathy roadblocks, blocking major highways.

The mayor of Oka called in the Quebec Provincial Police, who stormed the blockade early in the morning with tear gas and guns. After a fifteen minute battle, a Quebec police officer, Corporal Marcel Lemay, was killed. Both the police and the Mohawks claimed the other side was to blame for his death. Five years later, a provincial inquiry concluded that the bullet that killed the police officer came from a Mohawk gun, but no charges were ever laid.

More tension: Both the Quebec minister of Indian Affairs and the federal Minister of Indian affairs were involved in negotiations with the Mohawks. However, the talks broke down when the Mohawks refused to take down their barricades. By August, the Premier of Quebec, Robert Bourassa, called in the armed forces. Two thousand five hundred armed soldiers were on the scene with tanks and weapons. The Canadian press was filled with images of armed Canadian soldiers and Mohawk warriors standing head to head. In late August, the warriors took down the barricades, and in late September they surrendered. Thirty-four people were arrested.

The Oka crisis represented the frustration of native people across Canada who had spent years trying to resolve land claims issues. Their frustrations stemmed from the lack of action of all levels of government. Because legal action seemed to go nowhere, they felt that some form of demonstration was the only way for their concerns to be addressed.

The media spotlight on the Oka crisis focused international attention on the native land claims issue. The International Federation of Human Rights and Amnesty International have both criticized the actions of the Canadian government.

The golf course expansion was cancelled.

For more information, including video, see the CBC Archives here.