Oka Crisis Case Study

In the month of March 1990 Mohawk protesters constructed a barricade to prevent access to the Kanehsatake reserve to prevent construction of a 9-hole golf course. Then on July 11, 1990, Canadian police attack the barricade and a standoff begins. What was once in the name of the Kanehsatake reserve now became a civil rights movement for the First Nations across Canada. Throughout the standoff, police disregarded the basic rights of the Mohawk and negotiations were incredibly difficult resulting in the situation degrading rapidly. What was shown during the Oka Crisis is that the Canadian government failed to recognize that the First Nations as a people and treated them unfairly.

The Oka Crisis has significant background leading up to the event

An example being the burning of a effigy of a Mohawk warrior several nights in a row by the 10,000 people of Chateauguay without restraint from the government as well as the deployment of the Canadian Armed Forces as a deterrent to the protestors. During the time of the deployment negotiations between the government and mohawk were ongoing, had the 4,000 soldiers not have been deployed tensions between the mohawk and government would have lowered. Instead, many of the requests negotiated for were suspended. What little food, water, and medical supplies that the Mohawk received were often found ruined and unusable. When negotiations reopened, a deal was made that led to the reopening of additional barricades made by the mohawk such as at Mercier Bridge; a common route for vehicles from neighbouring towns and a subject for many protests from those same citizens towards the government. Even after negotiations the Canadian military moved in, forcing the Warriors to retreat to the Onentoken Treatment Centre and allowing the army to dismantle the main barricade that the Mohawk set up. On september 26th 1990 the crisis ends with the Mohawk of the region peacefully walking towards military lines in surrender. Soonafter chaos erupts as soldiers arrest Mohawk protestors. Acts of violence

In July 2015, the mayor oka made a vow to never encroach on the Pines. Despite this promise, there has yet to be a solution to the issue of who actually has claim to the land of the area. The lesson that should have been learned from the Oka Crisis is that disregard of a people’s identity and civil rights will lead to unrest, actions that will only worsen the situation should be avoided, and the focus of any crisis would be to resolve the situation