House sitting

>> Kanesatake Mohawk squatters refuse to budge

by CRAIG SEGAL

Denis Nicholas and his wife and two daughters moved into their current home in '93--a fair-sized rural place in Kanesatake with an above-ground pool and plenty of land for the kids to run around on. They'd long since outgrown his father's minuscule house where they looked after his sick mother. There was one glitch to the new place, though. It didn't belong to them and it wasn't for sale.

Nicholas says he had no choice, it was too cramped at his parents' place. "It was a very tiny house," says Nicholas. "It was basically for one very small family. And it wasn't my house, it belonged to my parents."

After the explosive Oka Crisis of 1990--when Mohawks blocked off the Mercier Bridge to stop a golf course from being built on an ancestral burial ground--many white people living in the area had a sudden and overwhelming urge to bolt. So the federal government gave them good money for their properties and they took off. Suddenly there were close to 70 empty homes in an area with high poverty levels and a serious housing shortage.

In 1993, Nicholas moved his family into 101 Chemin du Milieu, Kanesatake. "It wasn't locked," says Nicholas. "As a matter of fact there were a couple of teenagers living in here when we got here. We asked if they needed a place this big. They said 'No,' and they moved out.

"Hydro was already connected, that was no problem. The phone was no problem. We had to change the locks. To date we've put $30,000 into it."

The federal government had problems managing the properties so they transferred management to a new Mohawk organization called the Kanesatake Orihwa'shon:a Development Corporation (KODC) in 1999. The KODC has gotten the majority of tenants to sign leases, but over two dozen held out. So, according to KODC lawyer Kurt Johnson, in April the KODC sent letters demanding the remaining squatters sign leases and pay between $1,800 and $18,000 in back rent.

Johnson admits many squatters could never afford to pay the back rent. "In some cases KODC would be entitled to ask for eviction orders. But that's not the objective," says Johnson, of Montreal-based Irving, Mitchell & Associates. "The objective is to establish fairness among all the occupants of KODC properties, because some people are paying and others aren't. That's the real issue here."

Nicholas, meanwhile, insists he is living on Mohawk land, and signing a lease with the federal government would be bad for all Mohawks since it would decrease their land base. "Our position from day one is that the lands were returned to the Mohawk Nation," says Nicholas. "This is not a housing issue, this is a land issue."

Power to the people

The rent collectors insist they aren't greedy landlords. According to documents provided by the KODC, their number-one objective is "to promote the social and economic development of the Mohawks of Kanesatake." They say 70 per cent of the rent they collect is pumped right back into the community. The KODC has used some of that cash to help turn half a dozen properties into profitable local businesses. The Nation's Cup Café, a newly built bed and breakfast with rooms named after animals, is already booked for this summer's Pow Wow. "Fixing up these properties helps the local economy," says Sohenrise Paul Nicholas, 28-year-old president of the KODC, as he drives me around the properties in his brand new 280-horsepower Chevy Silverado pickup. "We're trying to bring a way of life back that disappeared a long time ago."

Theresa Jacob, who started paying rent in 2000 after squatting five years, backs the KODC. "If I were living in Montreal I'd be paying rent," says Jacob, a grandmother whose health problems prevent her from leaving her house for long periods. "KODC has been taking good care of my home. It's bad that the other people don't understand that."

But squatters have other reasons for not paying rent. Even if they sign leases, the KODC still wants them to pay back rent. So squatters either have to work out a plan with the KODC to pay the back rent along with their regular rent--as four renters are doing--or they will face the newly established and untested Mohawk Tribunal court. And the KODC plans to put the homes up for sale next year. When that happens, tenants will still have the right to stay if they can't or won't buy their homes.

Squatter Nicholas says he's ready for a legal battle. "We are here to make sure this land remains here for the next seven generations. Money is power and it's powerful enough to buy a lot of people, to buy their loyalty. I'm sure the KODC is misguided. And I'm sure that they're also blinded by the magic of money."