Oka tries to ease concerns
No building permit issued: mayor
 
By KATHERINE WILTON, The Gazette,  June 3, 2010

The town of Oka took steps yesterday to quash rumours that a developer was getting ready to build three houses on land claimed by Mohawks in Kanesatake.

Developer Normand Ducharme has said he wants to build three luxury homes across the highway from "the Pines" - a tree-covered land adjacent to an aboriginal burial ground. The area was at the centre of the 1990 crisis that erupted over a plan to expand the town of Oka's golf course onto the Pines.

But Oka Mayor Richard Lalonde sent out a news release saying Ducharme's company, Norfolk Financial, has not yet submitted an application for a construction permit.

The band council in Kanesatake has asked Ducharme to refrain from cutting down trees on his property until the Mohawks' land claims are settled.

The band council has said it wants Ottawa to buy the land from Ducharme and hold it in reserve until the claim with the federal government is settled. In January, three of Ducharme's employees left the property after a handful of Mohawks showed up and told them they didn't want any of the pine trees cut down.

Lalonde said no one wants a repeat of the 1990 Oka crisis, in which Mohawks were involved in an armed standoff with the Canadian Army.
"Everyone is working together and the public doesn't have to worry," he said. "The situation is under control."