Latest news with #Akwesasne
CTV News
2 days ago
- CTV News
Police in Akwesasne Mohawk Territory break up suspected human smuggling operation
The Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service says it disrupted a suspected human smuggling operation in its territory this past weekend. In a news release, the police service said three people with Brazilian passports were found near Raquette Point, Akwesasne, N.Y., on Saturday. The individuals — a man, a woman, and a child — told police they had been held against their will for several days and were given minimal necessities. The investigation led police to a home on Cornwall Island, in Ontario, police said. 'While police were actively monitoring the location, two more individuals believed to be migrants were dropped off at the exact location,' the news release said. 'In the interest of public safety, officers entered the residence and located two additional migrants, along with a resident from Akwesasne. All individuals were safely detained. Background checks confirmed that the two additional migrants had active extradition warrants from the United States related to immigration violations.' The Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service said the investigation remains ongoing and no other information would be made available. No charges have been announced. Akwesasne police said the operation was carried out with assistance from Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Police, the RCMP, Sûreté du Québec, and the Canada Border Services Agency. The Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service has identified persons of interest. Anyone with information is asked to call (613) 575-2340 or submit a secure tip by email at tips@ You may also provide an anonymous tip to Seaway Valley Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
CTV News
3 days ago
- CTV News
Police in Akwesasne Mohawk Territory break up suspected human trafficking operation
The Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service says it disrupted a suspected human smuggling operation in its territory this past weekend. In a news release, the police service said three people with Brazilian passports were found near Raquette Point, Akwesasne, N.Y., on Saturday. The individuals — a man, a woman, and a child — told police they had been held against their will for several days and were given minimal necessities. The investigation led police to a home on Cornwall Island, in Ontario, police said. 'While police were actively monitoring the location, two more individuals believed to be migrants were dropped off at the exact location,' the news release said. 'In the interest of public safety, officers entered the residence and located two additional migrants, along with a resident from Akwesasne. All individuals were safely detained. Background checks confirmed that the two additional migrants had active extradition warrants from the United States related to immigration violations.' The Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service said the investigation remains ongoing and no other information would be made available. No charges have been announced. Akwesasne police said the operation was carried out with assistance from Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Police, the RCMP, Sûreté du Québec, and the Canada Border Services Agency. The Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service has identified persons of interest. Anyone with information is asked to call (613) 575-2340 or submit a secure tip by email at tips@ You may also provide an anonymous tip to Seaway Valley Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
CBC
3 days ago
- CBC
Suspected human smuggling ring disrupted in Akwesasne
Police in Akwesasne say they've disrupted a suspected human smuggling operation in the territory that was apparently holding migrants against their will. According to a news release Wednesday from the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service (AMPS), they were alerted by Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Police — their counterparts on the U.S. portion of the territory — on June 7 about a "serious incident involving suspected human smuggling." A man, woman and child with Brazilian passports had been "intercepted" that afternoon by Saint Regis officers near Raquette Point in New York state, police said. The three people, none of whom spoke much English, said they'd been held against their will for several days and provided with "minimal necessities," AMPS said. They also told police that others were being held at a residence on Cornwall Island on the Ontario side. More migrants found at residence According to AMPS, while police were monitoring that residence, two other people believed to be migrants were dropped off. Officers then entered the property where they found two more migrants and a third person from Akwesasne. Those two migrants had active extradition warrants from the U.S. related to immigration violations, police said. No arrests or charges had been announced as of early Wednesday afternoon. Home to about 27,000 people, the territory near Cornwall, Ont., is severed by both the Ontario-Quebec border and the international boundary with New York state. For decades, Akwesasne's jurisdictional tangle has been taken advantage of by people seeking to move illicit products and humans across the border — sometimes with fatal consequences.
Hamilton Spectator
06-06-2025
- General
- Hamilton Spectator
Good things grow at the Gardens
Planting Day at Gardens of Hope this year was heavier on the weeding than the planting, but after a hard day's work, and more that followed, the land is once again prepared to serve as a source of inspiration – and nourishment – to the community. 'It's the most beautiful gift,' said Gardens of Hope founder Karyn Wahsontiiostha Murray. 'To see it come alive after the dormancy of winter and waiting for spring to pass and all the bugs to come back and hatch, and then you just see people at work in there, it's the first beat of hope of the season. I'm so excited to see whatever's going to come.' Around 40 people came out for Saturday's event, which began with a consecration to the land and was capped off with a barbecue. While there were some community members on hand, Murray focused on rallying the garden's partners to avoid burdening the community. 'My aim for Gardens of Hope is never to take from the community, it's to give to them,' said Murray. 'If people want to come because they want to enjoy nature or be part of it or because it's good for them too, they're welcome to come, but never do I want people from Kanesatake to have to work there to gain anything.' For those who attended on Saturday, the hard work didn't dampen the mood. The clouds were floating overhead, the breeze carried the sound of laughter, and, in Murray's words, the trees sounded like they were just listening. 'There was a moment where I showed up with a few more plants, and just seeing all these people having a great time and just working together, it really warmed my heart to see the project, the way I have the model set up, works,' she said. One of the nonprofit's partners is the Christian organization InterVarsity in Quebec, which brought six students to spend nine days visiting the community and camping at Oka Park. They've spent roughly half of their time pitching in at Gardens of Hope. Aware of her own church's role in establishing and operating residential schools, and having grown up as a settler on Akwesasne territory, Foster saw a need to familiarize students with Indigenous realities. 'When I came to work with students, I was aware that students, especially Christian students, did not understand the role of the church in colonization and Christianization, nor was there any effort among Christian students to make amends for that or to make that right or even to learn. That was the genesis of this camp,' said Jill Foster, a campus minister based at Concordia University with the organization. The camp is also inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action. 'One of the calls to action we're trying to fulfill, apart from the learning, is to contribute financially and in-kind to a healing project that is community initiated, community led, and community directed,' she said. Alongside connecting with community members who show the students around the community and teach them about Kanesatake culture and history, the group has laboured at the Gardens of Hope. 'Every time for some reason we end up with students who are so open and have hearts that are good and understand what's happening,' Foster said, noting the students' desire to be of service to the community and their joy in connecting with the land. 'It's been a great experience,' said Rebecca Estimé, a student from Haiti who will be attending Concordia in the fall and is participating in the camp for a second time – it's InterVarsity in Quebec's fourth year bringing students to Kanesatake. 'Seeing the garden as a pillar of hope and just giving back to the community is something I personally believe, that I like to practice a lot in my everyday life,' Estimé said. 'Seeing that on a big scale in this garden, just harvesting everything not just for somebody's profit but for everybody's profit is something I hold dear in my heart, and I would just like everybody to see that and be able to take part in this work that is being done in the Gardens of Hope.' To Murray, this is all in the spirit of what she is trying to accomplish with the nonprofit project, which she founded shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic. She continues to find ways to contribute to the community, whether through providing plants for local students' fundraising efforts, as she did recently, or holding no-cost markets to feed Kanehsata'kehró:non. 'I'm just grateful that I get to steward the land and that people can benefit from it,' Murray said. 'That's the gift of multiplication. That's the gift of preservation.' Some of her goals for the year include setting up a food forest in the middle of the field, where fruit trees will be introduced. 'People can just go and pick their pears right next to their apples and their blueberries,' Murray said. This year the community can expect different types of corn, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, and ancestral beans. Murray also wants to learn more about the practice of seed-saving. Besides her own plans, she is pleased to see other agricultural projects flourish in the community, such as the community gardens at the Kanesatake Health Center farm, which was also set to have a planting day at the same time, but which was postponed to tomorrow, Saturday. 'We're all in with the same aim – sustainability, sovereignty,' said Murray. 'I really think it's going to help us in the future Those kids are all going to grow up re-learning all these basics that it seems in the last 40 years have just sort of vanished.' marcus@ Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. 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CBC
23-05-2025
- CBC
Sixties Scoop survivor held in U.S. jail after attempted return to adoptive family
Social Sharing James Mast, a Cree Sixties Scoop survivor, says he was making his way to Oklahoma so he could care for his ailing adoptive father when tribal police on the U.S. side of the Akwesasne reservation arrested him and turned him over to U.S. Border Patrol. Mast, 60, has been held at the Clinton County jail in Plattsburgh, N.Y., which sits about 115 km southeast of Akwesasne, since his April 14 arrest by St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Police. He was detained after crossing the St. Lawrence River by boat and had no identification on him at the time. Mast has so far spent six weeks in custody while U.S. immigration authorities determine whether to deport him to Canada. "I want to get back home and I'm tired of this pressure that immigration and people put on saying that I am not American," said Mast, in a telephone interview with CBC News from jail. "I was raised in the States." Mast was initially charged with unlawful "re-entry by a deported alien," but the charge was dropped by the assistant U.S. attorney because Mast is Cree, said Gabrielle DiBella, his appointed federal public defender. "Being a Native American meant that he could not be prosecuted for illegally re-entering the country," said DiBella in an interview with CBC News. Under the 1794 Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain, a person with at least 50 per cent First Nations parentage may cross freely from Canada into the U.S. A First Nations person born in Canada can also legally live as a permanent resident with a green card in the U.S. if they register with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. "I've never had a Native American prosecuted for illegal re-entry," said DiBella. DiBella said they've requested Mast's adoption records from the government of Alberta which he was told could take four to six months to process and provide. CBC News contacted U.S. Customs and Border Protection who referred questions to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for comment. ICE did not respond to request for comment. Taken from family twice The Sixties Scoop was a period from the 1950s to the 1980s when thousands of Indigenous children were seized by provincial child-welfare agencies and adopted out to non-Indigenous families. Mast was born James Cardinal in 1964 to Mary, who was Cree, and Edward Cardinal, a Métis. They were trappers living around Fort McMurray, Alta. "My father was an alcoholic, so he'd take the pelts in and then leave my mom and us kids out on the trap line," said Mast, who has three biological siblings. Mast said when he was two-years old his mother fell ill and moved in with her sister, who called child welfare services. "Welfare came and picked us up and took us away," he said. He was bounced between foster homes and abused until Moses and Sadie Mast, a Mennonite couple, adopted him and took him to Spencer, Okla., when he was six years old, said James Mast. He said he reconnected with his biological mother when he was 16 after hitchhiking from Oklahoma City to Anzac, Alta. But he went back to Oklahoma, to his adoptive parents, who he considers his real family. "That's the only family I have," said Mast. While building hog farms in the mid-1990s in Missouri, Mast ran into trouble with the law, according to state court records. Mast said he was convicted of assaulting a police officer and served 17 years in prison. After his release and shortly after arriving back home to Oklahoma, U.S. immigration authorities swooped in to arrest him. He said he still remembers seeing his adoptive mother Sadie Mast weeping as they took him away. "I told her, don't worry, I'll be all right, I'll come back again one day," said Mast. "She passed away before I made it. It's just been an ongoing frustration. It made me angry." Mast was sent to immigration detention in Dallas and deported to Calgary in 2010, according to U.S. court records. His adoptive parents never made him a U.S. citizen and Mast said he didn't know how to fight the deportation. He said he stayed for about a day at the Calgary airport before heading to a city homeless shelter, the beginning of an itinerant life in Canada. He was in and out of jails and shelters, while compiling convictions for things like armed robbery, thefts and assaults. Mast said he ended up drifting to Hamilton and then to Cornwall, Ont., about six years ago where he found work as a mechanic. During his time in Cornwall, Mast said he met people from Akwesasne, the Haudenesaunee territory that sits across the St. Lawrence River from the small city. Mast said he crossed the river by boat on April 13, jumped out on the southern shore and hid out in a wooded area overnight. Family waits for him The next day, Mast said he was walking through the community, trying to figure out how to continue his journey to Oklahoma when he was stopped by tribal police who later reported to U.S. Border Patrol that he was intoxicated. "They lied, and that's what always gets me in trouble, that's why I get mad at the police, because they lie," said Mast. "How can they say I was intoxicated? They didn't take no breathalyzer…. As a matter of fact, I don't drink." He said they arrested him after he slammed his hand on the trunk of the police cruiser. "I said, 'There, now you can arrest me,'" said Mast during the telephone interview with CBC News. Mast said he just wants to get home and take care of his adoptive father. It still pains him that he wasn't there when his adoptive mother died. "I figure it's time to get back home and take care of him, like he took care of me when I was younger," he said. "He needs me there." Mast's father is in his late 80s, suffers from dementia and is currently in an assisted living care home, said Bonnie Bellah, James Mast's cousin. Bellah has taken over the primary caregiving role for Moses Mast. She said the family is aware that James Mast is in custody and would welcome his return. "We would all embrace him," said Bellah, in a telephone interview from Spencer, Okla. "We love him and we want the best for him. It's a hard situation, he is adopted, but he is family and family is very important."
