Author
Miller
Oct. 26, 2004 - Global TV news clip of discovered camouflaged surveillance camera and subsequent discovery of smaller cameras on telephone poles on the territory.
Remote-Controlled Surveillance Equipment Found in Kanehsatake
Eastern Door, Volume 13 No. 39 - October 22, 2004
By: Kenneth Deer
During the afternoon hours of Wednesday, October 20 the presence of a
remotely controlled video camera was brought to the attention of Kanehsatake
residents. The camera was located on the roof of Ratihente High School in a fake
stove-pipe. The setup for this camera included a transceiver that was aimed
across the river toward the Hudson/Rigaud area. The camera was positioned to
monitor the intersection at Ahsennenson (Center Road) and route 344, as well as
the former Kanesatake Mohawk Police Station - which is presently being used by
community members as the Kanehsatake Community Security Headquarters
(KCSHQ).
At present the origins of the camera and its associated equipment is not
known. However, Kanehsatake residents suspect that the RCMP, SQ and the KMP are
responsible for placing the camera in that location. Community members also
suspect that the installation of the surveillance equipment has a twofold
purpose; firstly as a precursor to a police action against Kanehsatake, secondly
to monitor the movements of community members who are working at the KCSHQ.
The surveillance equipment was disguised as a metal chimney. Apparently,
workers appeared at the school on Friday claiming to be Bell Canada technicians
to install an experimental radar on the roof of the building. They also claimed
to have permission from the owners of the building, the Freres L'Instruction
Christianne. However, the two trucks used by the technicians did not have Bell
Canada markings, nor did the technicians wear Bell uniforms.
This raised suspicions of community members who then ventured up onto the
roof on Wednesday and found the hidden camera and the transmitter.
A call was placed to the SQ office in Oka, which asked to meet with the
callers in Kanehsatake. But a few minutes later the SQ called back to ask the
caller to meet them at the SQ office in Oka because they had a few documents to
show them. The caller refused.
"This is incredible that they can spy on us like that," Said Steve Bonspille
of Kanehsatake. "They wanted us to work together but if this is SQ equipment,
then this has thrown any trust out the window. We asked them more than once if
we were being filmed and the SQ denied that they were filming us. Now, we can't
trust the SQ anymore."
According to some community members, the placement of the surveillance
equipment is an "agressive and irresponsible move" on the part of the three
police forces that are ostensibly threatening Kanehsatake. Aggressive, in that
it provokes anger, suspicion, and fear among some community members.
Irresponsible, due to the location where they placed the equipment, at a high
school were students are apparently being used by these police as a cover for
their operation.
"Such actions endanger the children who attend school at that location. "What
would have happened if there was a confrontation at the school due to the
asinine decision to use the school as an observation post?" asked Clifton
Nicholas of Kanehsatake.
On the third floor of the school (which has been closed down due to budgetary
cutbacks) there was evidence of occupation for the purpose of surveillance. More
than four-dozen used coffee cups were scattered in various locations on the
abandoned level, suggesting overnight occupation.
The surveillance equipment is high end, with a price tag in the range of
$10,000 or more.
"We ask how the Canadian and Quebec Governments can justify the expenditures
of exorbitant amounts of money that are being funneled to house Gabriel in the
Laval Hilton and fund his militia while the community not only languishes but is
also being further criminalized by the so-called powers that be," said
Nicolas.
A spokesman for Grand Chief James Gabriel's office said they did not have any
knowledge of the surveillance equipment.
In a related announcement yesterday, the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake
appointed Terry Isaac as the Chief of Police of the Kanesatake Mohawk Police
Force.