A Quebec Superior Court judge has granted an emergency injunction to stop excavation work on Montreal’s Royal Victoria Hospital site as requested by a group of Mohawk elders.
The group, called the Kanien’kehá:ka kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers), believes there may be unmarked graves of Indigenous people, including children, on or near the site following CIA-funded brainwashing experiments in the 1950s and 1960s.
They say the site may also house archeological remains from the first pre-colonial Iroquois village.
The Mohawk Mothers filed a civil suit in March demanding the suspension of McGill University’s redevelopment plans for part of the former hospital.
After two days of hearings this week, a judge issued an oral decision Thursday afternoon in the group’s favour, granting the emergency, temporary injunction they requested.
Kahentinetha Horn, part of the Mohawk Mothers group and a member of the Bear Clan in Kahnawà:ke, said when the decision was read, a lawyer turned around to tell her that she had just made history.
“We were so excited. We couldn’t even understand what had happened,” said Horn, whose group has been demanding the suspension of the redevelopment plans for the past year. She said the win signifies dignity for her people.
“It maybe represents that this whole issue of the genocide that happened to us, which has been pushed under the rug, is going to come back out now, because now we have the means,” said Horn.
A landmark decision
Kimberly Murray, a federally-appointed independent special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves and burial sites, called this a landmark decision for Canada.
“It was a really significant decision yesterday — a very significant case for the entire country,” said Murray, who was a third-party intervenor in the hearings, in an interview with CBC News.
“We have situations that are happening across Turtle Island, where similar things are happening, where communities are trying to stop developers until they do the search. Now we have a decision of a court that expresses the importance of taking the time of talking to each other … so that we don’t continue to have these disputes moving forward.”
The injunction — effective immediately — stops all excavation on the site for three to four months. Despite the case scheduled to be heard this week, work had recently started on the site.
“That is not helpful for reconciliation,” Murray said. “They could have waited until the court case was heard to determine whether to start putting the shovels in the ground.
Horn and Murray hope the decision allows the parties involved to now meet out of court to negotiate a way to protect and respect the site.
