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Kahnawake members set up protest camp south of Montreal to stop housing project

Jul 8, 2021 | 11:30 AM

MONTREAL — Members of the Montreal-area First Nations territory of Kahnawake are occupying a disputed parcel of land beside their community in order to stop a proposed housing project.

The encampment, which has the support of the elected Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, was set up on July 1 in a wooded area bordering the municipality of Chateauguay, Que., on Montreal’s south shore.

The Mohawk council says the land is known as “Parcel E,” which it says was part of a land-transfer agreement with the Quebec government following the 2007 expansion of a major highway just south of Kahnawake.

Chateauguay’s city council adopted a zoning change in the area on March 15, clearing the way for the construction of 290 homes on the land.