Eastern Door Volume 2 Number 21

Volume 2 Number 21

November 19, 1993

Inquest Stalled, and Restarted
By: Joe Deom

The inquest into the death of Cpl. Lemay resumed on Tuesday, Nov. 16th, when the lawyers for the S.Q. announced that they had withdrawn their challenge to have the inquiry stopped.

They effectively stopped the proceedings on the previous Wednesday when the said that they were filing a writ to stay the inquiry on grounds that the special coroner Guy Gilbert had gone beyond his mandate by turning the inquest into an inquiry into the operations of the S.Q. (E.D.: The temperature in the offices of the higher officials was getting warm since all of the S.Q. officers in the field have been pointing their fingers upstairs when asked "Who gave the order to go in?")

so far these officers, including Insp. Gariepy at Parthenais, have testified that they did not see nor were they aware of any armed people behind the barricades on July 11th, 1990. Although he was not in agreement, Insp. Gariepy transmitted the order to go in because he thought the higher ups knew something he didn't. Marcotte, who was the field commander, testified that he could have refuses the order if he knew of any armed people in the pines. Testimony by Jean Guy Charland, the man in charge of intelligence, testified on Tuesday, Nov. 9th, 1990 to evaluate the danger (at the pines). He submitted a report by the analyst Danielle Felardeau that said that although there were arms present there was nothing to indicate that the Indians would use their weapons. This report was made available to the top brass. At this time, Coroner Gilbert lost his cool and said that all this time, the higher ups had information of this type, did not tell their men in the field, but sent them in anyway? The ensuing furor ended the inquest for the day.

On the following day, the S.Q. lawyers declared their intention to stay the proceedings. The inquest was suspended.

New of the suspension reached the National Assembly when the opposition party questioned Claude Ryan, minister in charge of the S.Q. Ryan stated that the government was not behind this and denied a cover-up. He said that he would talk to Pierre Morin, the province's chief coroner and to S.Q. Director Lavigne. On Monday, coroner Gilbert informs the principal; that the inquiry will continue on Tuesday. Before it starts, the S.Q. Lawyers appeared before a judge and filed a motion for delay of the inquiry (not a writ to withdraw). When the inquiry starts, coroner Gilbert assures the lawyers that he has remained impartial and that this was not intended as an inquiry only into the S.Q. but that he would seek information from the Mohawks as well. The S.Q. Lawyers then withdrew their motion.

The proceedings resumed on Wednesday with the completion of the testimony of Charland followed by testimony by Allain St. Ours, a Radio-Canada reporter. During a break, Richard Corriveau, the lawyer representing the Mohawks in the inquiry, was not satisfied and expressed his amazement that a minister of the government would interfere by talking to the chief coroner on this matter. He felt that this was akin to applying of pressure on a judge who is presiding over a case. He informed the coroner and the press that because of this "appearance of police influence' on the proceedings, the Mohawks would not want to testify.

Corriveau's fears caused coroner Gilbert to open Thursday's hearing with a statement. He wanted the public to know that he "was not aware of what was said by Mr. Ryan", "I have not been influenced by anyone especially Pierre Morin (chief coroner)". Her referred to his oath of honesty, impartiality and justice.

Mr. Corriveau accepted by saying that his statement "reassures us" (of the coroner's impartiality).

With that, the inquest resumed with the testimony of Louise Beaudoin, a TV reporter for Radio-Canada. She testified about her presence in the pines both before and during the raid. Several video tapes were shown and she was asked to comment. Her memory was vague and Corriveau offered to play Mary David's audio tape of that day to help her with her testimony. (This is the first time it was introduced and is the first tape played that is chronologically in sequence.)

The inquest closed for the day and will resume next Tuesday with testimony from Danielle Falardeau the intelligence analyst.

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Civil Code Reform In Quebec
By: Louis Cyr, S.J.

SOME IMPORTANT ASPECTS

Effective next January 1st, a certain number of new rules will affect the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths in Quebec. The specific thrust of these changes revolves around the separation of Church and State. Such a distinction has always been in effect in the other Canadian provinces (and in all of the United States.) The province of Quebec is therefore simply adjusting itself to practices current in the rest of North America, as well as to its own "Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms."

REGISTRATIONS OF BIRTHS VS BAPTISM

The most sweeping change concerns the registration of births:

Ministers of religion will no longer be authorized to issue civil birth certificates for dates past, present or future. (Neither will any city/town hall or courthouse officials, for that matter). Only the province's new civil status registrar will have the right to do this, from January 1, 1994 on. To this end all existing registers ever deposited at government courthouses (yearly copies of our own) have been centralized in Montreal and Quebec and computerized.

THIS MEANS THAT:

Church issued combined 'birth and baptism" certificates will be a thing of the past. From then on, ministers of religion may issue only extracts from baptisms (or christenings or equivalent), and these will have religious value only: they won't be recognized as valid identity papers for border crossings, medicare, etc.;
The celebration of baptism will be permanently uncoupled from the birth registration. Note that, as in the past, you may still, until January 1st, have your child's birth registered at a city or town hall but since this has never been possible in Kahnawake (except at the United Church) and since Catholic clergy were not allowed to register births separately, for most Catholics baptism for their child at our Mission conveniently meant obtaining its birth registration, both in one. Henceforth, baptism will be celebrated as an exclusively religious act and the church will issue only an extract of strictly religious value from its own baptism register.

NEW CIVIL REGISTRATION AT BIRTH:

According to the information presently available, any extract from the civil birth register will be issued exclusively by the government of Quebec. After the birth of you child:

You will receive a copy of the attestation of birth signed by the delivering physician;
You will be responsible for forwarding a declaration of birth to Quebec within 30 days, using the forms provided from the hospital. This formality can be taken care of right on the spot at the hospital. Besides the parent(s), a witness will be required to sign.
Copies or certificates of your child's registration of birth will be obtainable either by mail, telephone or fax (using forms available at banks or other public institutions), or at government counters in Montreal and Quebec. (Fees and time delays involved will be made public shortly.) In all probability however, it will cost you more than our present $2 fee and take more time than, for example, (coming to the rectory the evening before your trip down south..)

CORRECTLY SPELLED GIVEN NAMES IN MOHAWK

To be legal, any Mohawk given name will have to be decided upon and handed in with your declaration of birth.

Parents and grandparents have done their best in the past to hand in, at baptism correctly spelled Mohawk names. Mistakes have, however, crept in now and then. On the other hand, for several years now, the official way of writing down the Mohawk language has been in the process of being revised and standardized. For our part, we have been cooperating with the schools in reflecting the revises spellings of Mohawk names in our First Communion and Confirmation certificates. It would be convenient however, if there were some officially recognized coordinating instance which people could consult here in this matter before (or at) the birth of their children. Selling the name correctly at birth (at the civil level ) would help avoid unnecessary complications down the line. Name changes and corrections will always be possible, as in the past, but civil procedure involved will remain a lengthy and costly one.

CATHOLIC BAPTISM FORMALITIES:

To have you child baptized, you will have to bring in either an official extract of birth, or your copy of either declaration or attestation of birth - a) or b) above but you will no longer be bound by any 4-month time limit.

Adding Christian and/or Mohawk given named other than those sent into Quebec will be allowed at baptism (but they will have no civil or legal value), as long as the designated given names at birth always be mentioned.

The main consequence concerning our Catholic community is that baptized Catholic parents who, for whatever reason, do not intend to bring their children up in the Catholic faith, can clearly refrain from having them baptized (remember: this was always possible - see No.1 above but in fact, hardly ever observed). Those requesting baptism for their child will henceforth do so under no state (legal or civil) pressure or deadline whatsoever. They will be engaging only their religious beliefs, "no civil strings attached". Preparation for baptism will thus be fore welcome and manageable.

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGE AND DEATHS:

The new rules concerning the registering of marriages and deaths are more simply stated. Only the registrar of civil status may henceforth issue civil marriage and death certificates.

In the case of marriages: all officiating ministers of religion will be recognized as authorized civil "declarants". Besides the parish register, they will fill out two government forms (instead of one) and have them signed by both spouses and witnesses.

As for burials: ministers of religions will not intervene at all in civil declaration of death. Only the attesting physician (or peace officer), a declared witness close to the deceased and the funeral director will be involved in drawing up the declaration of death to be sent to the Quebec registrar of civil status. Parishes will henceforth register only the funerals presided over by their priests/deacons and will register burials only if the cemetery is located in their territory (as is the case in Kahnawake).

In short, ministers of religion will continue to perform religious rites of baptism, marriage and burial but will no longer register them at the civil level (nor, or course, issue certificates at that level).

No doubt the government will certainly provide for a period of transition for the change-over to the new civil registration. Official government instructions about this will be forthcoming shortly. This summary will most likely call for corrections and/or additions. We are presently attempting to invite authorized government officials to visit and meet with us (you) on these matters.

We fully recognize that changing 300-year-old habits will be at times a frustrating and annoying process for us all. But with a dose of patience, good will and sense of humour, we will succeed in adjusting to this new situation as efficiently and painlessly as is possible. Nia:wen to all of you in advance for your cooperation.

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Editorial

On Printing Names, Citizenship and Residency

In the last issue of the Eastern Door there was an article submitted by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake that mentioned names of certain individuals regarding a rather controversial subject. Reaction to this article ranged from phone calls to the Mohawk Council, to articles in the mainstream press and finally to the floor of the National Assembly in Quebec City.

When The Eastern Door was approached by the Mohawk Council about printing these names, our response was that as long as the facts were accurate and there was no possibility of libel, then the article would be printed but clearly under their banner. Their reasons for publishing these names are theirs and only they can answer why they chose this route.

The Eastern Door's responsibility is to transmit news and information, information the community needs so our readers can make informed choices. Citizenship and residency are very complex and controversial issues in Indian country throughout North America. In our community, we have made some hard decisions on these issues. When one reads The Eastern Door one should see a reflection of our community. What you read in the last issue of the Eastern Door was what these residency laws are about. Real lives, real people being affected by these laws. Whether these laws are right or wrong, this is the issue we have to grapple with.

The negative reaction on the outside of our community is a warning that we had better be very clear and rational in our citizenship and residency laws. Racism, segregation, apartheid are all implied in Indian Act and "Mohawk Laws" on citizenship and residency. Our reasons for protecting our rights must stand the light of day. Our laws are our business but we cannot hide from the dominant society around us.

Preventing a race from dying out is not racism, protecting land for our citizens is not discrimination, living in protected communities is survival not apartheid but you can't legislate love and affection. And there is the crux of the matter.

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