1990 Oka Confrontation

On July 11th 1990 the town of Oka and its citizens had a crisis. The city had wanted to put a golf course in the town but it would have to be on some of the Mohawk burial grounds. This made the Mohawk people very upset and angry with the city. Because of their anger they made a barricade going to the burial ground so that the town couldn’t build the golf course there. This crisis lasted until September 26th 1990. During this dispute Corporal Marcel Lemany was murdered, he was shot. We don’t know for sure whose bullet it was but some people say that it was a police bullet.

After the Mohawk community put up a fight solders were sent in to stop them from doing this .About 800 soldiers were sent in. They started to enclose the Mohawk people in a circle with barbed wire. The security minister made a statement saying that he did not want to be responsible for any more deaths and too back off. There was 78 days that the city and the Mohawk people made up deals. They finally decided that the best idea would be if the Mohawks stopped all this trouble and took down the barricade then the city would not put the golf course on their burial ground.