MNN. June 22, 2006. Most of us ignore “Aboriginal Day”. Like the rest of colonialism, it was imposed by the Canadian state. This year the RCMP celebrated it in a big way with “Project Cleopatra”. They marked the day by arresting 35 people charged with drug trafficking, possession of marijuana, possession with the proceeds of crime and money laundering. On the face of it, it’s hard to see what this had to do with Aboriginal Day. No one involved was native except Sharon Simon and her 21-year old daughter, Annie Arbic. But you’d never know this from the extensive press coverage flaunting Kanehsatake’s good name.
The community is offended. Sharon Simon may live there, but she doesn’t take part in community events.
She’s was known to be a “devout follower of James Gabriel” and he protected her. How else could she have managed to build such a great big house and “crime empire” when Mr. “law and order” was “in charge”.
Indian Affairs has been using their pet Gabriel for years. They poured a lot of money into that guy. Their plan seems to have been designed to tar the reputation of Kanehsatake as well as Mohawks and “Indians” in general. Gabriel was voted out. He needed a job. The word on the street is that he is now helping the cops and the government go after his old followers. He’s been involved in so much fraud and theft that he has no choice but to keep hopping.
The 35 Aboriginal Day warrants were executed on non-natives in Greater Montreal, the Eastern Townships, Saskatchewan and one native in Kanehsatake. Gabriel’s “untouchables” seem to be getting touched now.
Sharon Simon, their Aboriginal Day mascot, married young to a French guy and had two kids. After her divorce she got in with the wrong crowd. She’s a loner who doesn’t bother anybody. She didn’t fit into the community. She lived her life without answering to anyone. She had little to do with her neighbors and relatives even though she lived in Kanehsatake.
According to the Montreal Gazette on June 24th, the RCMP alleged that it was Sharon’s “job” to “run a vast smuggling network that shipped 40 to 50 kilograms of marijuana, as well as some ecstasy, to the US per week”. We wonder who wrote up her job description? Both mother and daughter appeared relaxed in the prisoner’s dock. According to the Gazette, she had two cops on her payroll. Maybe she knows who to pay off. Her experience with the system is completely different from ours as ordinary Mohawks who get into trouble for defending our political beliefs. The court probably likes her. Last winter, the court pounced on Jason Gabriel because he gave the finger to the illicit system. But yesterday Sharon Simon was smiling and blowing kisses in the court room.
The newspaper made her look pretty guilty – and along with her, the rest of Kanehsatake.
There was that picture of a whole bunch of guns. Only those who bothered to read the fine print found out that they were from the St. Therese home of Pascal Leclerc, 27. They were NOT from Kanehsatake. But our town’s reputation was dragged through the mud again. On top of this, there was not a shred of evidence mentioned in the newspaper linking Leclerc to Sharon and her daughter. Sixteen places were hit from here to Saskatchewan. So why are they making such a big deal about Kanehsatake?
There is no evidence that any other “Indians” are involved in this sting. Is the RCMP using Sharon Simon to continue its smear campaign against us? Whatever she was involved in, we weren’t. We all thought it was a cigarette raid. But it was bigger.
We never make the national news unless it’s derogatory. We received a frantic phone call from a woman from Kanehsatake, “Have you heard about my relative. She’s been picked up for being the leader of a big underworld gang right across Canada. They’re calling her “Cleopatra!”
“Hold it!” I said, it sounded like another Aboriginal Day hoax to us.
There’s been a total black out on all news concerning real Indigenous issues. Did Cleo do more than anybody else to get so much notoriety and attention? They paint her as the head of the whole gang, the “Queenpin” of all the Hell’s Angels, who are white bikers. They say she even controls two cops who were helping her get drugs over the border to the U.S. Holy smokes! She’s even suspected of attempting to highjack a load of cigarettes. (According to one Montreal paper, she was actually there but her boyfriend took the rap for her). Now she’s up against conspiring to commit robbery; money laundering; producing drugs for export and ‘gangsterism’. They’re making like she’s Canada’s Oliver North of the CIA in the Iran-Contra scandal. It’s all of these white riff-raff that think all they have to do hook up with a native and they can come on our land and do what they want.
The sting against Kanehsatake was carried out of Westmount, one of the richest ‘burbs in Montreal. Westmount is Kanion’ke:haka/Mohawk land! Look how badly they’re treating the original Westmounters!
The RCMP, Surete du Quebec and the Aboriginal police staged a predawn raid. You’d think they’d found Osama Bin Laden instead of a 48-year old mother of two. They came in with air support (choppers), 3 APC’s, a Leopard tank, vans and two unmarked cars. 350 heavily armed cops descended on the 16 spots simultaneously. She had a big compound and they smashed the APC into the gates. They didn’t bother to see whether the door was locked. Why didn’t they ring the bell?
What is Canada trying to say about Mohawk women? Are they scaring the public into thinking that dames like her might be strung right across Canada in every Indigenous community? In any other society there are always a few bad apples.
The lore about Cleo is that she kept exotic animals in her back yard like zebras and giraffes. The SQ busted her for that because she didn’t have the proper permits. They found 200 pounds of weed and she paid a $35,000 fine and got probation. She also got 6 months jail time for transporting guns. They let her go and started watching her. An AK-47 was allegedly found on the back seat of her car. Was it really hers? She also ran her yacht up and down the Ottawa River with a live jazz band entertaining her and her neighbors.
Are they trying to tell us we have leadership ability? Why didn’t they go after the Hell’s Angels? They’re too scared! They pick this weird woman because they’re afraid to go after the Hell’s and it’s always open season on Indians. Does this mean that once we Indigenous people have a million dollars, we are automatically suspect? Do we have to keep our houses shabby on the outside to avoid suspicion?
They seized her house, cars and everything that wasn’t nailed down. Our question is how are they going to take away her house off the Indigenous territory? It’s definitely going to raise some interesting legal issues. Are they going to dig it out, put it on a wheel barrow and haul it away? We heard they’re giving it to the Mohawk Council. There are no precedents to cover a situation like this. The lack of a precedent never stopped Canada before. The council for the most part is corrupt. So who’s going to get the house?
After looking at the front pages, we said, “Thanks, RCMP. Is this how you honor Aboriginal people on Aboriginal Day?” You set out to embarrass and humiliate us, didn’t you? After talking it over with other Mohawk women, one said, “Hey! They don’t have the real Cleo! Do the cops think that she represents the true spirit of Indigenous women? She does NOT. Nobody supports her. All the money, all the drugs were found at her house. Do they think this is going to hur doing what we t us spiritually and keep us down? Heck no! We are free acting according to the Great Law. This smear campaign can’t stop us”.
It is one person. They sure made a lot out of the fact that she’s an Indigenous woman who ran a big crime gang, making it look like she did it almost single handedly. She took risks, like anybody else who does this.
We’ve heard that the Hell’s Angel won’t let any “Indians” in their gang. Is the RCMP trying to enforce the equality provisions of the Charter of Rights on the Hell’s by proxy?
The big question is why are they trying to pin leadership of this drug operation on Sharon Simon instead of the Hell”s?. It’s embarrassing but is true. She was the head. Are they doing a number on the public and trying to cover up their failure to crack the gang and get to the root of the drug operation? All her partners in crime were non-natives – the cops and the bikers who were former SQ. Sharon Simon is an icon of assimilation. Is the real problem they have with us our refusal to get involved in their dirty crimes and our insistence on law and order for everyone, including the cops and Indian Affairs?
Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
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