Toxic contaminants were found in the water near a dump in Kanesatake 7 years ago. Opened in 2015 as a recycling center for industrial garbage, it accumulated mountains of waste on a strip of Mohawk land. The Ministry of the Environment won’t set foot there because of the violent threats and demands of Robert Gabriel and his brother Gary. Firefighters were denied access to fight flameless fires that released smoke and foul odours. The water from the site is black. The wasteland is packed with 17 times the amount of waste it’s permitted for. Reports confirmed the presence of leeching PCBs, E. coli and hydrogen sulfide.
In 2020, the Ministry revoked the company’s license and cracked down on truckers dumping their loads. The traffic stopped, but the waste remains. The issue has been known for years but Quebec and Ottawa fear to tred on indigenous territories. Its thought it would cost $100m to clean up the site.
Gary Gabriel, 59
Robert and Gary Gabriel were members of the Warriors during the 1990 Oka crisis. In 2005, they were convicted of forcible confinement and participation in a riot, after the house of Grand Chief James Gabriel and the local police station burned down. Robert Gabriel was the head of the ‘very violent’ organization. He and his brother are de facto kings of Kanesatake.
 |
 |
The Gabriel brothers did as they pleased on Mohawk land, and what they pleased was destroying it to fill their pockets. Robert and Gary Gabriel are feared, but not respected in their community. One hurdle to the cleanup of the toxic G&R Recycling site was finally cleared in late 2024 after Robert and Gary Gabriel signed a letter promising not to interfere with workers. “This is a big step forward when it comes to the remediation of the site,” said Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) chief Serge Otsi Simon. “It’s up to the federal government at this point.”
“Hopefully in the next three, four years that site is going to be nothing but a bad memory.” – Serge Otsi Simon.
The process for remediation of the fouled land was stalled and could remain that way for years given lack of governance. Dysfunctional indian leadership continuously delayed the clean-up of Robert and Gary Gabriel’s toxic dump at Kanesatake. A dispute between Council Grand Chief Victor Bonpsille and his sister Chief Valerie Bonspille, and four other chiefs in the Kanien’kehá:ka prevented the transfer of the privately owned land back to the community so the cleanup could continue. Four chiefs: John Canatonquin, Brant Etienne, Amy Beauvais, and former grand chief Serge Otsi Simon banded together to support the Gabriels. By creating the toxic dump, and then being incapable of dealing with it, the Mohawk at Kanesatake proved they are people that cannot govern themselves, even when their own land is in the balance.
“I just wanted to put a rest to this whole fucking problem that we have here and have it over with,” said Robert Gabriel. “I’ve been cooperating with Canada, the Council. I don’t know what else to say. We’ve said everything.” The simple fact is there is no more money to be made by the Gabriel brothers dumping industrial waste on Mohawk ground.
Leaders of Kanesatake are demanding help in decontaminating the site and that means tens of millions from taxpayers. They replay in detailed gory Kanesatake’s failed attempts to get the federal or provincial governments to put a stop to the illegal dumping on its land and pay for it’s clean-up.
 |
Gary Gabriel was sitting next to Arsène Mompoint when a masked man put three bullets into the back of his head on July 1, 2021. |
Mompoint — a gang leader with ties to the Montreal mafia — was smoking from a hookah pipe outside Gabriel’s pot shop ‘The Green Room’ when he was killed. The Gabriels are major players in pot sales with the HA in Kanesatake. They are said to be continuously trying to squeeze out competition on the reserve.
