Online Gambling Fears Rise in Khanawake One of the more well known and most respected of the online gambling jurisdiction licensing agencies, the Mohawk Kahnawake Reservation, just outside of Quebec, has been watching closely as the Canadian province appears to be tightening its grip on the region. Kahnawake is ideally located at the narrowing southwest shore of the St. Lawrence River. It has serviced the online gambling sector since 1999 when the first license was issued to Sports Interaction (an Irish-owned gaming firm still based out of Kahnawake).
Golden Palace Online Casino, which operated just outside of Kahnawake, had its offices raided last year and this week was forced to pay out a fine of $2 mil.
Canada's CBC reports that the Quebec provincial government has been building a case for more enforcement related to online gambling activity on the Reservation. The Mohawks argue that they are protected by traditional native rights and, to date, have issued well over 400 online gambling licenses.
Khanawake Unrest
In 1990, Canadian police officers firing tear gas and wielding night sticks battled rock-throwing demonstrators during deays of violent protests against a month long blockade of a Montreal bridge by Mohawk Indians.
The Oka Crisis was a land dispute between the Mohawk nation and the town of Oka, Quebec which began on July 11, 1990, and lasted until September 26, 1990. It resulted in three deaths, and would be the first of a number of well-publicized violent conflicts between Indigenous people and the Canadian government in the late 20th century.
About 150 youths armed with baseball bats and tire irons threw rocks and bottles at the police near the entrance to the Kahnawake reservation in Chateauguay, a southern Montreal suburb.
A sign at the Chateauguay side of Kahnawake warns the RCMP and SQ Provincial Police not to consider entering the Mohawk community of Kahnawake.
Mohawk gunmen fortified the bridge and threatened to blow it up after police attacked a Mohawk stronghold in the resort town of Oka, 20 miles west of Montreal.
Masked Mohawks later helped soldiersto tear down barricades near the Mercier Bridge, avoiding a bloody confrontation.
The golf-course expansion, which had originally triggered the situation, was cancelled. The Oka Crisis eventually precipitated the development of Canada's First Nations Policing Policy.
Since this time, the relationship between Quebec and the Mohawk Nation has been pretty much "hands off".
Mohawk Terrorists?
A 2005 draft of the Canadian Forces' counter-insurgency manual identified the Mohawk Warrior Society as an example of a domestic group that could use terror tactics to further its cause, largely because of its involvement in the Oka Crisis. Stewart Phillip, Grand Chief of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, denounced the inclusion of the group in the manual as an attack on natives' right to protest. In response the Minister of National Defence, the Honourable Gordon O'Connor, announced that the group would not be included as an example in the final manual.
Filed Under: Online Gambling News
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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
Originally published November 30, 2007 9:08 am EST
