On October 27, 2022, the Mohawk Mothers won an important battle: the first-ever injunction obtained by self-represented Indigenous peoples in a Canadian Court. Following their own Indigenous legal system, the Kaianerehkó:wa, the Mohawk Mothers reminded the Quebec Superior Court of their obligations vis-à-vis Indigenous peoples and called upon the Court to respect their own laws protecting Indigenous peoples from mistreatment, including extermination policies. In court, the Mohawk Mothers faced numerous adversaries, including top lawyers from McGill University, the Société Québécoise des Infrastructures (SQI), the McGill University Health Center (MUHC), the Royal Victoria Hospital, the City of Montreal, the Attorney General of Canada, and the Attorney General of Quebec.

The injunction issued by Justice Gregory Moore was issued on the basis of the plaintiffs’ (Mohawk Mothers) concerns that Indigenous children were used as test subjects in medical experiments at the Royal Victoria Hospital, and were potentially buried on the site slated for redevelopment. These concerns were based on both archival evidence and witness accounts, including a first-hand account of Lana Ponting, 81, a survivor of the CIA-funded MKULTRA mind control experiments. The Mohawk Mothers argued that the land set for redevelopment was the site of the precolonial Iroquoian village of Tekanontak (Mount Royal) and was used as a burial site before the arrival of Europeans. The necessity of using appropriate archaeological means to preserve the history of Iroquoian peoples cannot be a topic of debate.

Throughout the hearings on October 26th and 27th, defendants and promoters of the redevelopment project used an array of technical and legal arguments to convey the following:

• That the plaintiffs were using the wrong forum to lay their claims, as other administrative processes exist for such questions in the province of Québec;

• That the promoters have not broken any law(s) and are respecting the Quebec Heritage Act (the plaintiffs asked that the Act be declared unconstitutional because it considers Indigenous heritage as the property of Quebec);

• That most of the evidence submitted by the plaintiffs, the Special Interlocutor, as well as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report, was not eligible for technical reasons; and

• That the six plaintiffs did not represent the Mohawk people –(the Mohawk Mothers argued that in Indigenous culture, every individual is free and self-representing)

The Mohawk Mothers emphasized that it was their cultural duty to act as caretakers of their traditional territory, and to protect the children of past, present, and future generations. We also argued that allowing excavation work on the site could cause irreparable harm to the identity, history, and trust of Indigenous peoples. We emphasized that the situation was urgent: shovels had already broken ground just two days before the hearings.

The Court Ruling acknowledged that the balance of convenience favored the Mohawk Mothers, who would “suffer irreparable harm if the excavation work is not suspended for the time it takes to develop an appropriate archaeological plan to identify any unmarked graves,” following the best practices determined by the Canadian Archaeological Association. The ruling thus invited the parties to “speak out of court to settle their differences on an amicable basis.” The promoters were reminded of Call to Action number 76 (found in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report), which relates to missing children and burial information:

• The Indigenous community most affected shall lead the development of the investigation;

• Input must be sought from Survivors and Knowledge Keepers in developing those strategies;

• Indigenous protocols shall be respected before any invasive technical inspection and investigation of a cemetery site.

The ruling also ordered the defendants to fund the investigation.