Oka Crisis

We begin in the infamous Quebec municipality of Oka, an area once again at the center of a land dispute.

Site of the so-called Oka Crisis back in 1990, some newly proposed land developments have seen pushback from residents of nearby Gonesadage.

Savannah Craig has more.

More housing developments could be a reality in Oka, the municipality that neighbors Ganasurage.

So when they dug out all of the land, they filled in those separate islands that were here.

And now we have one contiguous island If ever you've seen any of the documentaries about the 1990 Oka Crisis, you will see that there was a massive standoff right here on this shoreline between Canadian Armed Forces who came here into the community to try to dismantle a blockade that we had on the Mercier Bridge.

The Mercier Bridge connects the South Shore and the island of Montreal.

It is a major bridge that people traverse every day.

In 2020, we ended up losing our grand chief.

He passed away in the middle of the term.

And actually he was chief at the time when that Oka crisis standoff happened right here.

And a lot of people, including myself, give him credit that there was no bloodshed or people lost their lives in that standoff because he was able to calm the people down.

There was a whole series of little Mr. books that I liked as a kid too.

Some of your early books that you wrote, you wrote about the Oka crisis and... book about Canadian Indians in the First World War and also oil in the First World War, so that interest translated to your professional career as a historian.

I'd like to ask you how you went from the topic of the First World War to writing a book about the mosquito.

So the mosquito was my fifth book, as you know, and the horse, my sixth.

And there's a lot of indigenous communities around Sarnia growing up, too.

So I was kind of immersed in the culture, I guess.

So that was the Oka crisis.

I was just fascinated by it.