Bitterness Between Mohawk Nation and French Canadians Reconciled

22 July 2010

RECONCILED: Francine Lemay, left, her son Simon Prefontaine, center, with Mohawk Jonathan Maracle. Ms. Lemay's brother, Marcel, a policeman, was killed during a standoff with Mohwaks during the 1990 Oka Crisis. Maracle and Lemay spoke at the Kanehsatake Pentecostal Church, Oka, Quebec, Canada, July 11, 2010.                                                      Courtesy Photo

By PATRICK BUTLER
Editor, ResonateNews.com

OKA, Canada - When Francine Lemay’s brother, Marcel - a Canadian Provincial Policeman - was shot down during violent confrontations with Mohawk Indians in July of 1990, Francine had no idea where her younger brother was. The French-speaking Lemay family had no dealings with so-called “First Nation” aboriginals living in the tiny town of Oka near Montreal, where Corporal Lemay of the Surete du Quebec would breathe his last.
The shocking news of her 31-year-old brother’s death led Ms. Lemay on a journey of pain, reflection and ultimately reconciliation with the Mohawks.
Her forgiveness path ended up as a “go-first” situation, Ms. Lemay said, when she asked Mohawk members for forgiveness in her Montreal church 14 years after her brother’s death.
The impromptu, unplanned and accidental encounter with Mohawks at the church challenged her perceptions of aboriginal peoples, she said. But it was also the answer to a desire she’d had for years.
“I had always wanted to meet a Mohawk after my brother’s death and talk to them,” she said. “And here they were, suddenly, at my church, right in front of me.”

FORGIVE FIRST
It was her faith that first led her to the path of true reconciliation, she said, and then provided the strength to walk it. The result of her courageous stand to “forgive first” was destined to grab the brief attention of the Canadian media on the 20th anniversary of the Oka Crisis, the 78-day standoff that shook the nation’s confidence in its congenial and easy-going world image.
Francine Lemay’s message during July 11 anniversary observations held at the Kanehsatake Pentecostal Church was, “forgive.” Supporting Ms. Lemay’s message that bitterness should be thing of the past was singer Jonathan Maracle, a Mohawk from the Tyendinaga Territory, near Toronto, Canada.
“Our message is that bitterness is over,” said Maracle, founder of the indigenous world-music band Broken Walls. “I came here to stand with my French brothers and sisters. Bitterness has destroyed our lives, our quality of life, our families and our future.”

At the tiny church in Oka, Ms. Lemay, Maracle, the Rev. Alan MacInnes and other First Nation leaders led unrehearsed prayers of forgiveness, cultural acceptance and reconciliation on the morning of July 11.
Then came a march to the town’s nearby cultural center where much of the media’s attention was focused on a Mohawk history book that Ms. Lemay, a professional translator, had translated and  published in French.
More prayers of reconciliation would be offered again in the evening at the church. But that aspect of the effort was largely bypassed by the media, said MacInnes. He estimated about 65 people were present.

“GOD ELEMENT”
What most media missed – including French media whom she’d hoped would distribute her message to her fellow “Quebecois” - was the crucial “God element” of the story, Ms. Lemay said. Without that element she doubted aloud that true, lasting reconciliation was even possible.
“Perhaps a superficial reconciliation is possible by some,” she said in a phone interview to Resonatenews.com on Wednesday. “but, in general, my answer would be, ‘no.’ I think Christ is the only one who can really teach us what genuine reconciliation is.”
Reconciliation is an on-going process not a one-time act, she said, and why consistent faith carries reconciliation towards completion.
“Faith gives you new opportunities everyday to forgive because life is hard,” she said. “There are disagreements. Those difficult events are opportunities to put in practice again and again what Christ is teaching us.”
Ms. Lemay said she suffered as a result of making the choice to “go first” in forgiveness rather than seeking a perhaps more understandable route of justice toward her brother’s killer, who was never found. She suffered even more through broken relationships, she said, after she joined the First Nation Kanehsatake Pentecostal Church about a year ago.
“Some people just didn’t understand how I could do such a thing,” she said. “It hurt them that the killer was never found. Also, I actually asked forgiveness from the Mohawks for what they have suffered at our hands.”
But suffering is part of the act of reconciliation, the former Sunday School teacher said.
“Some people say to me, ‘Francine, you have a marvelous story.’ But behind every marvelous Bible story there are suffering stories,” she said. “But people don’t know that. They just see the glorious thing that came as the result of the story. Behind every marvelous story is a marvelous God, or it would not be a marvelous story. Any story can be marvelous, if we let Jesus write the script.”

Read the full story of Francine Lemay’s fascinating journey from reactionary pain to peaceful reconciliation in Sunday’s Treading the Forgiveness Path of True at www.ResonateNews.com