Oka raid no surprise to Mohawks

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The botched 1990 police raid on the Mohawk's barricade at Oka came as no surprise to the Natives, said the first Indian to testify at a coroner's inquest into the death of a Quebec police officer.

Eba Beauvais, who had been on the barricades for more than three weeks before the July 11 raid, said the expected Quebec provincial police to rush them that morning.

The Mohawks, who had held tobacco-burning ceremonies every morning at sunrise, were awake and aware of the gathering police force as officers showed up to take the blockade down.

Beauvais, a longtime Native activist, said the police were intimidating and threatening when the Indian emerged from behind the barricade. When some women went out to confront the approaching offices, a SWAT team encircled them, pointing guns at their heads. All she cold remember is eyes and guns, Beauvais said.

When the Mohawks refused for a third time to leave their encampment in a small pine forest near the Oka community golf course, the police fired tear-gas canisters over their heads. Beauvais was hit in the knee by one canister and a woman beside her was also hit.

The raid, which sparked the 78-day standoff between the Mohawks, Quebec Police and Canadian Forces personnel, resulted in the shooting death of Cpl. Marcel Lemay. Coroner Guy Gilbert's inquest is the first public examination of the events that led to the botched raid.