By Eve Cable, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door
August 29, 2025
Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) grand chief Cody Diabo said that a meeting this week with Quebec’s minister of justice was “very disturbing,” adding that proposals for the province to develop its own constitution could undermine the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed with Kahnawake last winter.
“It puts a lot of things in perspective in terms of how this current government looks at its relationships with First Nations as a whole,” Diabo said.
He was joined by Council’s new chief political advisor Lloyd Phillips in Quebec City for the meeting with Quebec’s minister of justice and attorney general Simon Jolin-Barrette. The two were accompanied by Francis Verreault-Paul, head of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL).
Diabo said that Quebec’s ideas to form its own constitution fail to recognize the sovereignty of First Nations – the provincial government did not respond to The Eastern Door’s request for comment in time for our publishing deadline.
“In their view there’s this Quebec nation, and all other First Nations fall under them. They view it as they make the constitution and we all fall under it, which was very upsetting to me, because we just signed an MOU a year ago talking about how we’ve got to peacefully co-exist,” Diabo said.
The MOU had outlined how Quebec and Kahnawake would interact with each other, a historic agreement that in Ian Lafrenière’s words followed a “nation-to-nation” approach – Lafrenière is the minister responsible for Indigenous relations.
“That MOU was about how we’re not to interfere with one another, and yet here they are again, pushing this constitution of theirs,” he said.
Diabo said that he was left outraged by the minister’s refusal to recognize the sovereign rights of First Nations when discussing the potential constitution.
“We had stated that a simple fix would be to put at the beginning of the constitution that nothing in it mitigates or interferes with First Nations’ rights to self-determination, and he wouldn’t commit to that,” Diabo said.
“He’s saying it’s not a big deal and we don’t have to put it in, he said ‘don’t worry, just trust us,’ but frankly we don’t trust you, if it’s not a big deal then what’s the harm of putting that right in it?”
The MOU signed between Quebec and Kahnawake is non-binding, and Diabo said that the proposed constitution shows the province’s disrespect for the spirit of the agreement.
“Since day one of contact they’ve talked out of two sides of their mouth. I’d hoped that maybe there’d be a realizing that working together is better than working against, but they just like doing things the hard way, I suppose,” Diabo said.
Should Quebec proceed with its constitution, Diabo intends to ask Ottawa to get involved – he said a highlight of the meeting with minister Jolin-Barrette was when he himself had stated that the Quebec constitution couldn’t superceed the Canadian one.
Regardless, Diabo said that Kahnawake wouldn’t let the issue go without a fight.
“We’re not Canadians at the end of the day and we’re most definitely not Quebecers,” Diabo said. “We’re First Nations, we’re Kanien’kehá:ka, and you need to stay out of our business.”
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eve@easterndoor.com
Eve Cable, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
