until late September, and resulted in a commuters’ nightmare, a public relations fiasco for the government, and the death of one Surete du Quebec officer.
In a nutshell, here’s what happened.
The town of Oka wanted to expand a golf course onto land containing a Mohawk burial ground and a sacred grove of pines. The natives screamed sacrilege. Their appeal was denied and construction of the back nine began. Incensed, tribal members barricaded access to the terrain in dispute.
No big deal. The cops clear the protesters, right? Wrong.
When the SQ restricted access to Oka and Kanesatake, First Nations groups began arriving from across Canada and the U.S. of A. In solidarity with Kanesatake, the Kahnawake Mohawks blockaded a bridge connecting the Island of Montreal with the south shore suburbs at the point where the bridge passed through their territory.
At the peak of the confrontation, the Mercier Bridge and Routes 132, 138, and 207 were all blocked. Traffic jams were vicious and tempers were fraying.
Enter the Canadian Armed Forces.
Ultimately, the Mohawks negotiated an end to their protest with the army commander responsible for monitoring the south shore of the St. Lawrence River west of Montreal. The lieutenant colonel’s name was Gagnon.
Life has its ironies. The original cheese-bearing Trappists lived in a miller’s cottage while awaiting completion of their monastery. The miller’s name was Gagnon.
A fourth facet is Parc national d’Oka, one of a chain of Quebec wildlife reserves and tourist resorts. May through September, the park’s twenty-four square kilometers host campers, picnickers, hikers, canoers, and kayakers. In winter, a few hardy souls still feel the need to bunk out in the cold, but the majority of visitors are snowshoers and cross-country skiers.
Wouldn’t catch me. But I do like summer outings, biking the trails, sunning on the beach, bird-watching on the floating boardwalk into Grande-Baie marsh. No argument here. I’m a warm-weather wuss.
As Ryan headed north on the Laurentian Autoroute then west on Highway 640, I watched close-packed city buildings give way to equi-spaced and identical suburban houses, eventually to snow- covered countryside. Yellow smudged the horizon, then the sky oozed from black to gray.
Forty-five minutes after leaving my condo Ryan turned onto chemin Oka. By then the sun was a low-hanging white disk. Leafless trees cast long, fuzzy shadows across fields and blacktop.
In moments, we passed the main park entrance. Just inside the gate a small stone building announced Poste d’accueil Camping-Camping Welcome Center. A yellow diamond showed a turtle, lizard, frog, and snake in black silhouette.
Twenty meters beyond the park entrance, an SQ cruiser idled on the opposite shoulder, vapor pumping from its tailpipe.
Ryan made a U-turn and rolled to a stop. The cruiser’s occupant set a Styrofoam cup on the dash, pulled on gloves, and hauled himself out. He wore an olive green jacket with black fur collar, dark olive muffler, and olive hat, earflaps tied in the up position. His name plaque read Halton.
Lowering the window, Ryan showed his badge. Halton glanced at it, then bent to inspect me.
I held up my LSJML card.
Halton flapped an arm toward the woods, then spoke in French. “Take the service road skirting the edge of the park. Party’s at the river’s edge.”
“What river?” I asked.
“Riviere aux Serpents.” Halton grinned. “Little bastards should be sleeping this time of year.”
Ryan veered from the shoulder and we rolled forward, tires crunching on icy gravel. At our backs, across the highway, Le Calvaire d’Oka dominated the landscape. I’d once hiked the trail to its summit. A sort of woodland Way of the Cross, the path climbs five kilometers to a cluster of mid-eighteenth- century chapels. The view was kick-ass.
So was the poison ivy. I itched and oozed for weeks.
“Yield to reptiles?” Ryan’s lame joke suggested anxiety.
“And amphibians,” I said.
Ryan looked at me.
“The sign depicts herpetofauna. That includes amphibians.” It was way too early for a biology lesson.
“What’s the difference?”
“Amniotic egg.”
“I prefer scrambled.”
“Reptiles can reproduce out of water.”
“Breakthrough moment. When did it happen?”
“Over three hundred million years ago.”
“You’d think they’d be traffic savvy by now.”
I chose not to answer.
We were traveling a narrow road piled on both sides with snowplow off-load. Trees rose around us like tall, naked sentinels.
The downward gradient increased as we moved toward the river. Soon I spotted the shore. Lining it was the usual cluster of vehicles: a second police cruiser, a black transport van, a blue crime scene recovery truck.
A uniformed SQ officer waved us to a stop. Her name tag read Naveau. Again, the warm welcome of law and order.
We identified ourselves. Naveau told Ryan to park at the back of a rustic wooden structure that was probably a warming hut for cross-country skiers.
Ryan did as directed, then we both tugged on hats and got out of the Jeep. The sun was higher now, casting smudgy-edged shadows from tree trunks and branches. The air was so cold it felt crystalline.
Good news. A plastic tent had been erected over what I assumed was the spot that had interested the cadaver dog, Etoile. Freshly shoveled snow lay mounded to one side.
I recognized the setup from an exhumation I’d done years earlier on an Innu reserve near the town of Sept-Isles. On that occasion the temperature had peaked at minus 34 Celsius. I knew that inside the tent a portable heater was pumping air through corrugated piping, warming the interior and melting the ground.
Four men stood outside the tent. Two wore coveralls and jackets stamped with the same logo as the crime scene truck.
One wore a black Kanuk parka not unlike my own sky blue one. In the thickly padded anorak, Joe Bonnet, my new lab tech, looked like a marsh-mallow on a stick. Mercifully, Joe’s head was covered by a tuque. He thought the gel-spiked platinum hair looked punk. I thought it looked goofy, especially on a guy waving bye-bye to his thirties. But I never said so.
Joe was competent at his job but fragile. And needy. It wasn’t enough to refrain from censure or criticism. With Joe, you had to constantly praise and reassure. I suck at warm fuzzies. Most people know and accept that about me. Joe wasn’t getting it.
Needless to say, there had been blow-ups and pout-outs. His, not mine. Even under cease-fire, Joe and I were like stranger pets thrown together at Grandma’s house. Always edgy, always sniffing the mood of the other.
Partly my fault. Two years, and I was still bummed by the loss of my longtime assistant, Denis. What’s this retirement thing, anyway?
The fourth man wore an overcoat that barely buttoned across his ample
