Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Simon has his hands full these days.
“Since we declared a state of emergency last week, we’ve been mobilizing our emergency response unit,” he said Saturday outside the Kanehsatà:ke Education Center that’s being used for relief efforts. “They’ve put in a month’s work in like three days. It’s incredible.”
He said he’s been making sure that the teams get what they need to help protect the community against COVID-19. Since residents have been asked to self-isolate, Simon noted that village authorities have been focused on supporting families with food and other supplies.
“It seems like the prices have gone up in the stores radically in the last few days,” resident Karyn Murray said while helping to pack food baskets at the school.
“Eggs that were costing $2.99 are now $5.”
On top of that, Simon says there is a new worry — non-native visitors from Montreal and Ontario.
“They’ve been coming here in large numbers, either looking for cannabis or tobacco,” he told Global News. “I just want to plead with them to stop.”
Simon said so far nobody in the community has been diagnosed with the virus and visitors are putting the community at risk.
His plea echoes that of Premier François Legault a week ago, that people limit travel between regions and cities to help slow the virus.
As for visitors to Kanesatake, Simon points out that if outsiders continue to travel there without good reason, especially since all non-essential services are closed, he’ll have to act.
He warned that “If they don’t listen, then we’ll block the roads ourselves and we’ll turn people away.”