[LINK] On the continuing frauds of the supposed Mikinaks

[rfmcdonald]

The National Post's Graeme Hamilton reports on the latest effort of members of the supposed Mikinaks, a non-recognized--and non-legitimate--group in Québec claiming First Nations status, to fraudulently claim financial benefits intended for members of First Nations. I can only imagine how actual First Nations people feel about this fraud.

The suburban gas bar was a strange place to have a new Audi delivered, but police say the buyer had chosen it for a reason. It was on the edge of the Kahnawake Mohawk reserve and he held a card attesting to his aboriginal status – a ticket, he thought, to saving about $5,000 in taxes.

But staff at the Country Peddler Gas Bar grew suspicious as they saw purchase papers being signed Thursday afternoon, and called the reserve police, the Mohawk Peacekeepers. Friday, the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake said a “Mikinak fraud” had been thwarted.

Chief Peacekeeper Dwayne Zacharie said the card the buyer used to prove his tax-exempt status was issued by the 10-month-old Mikinak aboriginal community.

Based in Beauharnois, west of Kahnawake on Montreal’s South Shore, the Mikinaks welcome as members anyone who can show through a family tree or a DNA test they have a single aboriginal ancestor. For $80, Mikinaks get a card declaring the holder is “an aboriginal within the meaning of the article 35 of the Constitution Act of Canada.”

Zacharie said status Indians can avoid paying taxes on items delivered to a reserve, and occasionally non-resident aboriginals arrange to have new cars delivered to Kahnawake. The Peacekeepers check if the buyer has a government-issued status card, before the transaction can proceed.

“We could tell that the card was fraudulent,” Zacharie said.