'We're taking over our waters': Canadian First Nation pushes back on U.S. border patrol access

After U.S. Customs and Border Protection was granted a temporary exemption allowing armed officers to move through Canadian waters, the leader of the First Nation whose territory abuts the Canada-U.S. border in the St. Lawrence River has served notice that they are “taking back” the waters.

“We’re not going to be asking permission,” Mohawk Council of Akwesasne (MCA) Grand Chief Leonard Lazore told National Post in an interview, noting work was underway to establish an internal framework and invest in the technology for the local police to protect the waters in partnership with the other Canadian and U.S. authorities.

“We’re taking over our waters. If we need any help, we’ll contact you. But until then, we have authority in here.”

In an email to National Post, a Public Safety Canada spokesperson said the temporary ministerial Firearms Act Exemption Order issued on Sept. 16 “will support the safe and effective management of a geographically and jurisdictionally complex border area while maintaining Canada’s commitment to strong border security and public safety.” They stressed that it does not authorize the U.S. officers to act as law enforcement in Canadian waters.

It does allow CBP officers “carrying firearms, which are to remain secured and covered,” to traverse approximately 2.8 kilometres of the St. Lawrence on the Canadian side of the border west of Kana:takon (St. Regis Village, Que.) to “the mouth of the St. Regis River for the sole purpose of reaching the U.S. portion” of the waterway in upstate New York, according to the PSC spokesperson.

While the waterway extends well into the state, Lazore said only the first couple of kilometres are deep enough and wide enough to be navigable by boat.

MCA consists of three northern districts — Kawehnò:ke (Cornwall Island, Ont.), Tsi Snaihne (The Snye) in southern Quebec, and Kana:takon, a Canadian exclave bisected by the border. It’s part of the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation on the U.S. side.

The order requires CBP to notify Canadian officials in writing two hours before the transit and stay within a “safe transit corridor defined by Canada, and at applicable speed limits.”

The spokesperson said these conditions “go well beyond those associated with standard U.S. transit arrangements elsewhere along” the border, noting 70 existing exemption orders that allow U.S. officers to travel over Canadian land or through waterways to reach U.S. land and execute their duties. PSC failed to provide a list of where those orders exist along the border, as requested.

Canadian law enforcement has “similar arrangements with the U.S.,” they explained.

“This interim approach is tailored to the specific circumstances of Akwesasne and should not be viewed as a broader change to border-management practices elsewhere along the Canada-U.S. border,” the official wrote.

The exemption began Oct. 1 and is due to expire on Dec. 31, which the spokesperson said “provides additional time for continued discussions with Indigenous partners throughout the winter.”

A CBP spokesperson wouldn’t divulge any details about their operations this fall, but said the ministerial order “underscores the advances the United States and Canada are making to further safety and security.”

Lazore alleged that community residents have reported that U.S. Coast Guard and border agents have long used the water to access the American side, but said both agencies deny the claim when challenged.

“They transit through all hours of the night,” he insisted. “They’re not authorized to do it, but they do.”

According to the House of Commons , while Canada has no legal requirement to obtain First Nations permission for government transit through shared waterways, the Navigable Waters Act requires the minister “to consider any adverse effects that decisions made under the Act may have on the rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

Lazore said the MCA and its members feel differently because they don’t consider themselves Canadian or U.S. citizens.

“We are citizens of our own nation,” he said, noting they’ve never relinquished that belief, even as Canada and the U.S. have been “trying to strip that away” through legislation and policies.

Lazore said the MCA wants the federal government to treat it like an equitable partner, not a patsy in conversation about tackling illegal entry, the trafficking of drugs, guns and people, and other border issues that have come to the fore as Canada and the U.S. have stepped up enforcement and patrols.

“The way we’ve seen it is Canada and the United States are not doing a good job,” he said.

He also accused Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree of folding “like a cheap Wal-Mart lawn chair” to the U.S. request at a time when Canada and the U.S. are at odds over a variety of issues.

“Then (he) turns around, throws us under the bus, allows border patrol in here, and when you give them an inch, they’re going to take a mile.”

Lazore said their situation should be a warning to other Canadians that “Canada just allowed Trump and his goons in our waters, in our territory, and you could be next.”

PSC consulted with MCA leadership multiple times since the exemption request was first announced in 2025, but the Indigenous group feels it was not engaged in “meaningful consultations … about decisions affecting the territory and its waterways.” It said in a statement earlier this month that neither were AMPS, the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, its police force, nor the overarching Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs.

MCA said it had put forth “Akwesasne-led alternatives that would strengthen local policing and requested additional time, until March 31, 2027, to undertake broader community engagement before any decision was made.”

A boat-based protest against armed U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers travelling through Canadian waters within a First Nations territory took place the day the order went into effect. The “peaceful” protest was not “organized, sponsored, or sanctioned” by the MCA, it said in a statement this week, but AMPS officers were dispatched to monitor.

Organizer Tom Thomas, one of four Kawehnò:ke chiefs on the MCA, said community members took to the water to show support for the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service (AMPS), the local police force he alleges Ottawa “has no faith in” to protect the waterways.

“We’re trying to help our AMPS, to let the Canadian government know that they can patrol our waters,” Thomas told National Post in an interview before the demonstration. “We don’t need border patrol here.”

He later told National Post that the CBP did not show up that day, but has been seen since.

Thomas and Lazore expressed the same concern about U.S. vessels moving through waters where kids swim and ride sea-doos, where people young and old fish. Both also stressed that this is about sovereignty as much as it is safety.

“They can spin it any way they want, but to me, it’s an invasion,” Thomas said. “They have no business here.”

For his part, Thomas wonders what will happen to CBP weapons during a chase that begins on the St. Regis River and spills into Canadian waters in the St. Lawrence. The 67-year-old fisherman also wonders about the machine guns he’s often seen bolted to the decks of border patrol and U.S. Coast Guard vessels he encounters on the water.

“And those are like M2-50S,” he said, referencing 50-calibre machine guns. “What are you going to shoot? There’s no tanks here.”

He also questions why the CBP can’t access the St. Regis River from the many roads leading to the relatively narrow tributary on the U.S. side. Lazore said CBP said it’s worried about leaving vessels unattended at public launches.

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