CLIFFORD SUNDAY: AKWESASNE BAND COUNCIL AND LAW SOCIETY WORK TOGETHER TO DESTROY AN ONKWEHONWE LAWYER
MNN. Jan. 16, 2007. When Clifford Sunday, a Mohawk of Akwesasne, left to do ironwork at 15 years of age, he never thought that 36 years later he would find himself on the gallows of Indian Affairs and its agents. This is how the government through their band council gets rid of those “who don’t fit in”. For Clifford Sunday it turned out to be a lot safer to walk on the six inch wide beams 50 floors in the air.
Clifford Sunday worked for 20 years on high steel and spent 4 years in the U.S. Marines. He speaks Mohawk fluently. He got up at 5:00 am and set out to face dangers every day. One mistake could cost him his life. It was reality and surviving by his wits. He worked with a dependable team where everybody had a job. He traveled all over Turtle Island working on buildings, bridges and every kind of construction. Then one day he fell off. When somebody falls, the guys call it “going in the hole” from which you don’t come back. He was badly injured and left with a bad back and legs. He survived but could no longer climb.
His family had always told him, “Clifford, you’re smart. Why don’t you get an education and come back to help our people”. So he went to law school in Windsor and got a law degree. His elders told him, “Just think of yourself as you did on that steel. Keep your eye on that job”.
He decided to try out for a job as legal council for the band council, the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne. He beat out another non-lawyer native for the job as Director of Justice. There was a lot of hostility over that. When he arrived in the office, he learned that the lights had all been turned out because the staff said, “This is a dark day” for them. He was told, “Watch yourself! Be careful.” A small group in the band council handles a $80 million budget. This was the treasure they had to protect. It was a pot of gold and they wanted to keep control over it and the patronage in the community.
Clifford’s job in the band’s Justice Department was to advise on certain administrative matters, to “clean up” the office and get people working. He walked into a viper’s nest where, according to the defense, workers spent hours every day “playing video games, drinking coffee and gossiping”. The higher ups were often out on the golf course.
Clifford, a genuine Mohawk lawyer, was going to work in the band office. He was viewed by some people as a potential threat by the other non-native lawyers. The band council kept 12 non-native lawyers on retainers of millions of dollars a year. With Clifford coming in there was a great deal of anxiety by these lawyers who may have thought they might lose their position as the only counsel to the band. Some had been on the files for over 20 years.
There is a common problem among Indian band councils across the country. They always go outside their community to find non-Indigenous lawyers to work for them. These lawyers do not have the sensitivity about the issues that affect our people. Some lawyers come in, do a little bit of work for a short time and charge huge fees. Clifford would have been right there day in and day out knowing the issues firsthand. These band councils are the “cash cow” for the non-native legal vampires who are gouging Indigenous budgets.
Clifford submitted advice on various issues which were overruled. They were then sent out to non-native lawyers who gave the same advice but for astronomical fees.
Clifford tried to carry out his assigned duties. The staff disregarded his instructions and requests for accountability. Eventually he had to put everything in writing. Throughout, the lawyers, the staff and chiefs did not want any changes in the office. Things were going along just fine as far as they were concerned. Nothing was done about Clifford until the climate was right. Clifford had to go!
This is when four women employees started to pretend they had been sexually harassed by Clifford Sunday. One hot summer day he made the mistake of licking his sun-chapped lips. She got so stressed out she said, “He stuck his tongue out at me!” She went to her doctor. Got a medical slip and took three months sick leave. She charged him with sexual harassment.
Another woman walked in one day wearing a tight t-shirt with a picture of the Twin Towers over her breasts. Longtime iron worker, Clifford, had many co-ironworkers who had worked on the Twin Towers and helped with the clean up after “911”. He was supposed to have said, “That ain’t right”. Some of our men suffered from the fumes generated by the burning buildings. They will never recover. If this incident took place, we think that the instinct of our people to help was being ridiculed. Based on this non-incident there was another charge for sexual harassment.
In testimony another woman alleged that he asked her to lay down on the floor to show him an exercise for back injuries. She said he leered at her. That’s how she got her turn to charge him for “sexual harassment”. Nobody wanted to be left out of this game. One day Clifford was allegedly carrying two water jugs to the dispenser. He supposedly said something like, “Look at these jugs!” Another big mistake. He was charged with sexual harassment. In another charge, one woman alleged he had asked her to go out and have a few beers with her and then he would “take advantage of her”.
Another woman charged him with “invading her personal space”. Another accused him of telling a joke that sounded sexually explicit to her. These gals have sex on the brain! Was someone spicing their coffee with Viagra? Another said he glared at her when she was sending faxes in front of his office door. One said he invited himself to go with her to Oregon.
All of these women claimed to be so upset that they suffered from debilitating psychological ailments like inability to work, stress, nervousness, an inability to concentrate on their video games, temporary insanity, unable to type memos to the grand chief about it, left work with heart palpitations, post traumatic stress disorder and practically had a nervous breakdown.
What’s funny is that no one else in the office seems to have noticed anything happening on those days. None went to the police or human rights. Nor did they offer to sit down with some elders and talk about it, the usual practice in Akwesasne. The complainants' names cannot be disclosed but Clifford Sunday’s name can be tarred and feathered in public. They could say whatever they want without consequences.
In the hearing they were all remarkably calm and could not be shaken. In other words, they had rehearsed perfectly.
Clifford Sunday is an attractive divorced man, still trim and fit. On each charge Clifford shook his head in disbelief. He had been instructed at law school to always be careful. “Don’t be in a room alone with a woman. Always keep the door open. You never know!” He was cautioned not to be too casual. He stuck to that with the same care that he stuck to walking the line on the high steel. The high steel is reality. This was fantasy. So the same methods don’t work.
In each case the women carefully wrote memos and filed complaints with their Human Resources Department, leaving an extensive paper trail. In 2002 two went to the Law Society of Upper Canada asking that Clifford Sunday be disbarred. Then the Law Society looked for other people to testify against him. Making it sexual is the great weapon today. They know how easy it is to destroy a man without repercussions.
One day in 2002 he was making a report as a special prosecutor for the Chief Administrative Officer of the band council. He was expected to whitewash the allegations against the band council on election misdeeds. Clifford wanted to inform the entire community. The politicians told the police, “Arrest him as soon as he finishes speaking, right in front of everybody”. In other words, “Treat him like a dog”. He was grabbed, handcuffed and thrown into the Akwesasne Police car and taken to the police station. Then his face was plastered on the front page of the Cornwall Standard Freeholder along with a destructive story attacking his credibility and reputation as a lawyer.
For five long years he fought these false charges. Finally in January 2007 a hearing took place in Ottawa before a tribunal. The Law Society lawyer was a pale, thin young man whose sharp boney hips stuck out through his flimsy suit jacket as he hunched over his notes. He pointed out that Clifford was guilty as sin. Clifford denied everything because it wasn’t true.
The soft-voiced lawyer was annoyed when Clifford would answer a question with too much details, accusing him of lying and deceit, “Everything he’s saying is irrelevant”, he sniffed. He doesn’t know that we can’t just say “yes” or “no”. In our way we have to explain everything. His lawyer, Frank Taiotekane Horn, in a louder voice, asked, “Does the Law Society think there is something wrong with Indian ways?” The chairman of the tirbunal commented, "Mr. Horn, may I suggest that you don't need a microphone".
Telling stories is the way we conveyed our messages from one generation to the next. Clifford wanted to tell the truth. The truth from our way of looking requires context. You have to let people tell their story their way. We know the hardships that we are going to face. We still persevere. Right now at Six Nations, Ipperwash and elsewhere, our spokespeople are being picked off, like Shawn Brant recently and our young men who were left in the cold to freeze to death. Who will try to help us except ourselves? Clifford is paying a price for being honest and for trying to help our people.
Frank Horn, another Mohawk iron worker turned lawyer, pointed out that Clifford was the only Mohawk lawyer from the Canadian side of the imaginary line that has been put through the middle of Akwesasne. It is a community of over 15,000 people. No one hires Onkwehonwe in Cornwall, Malone or Massena. When the white man’s system does, it is because we are being “allowed” to work. The only jobs around are in the band council office or to trade in cigarettes or to work in the casino. Developers constantly threaten to throw us off our land. All the purse strings are controlled by outsiders.
Clifford learned that politics in the Onkwehonwe community can be destructive. There was mutiny among the staff when Clifford Sunday showed up. Clifford saw them as the people he grew up with. Some are relatives. He wanted to protect them.
Clifford Sunday had no motivation to do something that would destroy him. He always protected his life. In the marines he was shot at by the enemies. He is geared to survive. It is not logical for such a man to suddenly give it all up.
To convict him you have to believe that he did what he is accused of. Situations can be interpreted in different ways, especially by different cultures. “He looked at me the wrong way” is a matter of perception, especially when it has to do with close blood relations and siblings.
The police and Canadian government have usurped all the power over the people that hasn’t been grabbed by the U.S. It is almost impossible to stand alone against this conglomerate. There are 20 different police forces around and on Akwesasne monitoring every move we make and every breath we take.
We fight for our people because we are one of them. If they go down, we go down. We are trying to encourage others to help our people. With this kind of attack, there is no motivation or benefit, unless you are a psychopath.
Politicians have power over the police. Who is directing who? Mike Harris, former Premier of Ontario, got himself into a lot of hot water when he gave the order to go into Ipperwash and get “those Indians” off that land. Do whatever you have to do. Shoot them. They did that. There was a public inquiry. We all know what happened.
The plotters tried to use the Law Society to destroy Clifford Sunday. In the end, the three member panel of one man and two women broke for 10 minutes and returned with a verdict. “Mr. Sunday, the application (of the women) is dismissed. There was no misconduct. Please send an invoice of your costs to the Law Society for payment within seven days”. The one good thing that surprised us all is that it was an honest tribunal.
Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
For updates, speakers, workshops and to sign up go to
www.mohawknationnews.com
MNN. Jan. 16, 2007. When Clifford Sunday, a Mohawk of Akwesasne, left to do ironwork at 15 years of age, he never thought that 36 years later he would find himself on the gallows of Indian Affairs and its agents. This is how the government through their band council gets rid of those “who don’t fit in”. For Clifford Sunday it turned out to be a lot safer to walk on the six inch wide beams 50 floors in the air.
Clifford Sunday worked for 20 years on high steel and spent 4 years in the U.S. Marines. He speaks Mohawk fluently. He got up at 5:00 am and set out to face dangers every day. One mistake could cost him his life. It was reality and surviving by his wits. He worked with a dependable team where everybody had a job. He traveled all over Turtle Island working on buildings, bridges and every kind of construction. Then one day he fell off. When somebody falls, the guys call it “going in the hole” from which you don’t come back. He was badly injured and left with a bad back and legs. He survived but could no longer climb.
His family had always told him, “Clifford, you’re smart. Why don’t you get an education and come back to help our people”. So he went to law school in Windsor and got a law degree. His elders told him, “Just think of yourself as you did on that steel. Keep your eye on that job”.
He decided to try out for a job as legal council for the band council, the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne. He beat out another non-lawyer native for the job as Director of Justice. There was a lot of hostility over that. When he arrived in the office, he learned that the lights had all been turned out because the staff said, “This is a dark day” for them. He was told, “Watch yourself! Be careful.” A small group in the band council handles a $80 million budget. This was the treasure they had to protect. It was a pot of gold and they wanted to keep control over it and the patronage in the community.
Clifford’s job in the band’s Justice Department was to advise on certain administrative matters, to “clean up” the office and get people working. He walked into a viper’s nest where, according to the defense, workers spent hours every day “playing video games, drinking coffee and gossiping”. The higher ups were often out on the golf course.
Clifford, a genuine Mohawk lawyer, was going to work in the band office. He was viewed by some people as a potential threat by the other non-native lawyers. The band council kept 12 non-native lawyers on retainers of millions of dollars a year. With Clifford coming in there was a great deal of anxiety by these lawyers who may have thought they might lose their position as the only counsel to the band. Some had been on the files for over 20 years.
There is a common problem among Indian band councils across the country. They always go outside their community to find non-Indigenous lawyers to work for them. These lawyers do not have the sensitivity about the issues that affect our people. Some lawyers come in, do a little bit of work for a short time and charge huge fees. Clifford would have been right there day in and day out knowing the issues firsthand. These band councils are the “cash cow” for the non-native legal vampires who are gouging Indigenous budgets.
Clifford submitted advice on various issues which were overruled. They were then sent out to non-native lawyers who gave the same advice but for astronomical fees.
Clifford tried to carry out his assigned duties. The staff disregarded his instructions and requests for accountability. Eventually he had to put everything in writing. Throughout, the lawyers, the staff and chiefs did not want any changes in the office. Things were going along just fine as far as they were concerned. Nothing was done about Clifford until the climate was right. Clifford had to go!
This is when four women employees started to pretend they had been sexually harassed by Clifford Sunday. One hot summer day he made the mistake of licking his sun-chapped lips. She got so stressed out she said, “He stuck his tongue out at me!” She went to her doctor. Got a medical slip and took three months sick leave. She charged him with sexual harassment.
Another woman walked in one day wearing a tight t-shirt with a picture of the Twin Towers over her breasts. Longtime iron worker, Clifford, had many co-ironworkers who had worked on the Twin Towers and helped with the clean up after “911”. He was supposed to have said, “That ain’t right”. Some of our men suffered from the fumes generated by the burning buildings. They will never recover. If this incident took place, we think that the instinct of our people to help was being ridiculed. Based on this non-incident there was another charge for sexual harassment.
In testimony another woman alleged that he asked her to lay down on the floor to show him an exercise for back injuries. She said he leered at her. That’s how she got her turn to charge him for “sexual harassment”. Nobody wanted to be left out of this game. One day Clifford was allegedly carrying two water jugs to the dispenser. He supposedly said something like, “Look at these jugs!” Another big mistake. He was charged with sexual harassment. In another charge, one woman alleged he had asked her to go out and have a few beers with her and then he would “take advantage of her”.
Another woman charged him with “invading her personal space”. Another accused him of telling a joke that sounded sexually explicit to her. These gals have sex on the brain! Was someone spicing their coffee with Viagra? Another said he glared at her when she was sending faxes in front of his office door. One said he invited himself to go with her to Oregon.
All of these women claimed to be so upset that they suffered from debilitating psychological ailments like inability to work, stress, nervousness, an inability to concentrate on their video games, temporary insanity, unable to type memos to the grand chief about it, left work with heart palpitations, post traumatic stress disorder and practically had a nervous breakdown.
What’s funny is that no one else in the office seems to have noticed anything happening on those days. None went to the police or human rights. Nor did they offer to sit down with some elders and talk about it, the usual practice in Akwesasne. The complainants' names cannot be disclosed but Clifford Sunday’s name can be tarred and feathered in public. They could say whatever they want without consequences.
In the hearing they were all remarkably calm and could not be shaken. In other words, they had rehearsed perfectly.
Clifford Sunday is an attractive divorced man, still trim and fit. On each charge Clifford shook his head in disbelief. He had been instructed at law school to always be careful. “Don’t be in a room alone with a woman. Always keep the door open. You never know!” He was cautioned not to be too casual. He stuck to that with the same care that he stuck to walking the line on the high steel. The high steel is reality. This was fantasy. So the same methods don’t work.
In each case the women carefully wrote memos and filed complaints with their Human Resources Department, leaving an extensive paper trail. In 2002 two went to the Law Society of Upper Canada asking that Clifford Sunday be disbarred. Then the Law Society looked for other people to testify against him. Making it sexual is the great weapon today. They know how easy it is to destroy a man without repercussions.
One day in 2002 he was making a report as a special prosecutor for the Chief Administrative Officer of the band council. He was expected to whitewash the allegations against the band council on election misdeeds. Clifford wanted to inform the entire community. The politicians told the police, “Arrest him as soon as he finishes speaking, right in front of everybody”. In other words, “Treat him like a dog”. He was grabbed, handcuffed and thrown into the Akwesasne Police car and taken to the police station. Then his face was plastered on the front page of the Cornwall Standard Freeholder along with a destructive story attacking his credibility and reputation as a lawyer.
For five long years he fought these false charges. Finally in January 2007 a hearing took place in Ottawa before a tribunal. The Law Society lawyer was a pale, thin young man whose sharp boney hips stuck out through his flimsy suit jacket as he hunched over his notes. He pointed out that Clifford was guilty as sin. Clifford denied everything because it wasn’t true.
The soft-voiced lawyer was annoyed when Clifford would answer a question with too much details, accusing him of lying and deceit, “Everything he’s saying is irrelevant”, he sniffed. He doesn’t know that we can’t just say “yes” or “no”. In our way we have to explain everything. His lawyer, Frank Taiotekane Horn, in a louder voice, asked, “Does the Law Society think there is something wrong with Indian ways?” The chairman of the tirbunal commented, "Mr. Horn, may I suggest that you don't need a microphone".
Telling stories is the way we conveyed our messages from one generation to the next. Clifford wanted to tell the truth. The truth from our way of looking requires context. You have to let people tell their story their way. We know the hardships that we are going to face. We still persevere. Right now at Six Nations, Ipperwash and elsewhere, our spokespeople are being picked off, like Shawn Brant recently and our young men who were left in the cold to freeze to death. Who will try to help us except ourselves? Clifford is paying a price for being honest and for trying to help our people.
Frank Horn, another Mohawk iron worker turned lawyer, pointed out that Clifford was the only Mohawk lawyer from the Canadian side of the imaginary line that has been put through the middle of Akwesasne. It is a community of over 15,000 people. No one hires Onkwehonwe in Cornwall, Malone or Massena. When the white man’s system does, it is because we are being “allowed” to work. The only jobs around are in the band council office or to trade in cigarettes or to work in the casino. Developers constantly threaten to throw us off our land. All the purse strings are controlled by outsiders.
Clifford learned that politics in the Onkwehonwe community can be destructive. There was mutiny among the staff when Clifford Sunday showed up. Clifford saw them as the people he grew up with. Some are relatives. He wanted to protect them.
Clifford Sunday had no motivation to do something that would destroy him. He always protected his life. In the marines he was shot at by the enemies. He is geared to survive. It is not logical for such a man to suddenly give it all up.
To convict him you have to believe that he did what he is accused of. Situations can be interpreted in different ways, especially by different cultures. “He looked at me the wrong way” is a matter of perception, especially when it has to do with close blood relations and siblings.
The police and Canadian government have usurped all the power over the people that hasn’t been grabbed by the U.S. It is almost impossible to stand alone against this conglomerate. There are 20 different police forces around and on Akwesasne monitoring every move we make and every breath we take.
We fight for our people because we are one of them. If they go down, we go down. We are trying to encourage others to help our people. With this kind of attack, there is no motivation or benefit, unless you are a psychopath.
Politicians have power over the police. Who is directing who? Mike Harris, former Premier of Ontario, got himself into a lot of hot water when he gave the order to go into Ipperwash and get “those Indians” off that land. Do whatever you have to do. Shoot them. They did that. There was a public inquiry. We all know what happened.
The plotters tried to use the Law Society to destroy Clifford Sunday. In the end, the three member panel of one man and two women broke for 10 minutes and returned with a verdict. “Mr. Sunday, the application (of the women) is dismissed. There was no misconduct. Please send an invoice of your costs to the Law Society for payment within seven days”. The one good thing that surprised us all is that it was an honest tribunal.
Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
For updates, speakers, workshops and to sign up go to
www.mohawknationnews.com