n. — proper noun, Politics, Aboriginal
place name that has come to refer to the 1990 armed stand-off over land rights between the local Mohawk people, the Sûreté du Québec and the Canadian Army.
Type: 6. Memorial — In 1990 a conflict arose over the expansion of a golf course on a Mohawk graveyard near the town of Oka. The land had been under dispute since at least 1868. The mayor asked the Quebec provincial police (Sûreté du Québec, see SQ entry) to intervene, which resulted in the death of one officer. A Mohawk elder later died when a boulder tossed off a bridge hit him in the chest. Neither crime has ever been solved. Later, the RCMP and the army were also called in because of escalating violence by local residents in response to the closing of the Mercier Bridge by a related Mohawk group. The stand-off lasted 78 days and has become the subject of many books and films.
See also COD-2, s.v. "Oka 1", which describes the municipality of Oka and the 1990 events, without labelling the term Canadian.