RCMP to investigate Kanesatake Mohawk police

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day ordered a forensic audit of the Kanesatake Mohawk police Thursday to investigate allegations of fund mismanagement.

Ottawa hopes to launch the audit as soon as possible and handed over the file to the RCMP, Day indicated in a statement issued by his office.

Day saidthere is sufficient evidence to warrant a forensic audit, based on information gleaned during a preliminary investigation that reviewed financial activities and police expenses incurred on the Mohawk territory between April 2003 and March 2005.

The preliminary investigation, conducted by auditing firm Samson and Associates, concluded the police budget in Kanesatake was mismanaged by JamesGabriel, who was thengrand chief,and the federal public security minister at the time.

More than $5 million has been spent on policing Kanesatake in the last three years, ever since a botched police operation led byGabriel ended with his house burning to the ground.

Ottawa first gave Gabriel $900,000 to fight crime in Kanesatake, when hecomplained the community was being overrun by hooligans dealing drugs.

Stephen Bonspille, the current grand chief of Kanesatake, is demanding a public enquiry into the police scandal.