Caleb Behn speaking at a recent event in Ottawa organized by the Council of Canadians. Photo by Zack Embree.

PHOTO: Caleb Behn speaking at a recent event in Ottawa organized by the Council of Canadians. Photo by Zack Embree.

In mid-November, the Council of Canadians called on its supporters to sign a change.org petition in support of the Fort Nelson First Nation, which would be directly impacted if Encana secures the right from the British Columbia government to take 3-billion litres of fresh water every year to be used for shale gas fracking.

In late-November, the Globe and Mail reported, “When a small native band in British Columbia launched an online petition to oppose increased water use by the gas industry, it was hoping for 500 signatures. A month later, the Fort Nelson First Nation has nearly 24,000 signatories on the petition and letter to government posted on Change.org under the heading ‘Don’t Give Away Our Fresh Water for Fracking’. …Lana Lowe, director of lands for the Fort Nelson band, said people in her community, which has a population of just 800 in northeast B.C., didn’t really expect the world to take notice.”

As of this evening, 25,648 have signed the petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/premier-clark-don-t-give-away-our-fresh-water-for-fracking. Please join Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow, myself, and many others who have already signed this petition.

For more on this situation, please see ‘NEWS: Fort Nelson First Nation extremely concerned about massive water use for fracking’ at http://canadians.org/blog/?p=17935. In late September, Barlow spoke at the Keepers of the Water conference hosted by the Fort Nelson First Nation. For more on that, go to http://canadians.org/blog/?p=16946. The Council of Canadians has also contributed to the making of the documentary ‘Fractured Land’ that features Fort Nelson First Nation activist Caleb Behn. More on that at http://vimeo.com/43797749.

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Brent Patterson

Brent Patterson is a political activist, writer and the executive director of Peace Brigades International-Canada. He lives in Ottawa on the traditional, unceded and unsurrendered territories of the Algonquin...