Elsipogtog Reclaim Traditional Lands:
On November 2, 2013, members of Elsipogtog First Nation began staking claims to unoccupied Crown lands, as part of Reclamation Day campaign to reclaim "all unoccupied reserved native lands" to be put it in the trust of the Mi'kmaq Nation.
http://storify.com/culturite/elsipogtog-reclamation-day-november-2-2013
Today, #elsipogtog members are staking their land claims around Laketon, Kent County,
SWN returning to thump Wednesday: Elsipogtog War Chief
SWN Resources Canada is planning to resume its controversial shale gas seismic exploration work on Wednesday, according to Elsipogtog War Chief John Levi
Levi said SWN’s lawyer Michael Connors, who is a partner with East Coast law firm McInnes Cooper, met with several dozen people from Elsipogtog First Nation and the surrounding communities late Sunday afternoon.
Levi said Connors told the people that SWN would withdraw a lawsuit against several community members if the Houston-based firm was allowed to finish its exploration work unimpeded.
“We said no, we are going to be there,” said Levi, in an interview with APTN National News. “What we told him was we are going to be there Wednesday.”
The meeting was held at a longhouse erected at an anti-fracking encampment used over the past summer. The area sits off Hwy 116 near Elsipogtog First Nation.
Connors told the people in the longhouse that SWN would be working for 14 days and warned them not to block the company’s movements or they would face violence....
"violence" ...?
From the company?
SWN returning to thump Wednesday: Elsipogtog War ChiefConnors told the people in the longhouse that SWN would be working for 14 days and warned them not to block the company’s movements or they would face violence....
"violence" ...? From the company?
they gotta know they've got the canadian military (who are sworn by treaty to protect Mi'kmaq from external and internal threats) and the rcmp to back them up already and it appears the agreement with them is to hurt by what we now know is planned violence against my People.
Elsipogtog Reclaim Traditional Lands:
On November 2, 2013, members of Elsipogtog First Nation began staking claims to unoccupied Crown lands, as part of Reclamation Day campaign to reclaim "all unoccupied reserved native lands" to be put it in the trust of the Mi'kmaq Nation.
http://storify.com/culturite/elsipogtog-reclamation-day-november-2-2013
Today, #elsipogtog members are staking their land claims around Laketon, Kent County,
I'm not being pugnacious with my question but I really don't understand what Elsipoqtoq members aim to accomplish with this?
Maybe I'm just looking at this too logically but I don't see what making a show of reclaiming this land will accomplish? I think it's safe to save the government won't honour or even acknoledge it. I suppose it can be symbolic but wouldn't that time and effort be better spent trying to get this land back through the court system? If they have a legal claim to the land shouldn't our court system be forced to honour the claim?
The issue is before the Supreme Court. N.B. like B.C. is mostly unceded aboriginal territory. The decision in this case will be precedent setting.
The case began more than two decades ago, when the provincial government granted logging rights within the Xeni Gwet'in nation's traditional territory, which is near Williams Lake.
In 2002, the Xeni Gwet'in and the larger Tsilhqot'in National Government went to court to prove aboriginal title to 4,400 square kilometres in the Chilko Lake area in the province's Interior.
The marathon trial with nearly 30 lawyers sat for 339 days over five years. Finally, in 2007, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled that the band had aboriginal rights throughout the claimed area, including the right to hunt, trap and earn a moderate living from it.
The judge also found the band had aboriginal title to about 40 per cent of the claimed land, but said he could not grant a declaration of aboriginal title because the claim was pursued as all or nothing.
The First Nation, the province and the federal government all appealed, but the B.C. Appeal Court dismissed their actions. The band then sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, which announced earlier this year it would hear the case.
Numerous stakeholders on both sides are expected to make arguments in this case, including provinces like Manitoba, Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, the Assembly of First Nations and B.C.'s First Nations Summit.
When it hands down its decision, the Supreme Court is expected to set out just how aboriginal land title can be established.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/key-b-c-aboriginal-land-c...
The Diggers song is about the same fight. The real question is not who owns the land but who makes the laws to determine that ownership.
The sin of property
We do disdain
No man has any right to buy and sell
The earth for private gain
By theft and murder
They took our land
Now everywhere the walls
Spring up at their command
They make the laws
To chain us wellT
he clergy dazzle us with heaven
Or they damn us into hell
We will not worship
The God they serve
The God of greed who feeds the rich
While poor folk starve
http://www.newdemocracyworld.org/old/Diggers.PDF
Heavy RCMP presence accompanies SWN’s return
A heavy RCMP presence is in an area Tuesday where a Houston-based energy company is expected to resume its controversial shale gas exploration.
About 30 people from Elsipogtog and their supporters have set up a camp near Hwy 11 by Laketon, NB., where SWN Resources is expected to begin laying down geophones in preparation for seismic testing set for Wednesday.
The exploration area is about 46 kilometres north of Elsipogtog First Nation....
..........
Elsipogtog prepares to confront SWN’s machinery
Warriors from Elsipogtog First Nation were preparing Tuesday evening to confront the machinery owned by a Houston-based energy firm conducting shale gas exploration work just north of the Mi’kmaq community.
SWN Resources Canada is expected to roll out its thumper trucks Wednesday in an area along Hwy 11 and about 46 kilometres north of Elsipogtog First Nations. The company laid out a string of geophones Tuesday which will be used to capture the vibrations emitted by the thumper trucks to create imagery of shale gas deposits in the area.
The majority of residents in Elsipogtog want to stop SWN’s exploration work fearing its completion would lead to the extraction of shale gas deposits through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Several warriors and supporters gathered around a fire Tuesday evening along Hwy 11 preparing for Wednesday’s appearance of the thumper trucks. Several planned to stay at the site overnight, with some sleeping in tents and others beneath tarps strapped to branches.
“When the sun rises I will be there waiting,” said Sequoyah Bernard, 19, one of the Warriors. “Whatever we decided to do that at that time, we will do.”
..excellent story lots of info.
Mi’kmaq demonstrators declared “victory” Thursday after stopping thumper trucks belonging to a Houston-based energy company from conducting shale gas exploration north of Elsipogtog First Nation.
While about 100 Mi’kmaq and supporters faced a line of RCMP officers as SWN Resources Canada’s thumper trucks idled in the background, the Elsipogtog band council was 200 kilometres away in a Fredericton courtroom seeking an ex parte injunction to stop SWN from continuing the exploration work. A hearing on the injunction is set for Friday.
On Hwy 11 tensions ran high as Mi’kmaq demonstrators from Elsipogtog and other communities along with non-First Nations supporters tried to block SWN from operating their thumper trucks while the RCMP tried to intervene. SWN eventually decided to turn the trucks around with plans for another attempt expected Friday.
A well-known Elsipogtog fracking opponent Lorraine Clair was arrested during the protest for mischief, assault a police officer and resisting arrest, according to New Brunswick RCMP.
Still, spirits were high among people from Elsipogtog who watched SWN’s trucks roll away as dusk began to set.
“It is a small victory, but a victory nonetheless,” said Brennan Sock, from Elsipogtog. “We will take anything right now. We got the trucks to leave, we managed to slow them down as much as we can.”
T’uma Bernard, a Mi’kmaq Warrior from Prince Edward Island, said he saw renewed unity among the demonstrators.
“It was a great victory, it was a great day,” said Bernard....
http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2013/11/15/elsipogtog-grassroots-declares-vict...
eta:
In Fredericton, the Elsipogtog band was seeking an injunction to stop SWN arguing “outside radical elements” were converging “in significant numbers” as a result of the company’s continuing shale gas exploration.
The band’s filing said military forces are at play on the police side of the operation and warned a repeat of the Oct. 17 raid in Rexton, NB., by RCMP tactical units is looming.
eta eta:
The filing also names provincial Energy Minister Craig Leonard and the Assembly of First Nations Chiefs in New Brunswick (AFNCNB).
The filing argues that the province failed in its duty to consult and that the AFNCNB, which Elsipogtog gave authority to consult on its behalf, failed in its responsibility by “inaction and inadequate engagement.”
NB chiefs group, Mi’kmaq district council received contracts from SWN and Irving-owned security firm
The main New Brunswick chiefs organization received a contract from a Houston-based energy company facing ferocious opposition from Elsipogtog First Nation residents over its shale gas exploration.
SWN Resources Canada also “did everything right” under the consultation process agreed to between the provincial government and the Assembly of First Nations Chiefs in New Brunswick, according to the lawyer for the chiefs organization.
The AFNCNB has been receiving funding from SWN for the past two years to provide environmental monitoring for the company while it explores for shale gas in the province, said Mike Scully, who is the consultation liaison for the AFNCNB....
quote:
The Irving shadow
ISL is owned by JD Irving Ltd. and it is part of a corporate empire headed by the Irving family which dominates New Brunswick. The Irvings have cast a large shadow over the ongoing Mi’kmaq-led anti-fracking protests.
Along with owning ISL, JD Irving also owns the compound at the centre of the RCMP’s heavily-armed Oct. 17 raid. The raid freed SWN’s trucks which were in the compound that had been blocked by an anti-fracking camp along Route 134 in Rexton, NB.
RCMP surround “thumper” seismic testing vehicles contracted by SWN Resources, Nov 14, 2013.
..........
RCMP at Crystal Palace 7 AM Nov 14 13
20 to 25 RCMP packing riot gear at Crystal Palace in Moncton as SWN thumper trucks head up highway 11 to begin seismic testing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwAQvLOSEfs#t=12
NB judge to rule on Elsipogtog injunction Monday
A New Brunswick judge will rule Monday on an attempt by Elsipogtog First Nation to stop shale gas exploration work by a Houston-based company.
Franklin Gertler, one of the lawyers for Elsipogtog First Nation, said Justice Judy Clendening would issue the ruling at 4 p.m.
Elsipogtog is seeking an injunction against SWN Resources Canada arguing the Mi’kmaq community was not properly consulted. Elsipogtog also argues in court documents that a major flare up looms if the company continues its exploration work....
I'm not being pugnacious with my question but I really don't understand what Elsipoqtoq members aim to accomplish with this?
Maybe I'm just looking at this too logically but I don't see what making a show of reclaiming this land will accomplish? I think it's safe to save the government won't honour or even acknoledge it. I suppose it can be symbolic but wouldn't that time and effort be better spent trying to get this land back through the court system? If they have a legal claim to the land shouldn't our court system be forced to honour the claim?
I'm not a lawyer, and dont pretend to grasp the half of it about treaty rights.
But I think its safe to say this is not merely "symbolic."
Just because you are virtually guaranteed to [ultimately] lose out on this claim itself, does not make it either symbolic or tilting at windmills.
Governments of Canada get away with not really doing anything material about addressing what they acknowledge to be their obligations to not merely stand by the status quo around use of resources [Indians get table scraps]. What amounts in practice to standing by while governments get away with just talking about it.... that is most definitely not working for First Nations. All the talk in the world of "they cant do that" changes nothing about the facts on the ground.
So we have what we know does not work.
Who is to say that First Nations taking unilateral steps is not going to be successful in forcing the hand of governments?
And given the low bar set by the results to date from playing the protracted negotiating game on their terms, it is not going to take much to count as success at turning treaty rights into "facts on the ground".
I'm not being pugnacious with my question but I really don't understand what Elsipoqtoq members aim to accomplish with this?I'm not a lawyer, and dont pretend to grasp the half of it about treaty rights.
But I think its safe to say this is not merely "symbolic."
Just because you are virtually guaranteed to [ultimately] lose out on this claim itself, does not make it either symbolic or tilting at windmills.....
.....Who is to say that First Nations taking unilateral steps is not going to be successful in forcing the hand of governments?
And given the low bar set by the results to date from playing the protracted negotiating game on their terms, it is not going to take much to count as success at turning treaty rights into "facts on the ground".
i've mentioned before the Mi'kmaq have no territory Treaty with canada. the whole of "acadia" is unceded territory. it's all Mi'kmaq and Maliseet territory.
though the first colonialized seems we're the last to get active and demand our land and rights as a Nation.
in the federal governments own words:
Fact Sheet - Progress Report on Aboriginal and Treaty Rights Negotiations in the Maritimes and the GaspésieUnder the Peace and Friendship Treaties of 1760 and 1761 in the Maritimes, the Mi’kmaq and the Maliseet signatories did not surrender rights to lands or resources. Today, the Mi’kmaq and the Maliseet First Nations maintain that they continue to hold Aboriginal rights and title throughout their traditional territory
http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100028644/1100100028645
video
Environmental concerns are beginning to bubble to the surface in the wake of SWN Resources Canada’s shale gas exploration work and some New Brunswickers are turning to the Mi’kmaq for help.
One couple, living on the outskirts of Moncton, saw the sudden appearance of coliform bacteria in their well water after SWN’s thumper trucks rumbled across their front door. Near Rogersville, a senior citizen, in his 70s, discovered water bubbling up through a seismic testing shot-hole in the bush behind his property.
Both reached out to the Mi’kmaq battling it out on the highway with SWN.
Roger Pierskalla, who lives with his wife along Hwy 126 near Moncton, said a company hired by SWN to conduct the well water tests after the thumper trucks rolled by phoned to tell them they should immediately boil their water before drinking and contact the regional health inspector’s office....
After court loss, Elsipogtog braces for SWN’s return
There were tears outside a courtroom in Fredericton Monday after a New Brunswick judge ruled against Elsipogtog First Nation which was seeking an injunction to stop a Houston-based energy company from continuing its controversial shale gas exploration work north of the community.
Weeping supporters hugged Elsipogtog Chief Aaron Sock after Justice Judy Clendening handed down her ruling, effectively clearing the way for SWN Resources Canada to continue the last phase of its shale gas exploration work about 46 kilometres north of the Mi’kmaq community.
“I think we’re still in shock, we’re nervous and scared about what’s going to happen,” said Judie Miksovsky, from the St. Mary’s First Nation Mi’kmaq community near Fredericton.
Elsipogtog was seeking to convince the judge to issue the temporary injunction against SWN arguing the province had failed to consult properly and that a conflict, echoing the heavily armed RCMP raid on Oct. 17, loomed on the horizon.
Clendening, however, found that Elsipogtog failed to adequately make its case....
http://aptn.ca/news/2013/11/18/court-loss-elsipogtog-braces-swns-return/
Lorraine Clair's handwritten statement Nov 18 13
Lorraine Clair, the woman arrested in last weeks standoff with the RCMP at #Elsipogtog has released this written statement read here by Willi Nolan. This comes just hours after a judge in New Brunswick has rejected an application from Elsipogtog First Nation for an injunction to stop shale exploration on the unceded territory.
Houston energy firm wants meeting with Elsipogtog fracking opponents: RCMP
A Houston-based energy company forced to stop its shale gas exploration work in the face of a fierce Mi’kmaq-led resistance has “tentatively” agreed to a meeting involving the provincial government and its opponents from Elsipogtog First Nation, according to negotiators with the RCMP.
The proposed meeting is expected to happen “sooner rather than later,” said Const. Tara Norman, one of the RCMP negotiators from Saskatchewan, during a Wednesday afternoon teleconference call with Mi’kmaq District War Chief Jason Augustine. Norman said SWN Resources Canada was looking for a “structured meeting” with its opponents.
SWN has been unable to finish its last remaining exploration line which runs along Hwy 11 and sits about 40 kilometres north of Elsipogtog First Nation. Mi’kmaq-led demonstrators stopped the company’s thumper trucks last week. The demonstrators have also repeatedly turned back SWN’s contractor seeking to collect geophones, which are strung out along 15 km of the highway. Geophones interact with thumper trucks to create imagery of shale gas deposits underground....
http://aptn.ca/news/2013/11/20/houston-energy-firm-wants-meet-elsipogtog...
Mi’kmaq-led anti-fracking camp served with notice of injunction from Houston-based energy firm
A Houston-based energy company has again filed for an injunction against Mi’kmaq-led demonstrators who have been opposing its exploration work north of Elsipogtog First Nation.
The notice of injunction was served on the demonstrators Thursday at the latest incarnation of their anti-fracking camp just off Hwy 11, about 46 kilometres north of Elsipogtog.
The legal move comes a day after the RCMP told Mi’kmaq District Chief Jason Augustine SWN Resources Canada had “tentatively” agreed to meet with demonstrators along with a provincial official.
The injunction request was filed Wednesday with the New Brunswick Court of Queen’s Bench in Fredericton and names five people, along with the standard “John Doe and Jane Doe.”
Arguments on the injunction are set for 9:30 a.m. in Fredericton Friday....
Just broke across twitter by Miles Howe from Media Co-op and INM:
1. Elsipogtog denied injunction against SWN to protect land & water.
2. SWN granted injunction against Mi'kmaq to prevent protest.
3 anti-shale gas protesters arrested in Moncton
Three anti-shale gas protesters were arrested in Moncton on Monday morning, just three days after SWN Resources Canada obtained a court order to keep protesters from interfering with its exploration work.
Two women and one man were arrested in the Caledonia Industrial Park at about 8:45 a.m. for breaching a court order, said RCMP Const. Jullie Rogers-Marsh.
She did not specify which court order, or say how the protesters were in violation.
A handful of aboriginal protesters were setting up in a parking lot near a compound for SWN equipment at the time, according to protester Edgar Clair, who was live streaming a video from the scene.
"I suggest you leave the property because you'll all be arrested," a police officer can be heard saying.
"I suggest you leave or you're declaring war right now," Clair replies.
"The court injunction says we have to be 20 metres, 20 metres parallel to SWN equipment. The way they're parked, technically we're allowed to be here," Clair said....
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/3-anti-shale-gas-protesters-...
Media Co-op Journalist Miles Howe Arrested in Elsipogtog
Media Co-op journalist Miles Howe was arrested again today while covering resistance to fracking in New Brunswick. It appears he was specifically targeted.
This is the third time Howe has been arrested while doggedly covering resistance to SWN Resources in Elsipogtog, New Brunswick. The Media Co-op’s editorial collective denounces the ongoing attempts of the police to prevent Howe from reporting on resistance to controversial shale gas exploration. Miles must be released immediately with all of his gear, and the police must provide guarantees that they will allow him and other journalists to report on events in the area. His arrest, for the third time (he was not charged in either of the two previous arrests) is unacceptable and it appears to be the state’s preferred strategy for stopping him from getting the word out about protests in Elsipogtog....
http://westcoastnativenews.com/media-co-op-journalist-miles-howe-arreste...
Shale gas tensions flaring near Rexton
One arrest and more than 20 police vehicles at scene, along Highway 11
The energy company that's been the focus of heated protests in New Brunswick finally made some headway Tuesday in its seismic mapping of Kent County, but only with the help of a court order and a small army of police officers.
SWN Resources Canada trucks were out working on Highway 11 near Rexton, N.B., as more than 30 protesters gathered nearby. The police presence was heavy, with at least 23 vehicles on site.
Tensions between anti-shale gas protesters and RCMP officers flared, and at least one person was arrested....
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/shale-gas-tensions-flaring-n...
Elder says she was beaten and humiliated by the RCMP in New Brunswick
video
Meanwhile an elder from the Elsipogtog First Nation says she was beaten and humiliated by the RCMP while in police custody.
Lorraine Claire was arrested while protesting against shale gas exploration last week.
Shale gas protester defies court order
Former Elsipogtog chief Susan Levi-Peters blocked SWN trucks, but left peacefully with RCMP warning
quote:
Levi-Peters said she was driving home from Moncton when she saw the trucks.
"I don't know what happened," she said. "I had this urge, I had to stop and at least stop them and do something."
Levi-Peters pulled over and walked to the trucks. She said she wanted the drivers to show her the paperwork that allowed them to be in the area.
Security guards asked Levi-Peters to move, but she stood fast.
"They said the RCMP are coming and I said good. I said 'I want to see a lease, I want to see where they get the authority to be here.'"
RCMP officers then handed her a copy of the court injunction obtained by SWN last Friday and asked her to leave.
The court order forbids protesters from getting closer than 250 metres to SWN trucks, and 20 metres from the side of the highway where work is being done....
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/shale-gas-protester-defies-c...
Dec 2: Emergency Day of Action - Solidarity For #Elsipogtog
http://warriorpublications.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/dec-2-emergency-day-...
"On Monday, Dec 2nd, Mi'kmaq Land Defenders are asking you to show your solidarity by taking action in your community. Where possible, highway shutdowns are encouraged however any action of support such as banner drops, are welcome..."
Lubicon Nation Blocks Access Road To Fracking Site
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/11/lubicon-nation-blocks-access-road-to-f...
"Penn West has been repeatedly informed by the nation that no foreign government, including any Canadian endorsed, illegal Indian Act formed government, will represent the Lubicon Lake Nation with regards to these lands.'
Ominayak said the Lubicon Nation has never ceded its lands nor signed a treaty with the Crown and therefore remains sole title holder to its land and resources..."
Sovereignty is the issue - Canada is the problem.
Snowy Standoff in New Brunswick as Anti-Fracking Protesters Fight For 'Next Seven Generations'
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/12/01-0
"I think the community is standing up for the environment and the police are protecting the company, and that's not right."
Halifax Coalition Against Fracking Joins Day of Solidarity For Elsipogtog Anti-Fracking Protests
http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/20141
"In response to a call for an Emergency Day of Action in solidarity with the Elsipogtog protests against hydraulic fracturing (fracking), the Halifax Coalition Against Fracking will be applying pressure to both the Crown and the Irving Corporation on Monday, December 2.
The group supports Mi'kmaq-led protesters in New Brunswick who are seeking to halt seismic testing by the Texas-based corporation SWM Resources."
Statement of Solidarity With Mi'kmaq Warriors
http://warriorpublications.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/statement-of-solidar...
"Protect Mother Earth"
Mi'kmaqs Never Surrender! Fight Fracking! (and vid)
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.ca/2013/12/mikmaqs-never-surrender-fight-frack...
"Today along highway 11 things got rough. RCMP blocked off the road, arrests were made, there were reports of police dogs chasing people in the woods, and an SWN security vehicle hit 3 women.
An ambulance was called and 2 women were sent to the hospital, meanwhile the RCMP did nothing..."
Six Degrees of Separation - Fracking New Brunswick Edition - by Miles Howe
http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/story/six-degrees-separation-fracking-new-br...
"Start with former premier Shawn Graham and go!"
SWN Granted Injunction Extension Against Protesters
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/swn-granted-injunction-exten...
"Court order comes as RCMP make 7 more arrests, close Highway 11 for several hours..."
Elsipogtog Solidarity Action Shuts Vancouver Port (with pics)
Activists blocked access to the federal Port of Vancouver for an hour early this morning as part of an International Day of Action in Support of Elsipogtog Land Defenders in New Brunswick.
Access to the Port at the foot of Clark Drive was blocked for an hour. Traffic was backed up as far as as the eye could see. The adhoc coalition of activists blocked the road with a banner reading Solidarity with Elsipogtog and #ShutDownCanada. The group said it condemns fracking for poisoning water and boosting carbon emissions and decries "the brutality of the RCMP response, and their ongoing collusion with corporate interests."
"We stand in solidarity with Land Defenders everywhere - from the Mi’kmaq in New Brunswick to the Unis’tot’en in British Columbia - who are fighting rampant and reckless resource extraction, which is the face of modern colonialism. We denounce the assertion that this destruction and the associated corruption, deceit, and violence are necessary. And today we shut down a key piece of the infrastructure of this ideological machine."....
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/photo/elsipogtog-solidarity-action-shuts-v...
Support from Idle No More in Elsipogtog
video
Shale gas protestors in New Brunswick received support from Idle No More Tuesday.
Spirits were high along Hwy. 11 despite the events of Monday when seven people were arrested.
Reports said two women were hit by vehicles belonging to SWN Resources Canada.
And around 150 protestors blocked off the road with burning tires Monday.
..the province has joined with swn in this action.
SWN Resources turns to a new tactic to disrupt the protestors in New Brunswick
video
Anti-fracking demonstrators in New Brunswick have once again reacted strongly to the presence of seismic testing trucks belonging to SWN Resources.
Protestors were seen burning tires on a key highway used by the vehicles.
It’s a controversial tactic that many are now criticizing on environmental grounds.
Meanwhile, SWN is turning to a new legal tactic to disrupt the demonstrators.
They’re suing individual activists.
..my bold
Canadian Voters May Only Support Destruction of Palestinian Villages
quote:
May's timing is remarkable, as it comes at the very moment that the Israeli government is forcibly evicting 40,000 to 70,000 Bedouin from their villages in the Negev, which are slated for destruction by the government. As one evictee explained, "We have been living here since before the creation of the state of Israel." The Bedouin will be relocated into what the Guardian described as "overcrowded and impoverished towns," and the justification is that it's for their own good. Thousands, including a small but dedicated Israeli contingent, are protesting across the country. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has simply said that he "will not tolerate such disturbances," as police crack down.
Canadian politicians also have done -- and are doing -- this kind of thing. The village of Africville near Halifax was bulldozed for "humanitarian reasons" in the late 60s. Residents were literally moved out using city dump trucks. Thousands of Mi'kmaq were forced from their homes in the 1940s under a policy of "centralization" which was land theft justified by rhetoric about the "welfare" of those being evicted, and similar policies were pursued across the country. Canada would not exist without forced evictions. Land theft continues right up to the present moment in Elsipogtog, Barriere Lake, Lubicon Lake, and many others. Struggles for justice for past wrongs are met with decade-long court battles and bureaucratic impassiveness; struggles against ongoing dispossession are met with armed assaults, mass arrests, and vilification in the media.
So in a twisted way, it makes sense that while Bedouin were protesting the evictions over the last few months, it was considered normal in respectable circles for Elizabeth May and Stephen Harper to be celebrating Israel's activities in the Negev....
http://montreal.mediacoop.ca/story/harper-may-israel-cpjme/20189
Shale gas protest policing costs top $4M
Public Safety minister says spending necessary to protect public
Policing costs associated with anti-shale gas protests in Kent County have reached more than $4 million over the past six months, says the Finance minister.
RCMP officers have been closely monitoring protests along Highway 11 on a daily basis for weeks.
Extra officers from other provinces have also been called in to help as SWN Resources Canada conducts seismic testing in the Rexton area.
"We have a contract with the RCMP," said Public Safety Minister Bruce Northrup. "It's not costing the communities around that area, it's directly coming from the provincial coffers, so as public safety, we're paying the bill right now," he said....
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/shale-gas-protest-policing-c...
SWN ending exploration work in NB, will be back in 2015: Elsipogtog War Chief Levi
A Houston-based energy company that has faced ferocious resistance from a Mi’kmaq-led coalition is ending its shale gas exploration work for the year, says Elsipogtog War Chief John Levi.
Levi said Friday that the RCMP informed him that SWN Resources Canada is ending its exploration work, but will return in 2015.
Levi said SWN and its contractors would be picking up geophones from the side of the highway today. Geophones interact with thumper trucks to create imaging of shale gas deposits underground.
“They are just going to be picking up their gear today,” said Levi. “At least people can take a break for Christmas.”
Demonstrations against the company escalated this week. Demonstrators twice burned tires on Hwy 11 which was the area where SWN was conducting its shale gas exploration.
SWN could not be reached for comment.
SWN obtained an extension to an injunction against the demonstrators Monday after arguing it needed two more weeks to finish its work. In its court filing, SWN claimed it needed about 25 km left to explore.
Levi said the Mi’kmaq community, which sits about 80 km north of Moncton, will be there again in 2015 to oppose the company. Levi said SWN will be returning to conduct exploratory drilling.
“We can’t allow any drilling, we didn’t allow them to do the testing from the beginning,” said Levi.
Levi said word that SWN is leaving is no cause for celebration just yet.
“We went through a lot,” he said. “We need some time for this to sink in and think about everything, think about what we went through…People did a lot of sacrificing.”
I think it is prudent to assume that SWN will be back for the next stage of exploration drilling.
The reason John Levi is saying 2015 is because it is a safe assumption that the NB government has told them they need to stay away until after the Sept 2014 election. Otherwise, they could crunch their data, pick well sites, develop them, and be ready for drilling in the Spring.
But I do not think it is a given that SWN will want to come back, even if the data they got is promising enough to do some exploration wells. And they may not even have the option, in the likely events the government is turfed. Even if a new government does a turnabout and says they might welcome drilling after all.... SWN and other companies will probably take a pass without unqualified support.
Elsipogtog: The Fire Over Water (video report)
We go to Mi'kmaq territory in New Brunswick, Canada, to find out what happens when a First Nation says no to fracking. Fault Lines Last updated: 06 Dec 2013
On October 17, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided a protest site set up by Mi'kmaq people and their supporters trying to prevent a Texas-based corporation from fracking.
The company had received rights to explore for shale gas by the province of New Brunswick.
The raid carried out by police, with dogs and automatic weapons, turned to chaos as residents of the Elsipogtog First Nation arrived to confront them. Police pepper sprayed the elders and fired sock rounds to control the crowd. Six police vehicles were set ablaze, and some 40 people were arrested.
It was the most spectacular eruption yet, of a struggle led by indigenous people to protect the land they say they have never ceded and water they consider sacred - a struggle that grew quietly for three years, and shows no sign of slowing down.
Fault Lines travelled to New Brunswick to ask why their fight caught fire, and find out what happens when Canada's First Nations say no to resource extraction projects they oppose.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/faultlines/2013/12/elsipogtog-fire-o...
Anti-Fracking Clashes in Romania As Activists Break Into Chevron Site: (Photos, Vid)
http://rt.com/news/chevron-fracking-protest-clashes-884/
"Hundreds of protesters have broken into a Chevron site after the US oil giant resumed its search for shale gas in northeast Romania. RT's Lucy Kafanov reports from the scene, where clashes ensued as riot police started streaming in..."
Defend and protect your territories from the common corporate enemy
Court Updates For Mi'kmaq Warriors
http://warriorpublications.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/court-updates-for-mi...
Defence Fund Info (Give something) and how to write to the jailed Mi'kmaq Warriors..
Lubicon Nation Blocks Access Road To Fracking Site
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/11/lubicon-nation-blocks-access-road-to-f...
"Penn West has been repeatedly informed by the nation that no foreign government, including any Canadian endorsed, illegal Indian Act formed government, will represent the Lubicon Lake Nation with regards to these lands.'
Ominayak said the Lubicon Nation has never ceded its lands nor signed a treaty with the Crown and therefore remains sole title holder to its land and resources..."
Sovereignty is the issue - Canada is the problem.
"This is the Executive in Charge of Development in Lubicon Territory. Has anyone told him to #FrackOff yet?"
https://twitter.com/Cree8Dawn/status/411240150148993024/photo/1
Elsipogtog anti-fracking fight fallout putting strain on RCMP-First Nation relations
The two New Brunswick RCMP officers knocked on Malcolm Ward’s door Wednesday morning while the Mi’kmaq man played with his one year-old son River in the living room.
He answered the door and the officers told him he was under arrest for getting too close to equipment owned by SWN Resources Canada, a Houston-owned energy company conducting shale gas exploration work in the province.
“I was holding my son at the time,” said Ward, shortly after his release from jail Wednesday evening.
Then his wife came home.
“I told her that I am under arrest and my wife broke down for a bit and pleaded with the RCMP to leave me alone,” said Ward, who is a fisheries officer for Metepenagiag First Nation, which overlooks the Little Southwest Miramichi River.
Ward said he picked up his son and gave him a kiss just before the officers led him out the front door and into the back of a police cruiser....
License to Frack: UK Govt To Radically Expand Shalegas Test Drilling (and vid)
http://rt.com/news/fracking-announcement-uk-protest-354/
"The UK government is planning to open up thousands of square miles of countryside to fracking in spite of mass protests, UK media report..."
Lubicon ordered to take down blockade
Lubicon Lake Nation protesters going into their fourth week of blocking access to a fracking site on their traditional territory were ordered to take down their roadblock early Monday evening by a Queen’s Bench court judge in Calgary.
Despite requests by oil company PennWest Petroleum Ltd. for only a seven-day injunction, the judge granted an immediate six-month injunction on the road block in accordance with the provincial Public Lands Act.
Representatives of the Lubicon Nation are upset by the ruling and planning to appeal, claiming the court was “hostile” and refused to hear Lubicon evidence....
eta: quote:
In a statement of claim filed Dec. 1, Ominayak argued that the Lubicon Nation never entered into treaty with Canada and that leases issued to Penn West are thus null and void.
“This is yet another example of what the United Nations has already ruled in the Lubicon case. We as people do not have effective redress in the Canadian legal and regulatory system and it is actively being used as a tool to exterminate us in favor of natural resource development” Ominayak said following the hearing result.
http://norj.ca/2013/12/first-nation-ordered-to-take-down-blockade/
........
Faced with injunction, Lubicon ponder next move
quote:
Cynthia Tomlinson, an advisor on lands and negotiations to the Lubicon, said community members met Monday night and Tuesday afternoon to discuss what to do next. Tomlinson said they discussed appealing the injunction and continuing to protest.
The current protest site, however, was abandoned after the judge issued the injunction.
“So far they don’t want to do anything that is going to appear violent,” said Tomlinson. “They are looking at taking steps to protect their lands.”....
Ottawa prepared for nation-wide protests following RCMP Elsipogtog raid: documents
The federal government prepared for the potential of a nation-wide flare up of protests triggered by heavily-armed raid last October by RCMP tactical units on a Mi’kmaq-led anti-fracking camp in New Brunswick, internal government records show.
Ottawa’s nerve centre created to deal with national threats immediately swung into action to deal with the potential of cross-country protests in response to the RCMP’s Oct. 17, 2013, raid which led to 40 arrests and the torching of several police vehicles.
The RCMP said it seized several rifles, ammunition and crude explosive devices during the raid which freed trapped exploration vehicles owned by a Texas-headquartered energy company searching for shale gas deposits near the Mi’kmaq community of Elsipogtog.
Ottawa’s Government Operations Centre (GOC) at least two conference calls immediately following the raid with representatives from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Department of National Defence, Foreign Affairs, the RCMP and the Privy Council office, along with several other federal departments, according to records obtained through the Access to Information Act by APTN National News.
The GOC is run out of Public Safety and describes itself as “an all-hazards integrated federal emergency response to events (potential or actual hazards, natural or human-induced, either accidental or intentional) of national interest,”......
Fracking: Cameron Offers Councils Drill Money
David Cameron has announced £1.7m for councils which agree to drill for shale gas sparking angry protests from campaigners who say it amounts to little more than bribery.
David Cameron said the Government was "going all out for shale" as he announced local authorities that allow drilling will receive 100% of the business rates collected from the scheme - double the current 50%.
Whitehall officials estimate that could be worth £1.7m extra a year for each site a council agrees.
The announcement sparked angry scenes at a fracking site in Barton Moss, near Salford, Manchester, where protesters confronted lorries entering the plant, then handcuffed themselves to the vehicles....
http://news.sky.com/story/1194087/fracking-cameron-offers-councils-drill...
Elsipogtog protestors call for a tribal police force
Residents of Elsipogtog in New Brunswick say they’ve lost trust in the RCMP.
Forty people were arrested in a violent clash with the RCMP last October.
Some Mi’kmaq are calling for their own tribal police force.
Jan 24 Mi'kmaq Warriors Suzanne Patles SFU H/C Strategy Session
video
Suzanne Patles of the Mi'kmaq Warriors Society spoke at a strategy session co-sponsored by First Nations Studies SFU, and the English Department, SFU at the downtown Harbour Centre campus Friday, January 24th, on unceded Coast Salish Territories....
Resistance at Elsipogtog Part 1: Context and Struggle
On both today's episode of Talking Radical Radio and next week's, I will be speaking with Miles Howe. Howe is an editor and a journalist with the Halifax local of The Media Co-op, a co-operatively organized grassroots media network with locals and working groups in cities across the country. Over the last year, Howe has provided truly excellent coverage of the struggle against hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and against colonization in New Brunswick, which has been lead by people from the Elsipogtog First Nation and quite broadly supported in the area.....
http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/talking-radical-radio/2014/02/resistance...
RCMP’s raid on Mi’kmaq anti-fracking camp still haunts
video
Images of the clash between police and Mi’kmaq protesters from last Oct. 17 still haunt some who were there.
.......
Resistance at Elsipogtog Part 2: A case study in grassroots journalism
This week's episode of Talking Radical Radio is the second of two based on an interview with Miles Howe.
http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/talking-radical-radio/2014/02/resistance...
