APTN: Amanda Polchies, the woman in iconic photo, says image represents ‘wisp of hope’

Just days after a violent anti-fracking protest, New Brunswick Premier David Alward is pressing ahead with his vow to develop a shale gas industry, suggesting First Nations people will share the economic benefits.

But natives are not budging, arguing that their drinking water, which they fear the fracking process could contaminate, is not for sale.

More Related to this Story

In an interview on Monday, Mr. Alward said he is hoping SWN Resources, the Texas energy company exploring for shale gas near Rexton, N.B., will resume its operations.

He made his comments as native protesters and Elsipogtog First Nation people cheered a New Brunswick judge’s decision on Monday to lift an injunction that had ordered them to stop blocking trucks from leaving the SWN Resources compound to do seismic testing in the area.

The trucks were removed after the RCMP moved in on the native protesters’ encampment last Thursday to enforce the injunction.

Some First Nations people interpreted the judge’s decision as a message to SWN to leave the province. The Premier sees no correlation.

“It’s very much one day at a time,” Mr. Alward said of the resumption of SWN operations. “What we have to remember is that the current work that SWN is doing is exploration. That’s what this phase has been.”

SWN has not replied to requests to comment on when or if it will restart exploration.

“Certainly, my hope and my confidence is that we will see a shale gas industry develop in New Brunswick,” Mr. Alward said. “We can’t afford otherwise.”

He said it would bring prosperity to the province and allow young people who have moved west for work to return home. The Premier repeated, too, that the industry would be developed safely and securely with environmental studies and consultations with First Nations.

“In the end, we are all collectively going to benefit as New Brunswickers, including First Nations, both as individuals but as communities as well,” he said.

Support has poured in for Elsipogtog First Nation from other native groups across the country after Thurday’s violence, in which police cars were torched, rocks thrown and protesters pepper-sprayed. Over the weekend, the native leadership there called for calm – and uneasy quiet has fallen, although protesters remain at the encampment.

It is not clear how the situation will be resolved.

“There is absolutely no way, absolutely no way [we] are going to agree to any form of fracking on or near our community,” said Robert Levy, a band councillor and a former Elsipogtog chief. “They can offer everything. They can offer all the monies they want. We just can’t take that chance of our water for our kids and our kids yet to be born.”

Native groups are not the only ones concerned about fracking. Liberal opposition leader Brian Gallant is calling for a moratorium.

“I believe we need to press pause,” Mr. Gallant said, noting that two studies of the industry are to be released in the next year. “The environment and health risks concern me more than the potential economic benefits excite me.”

Mr. Gallant is meeting on Tuesday with native leaders. Mr. Alward said provincial and band officials are trying to work out a process to resolve the situation. He decided to skip a trade mission this week to Brazil with his Atlantic colleagues to deal with the situation.

With a report from the Canadian Press

AJA: Shale gas company loses bid to halt Canada protests

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Sacred Fire NB

SOURCE: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/21/shale-gas-companylosesbidforinjunctiontohaltcanadaprotests.html

by Renee Lewis

October 21, 2013 2:21PM ET

After last week’s protests over gas exploration turned violent, a judge ruled that demonstrations may continue

Topics:: Environment; Canada; Energy

Fracking protest — Members of the Elsipogtog First Nations group protest a shale-gas project near Rexton, New Brunswick, Thursday.

A Canadian court ruled Monday to deny an energy company’s request for a permanent injunction to prevent interference with shale-gas exploration in New Brunswick. The ruling allows protests to continue and for demonstrators to once again occupy roads used by energy-company vehicles.

Justice George Rideout issued a ruling in the Court of Queen’s Bench against the motion of Texas-based Southwestern Energy, known as SWN Resources in Canada.

An informal coalition of First Nations and nonnative protesters had blocked a road to prevent the company from continuing its exploration. The judge did not state the reasons for his decision but said a written statement would be issued.

SWN Resources, which did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment, argued in court that the protest was costing the company $60,000 a day.

The barricade and protests, part of a wider movement by dozens of local community groups that have opposed fracking there for years, began last month on Route 134 near Rexton, about 515 miles east of Montreal.

The protests gained international attention last Thursday when an anti-fracking protest blocking the company’s activities in New Brunswick turned violent.

“This is not just a First Nations campaign. It’s actually quite a historic moment where all the major peoples of this province — English, French and aboriginal — come together for a common cause,” David Coon, head of the Green Party in New Brunswick, told Al Jazeera. “This is really a question of justice. They want to protect their common lands, water and air from destruction.”

A temporary injunction was issued on Oct. 3 ordering the protesters to leave. This resulted in negotiations with the provincial government, local residents opposed to fracking and First Nation leaders — but did not end the protest.

‘When cops show up with guns and pepper spray and arrest 40 people and take a situation that’s been peaceful and attack them — then suddenly it’s a big story,’ Bennet said.

Last Thursday, over 100 Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers arrived with guns and dogs to enforce the injunction, resulting in violent clashes.

The RCMP reported it had seized weapons from some of the protesters and that protesters had torched police vehicles. Activists said the RCMP moved in aggressively — firing tear gas and pepper spray and setting dogs on them; about 40 protesters were arrested.

“In New Brunswick over the last three or four years, there have been continual meetings and demonstrations against shale-gas exploration, so clearly the people are not in support of the fracking industry coming to their province,” John Bennet, executive director of the Sierra Club Canada, told Al Jazeera.

He said the protests have been going on for years and have always been peaceful. He said he tried to get the media to cover the protests before but could not generate interest.

“Suddenly last Thursday, when cops show up with guns and pepper spray and arrest 40 people and take a situation that’s been peaceful and attack them — then suddenly it’s a big story,” Bennet said.

“For me it brings images of Custer and people attacking Indian villages to make them leave. It was done in the same spirit. They could have come in without weapons and tried to mediate. Instead the police did a dawn raid in camouflage. They caused the violence.”

Spoiling the land

Coon, who spent some time at the protest, described it as friendly, peaceful and welcoming.

“My impression was that the people were overwhelmingly local and all ages. The atmosphere was almost like a block party. People had lawn chairs out. They even had a turkey dinner,” Coon said.

Many local residents are opposed to fracking because they fear their water will be contaminated, their land degraded and air polluted, he told Al Jazeera.

“These are rural communities with very clear air, beautiful land, drinkable water. They don’t want to see that spoiled,” Coon said. “When energy companies move in, they industrialize the area, which completely changes the quality of life in those communities.”

Though the protest includes a diverse group of local residents who say they will not allow fracking on their land because of environmental and health concerns, the only legal argument can be made by its First Nations members.

‘These people have a democratic and constitutional right to be consulted about what happens on their land,’ Bennet said. ‘And if that’s not respected, then they have a right to protest.’

Since the mid-1980s, 186 rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada and lower courts have established a precedent that aboriginal people must be consulted and accommodated when development on their land is considered, according to Canada’s CBC news.

That’s because, unlike the rest of Canadian First Nations, the Mi’kmaq and Maliseet peoples — located in New Brunswick — never ceded their territory in treaties or lost it by force, giving them more legal rights over their land than most other First Nations.

“That certainly was not done when the license to explore the land was given to SWN,” said Coon. “It was not done when those licenses were extended.”

Off tribal lands, oil and gas resources generally remain under the control of the provincial or federal government. A request for comment by the New Brunswick government’s energy branch was not answered.

New Brunswick’s Assembly of First Nations Chiefs called on the provincial government Monday to revoke shale-gas exploration permits issued to energy companies until they have been consulted, CNC news reported.

“These people have a democratic and constitutional right to be consulted about what happens on their land,” Bennet said. “And if that’s not respected, then they have a right to protest.”

Regardless of the result of the court ruling Monday, local community activists are determined to do everything they can to stop energy companies from moving into their province.

“Fracking will not occur there. Those communities will not allow it to happen,” Coon said. “To impose the industry on those communities … would require continued police presence and lots of protection around the clock for industry activities.”

Al Jazeera

Guardian: New Brunswick fracking protests are the frontline of a democratic fight

Posted on October 21, 2013 by maxhaiven

SOURCE: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/21/new-brunswick-fracking-protests

Images of burning cars and narratives about Canadian natives breaking the law obscure the real story about the Mi’kmaq people’s opposition to shale gas exploration

A girl plays the drums as she sings a traditional First Nations song during an anti shale gas demonstration in Montreal in support of the Mikmaq people of Elsipogtog First Nations in New Brunswick. Photograph: Oscar Aguirre/Demotix/Corbis

The image of burning police cars played endlessly on the evening news. Television and talk radio blared out reports of “clashes” between police and indigenous protestors. Last Thursday in New Brunswick near the Elsipogtog First Nation, we were told the government had enforced an injunction against a blockade of a US shale gas company. There was nothing about the roots of a conflict years in the making. An appeal to the stereotype of indigenous violence was enough: once again, the natives were breaking the law; the police had to be sent in. Catching the headlines, Canadian could shake their heads and turn away their gaze.

But smoke and flames from police cars can only hide the truth for so long. The exact chronology is not yet settled, but this much is clear: on Thursday morning someone in government sanctioned the Canadian police to invade a peaceful protest site like an army. In a dawn raid, snipers crawled through the forest, putting children and elders in their cross-hairs. Police carried assault rifles and snarling dogs, and sprayed tear gas and shot rubber-type bullets. The result was predictable: shocked and enraged people, a day ending in chaos.

There is only one reason the police were unleashed. Not because of the New Brunswick Premier’s claims about the dangers of an “armed encampment”; protestors had been unswervingly non-violent for months. Ever since 2010, when New Brunswick handed out 1.4 million hectares of land – one-seventh of the province – to shale gas exploration, opposition had been mounting. Petitions, town hall meetings, marches on legislature had slowly transformed to civil disobedience, and in October, to the blockade of equipment that Texan SNW Resources was using for seismic testing. The company was losing $60,000 daily, and the non-violent defiance had put a wrinkle in the Premier’s plans for a resource boom. The blockade had to go.

The pundits howl or hand-wring about destroyed police cars, but say nothing about the destruction wrought by fracking. Short for “hydraulic fracturing,” fracking pumps a toxic cocktail of chemicals, sand and water into deeply drilled wells. It shatters the bedrock to free shale gas. The chemicals – many of which are kept secret by industry – are linked to cancer and other illnesses. The process contaminates ground water and even causes earthquakes. And it doesn’t just do violence to the earth: it releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes massively to climate change. Such concerns have spurred citizen movements to win moratoriums in Quebec, New York and France.

But Premier David Alward, hell-bent on opening up the province to shale gas, has spurned consultation with First Nations and the rest of the population. His latest step is demonization. “Clearly, there are those who do not have the same values we share as New Brunswickers,” he cynically announced on Friday. But the opposition to the Premier’s shale gas agenda is not just a supposedly isolated Indigenous community: it is two of every three people in Atlantic Canada. Little wonder he has repeatedly rejected a referendum on shale gas. It turns out the residents of Elsipogtog aren’t criminal deviants. They are the frontline of a fight for the democratic and environmental will of New Brunswick.

“It is our responsibility to protect Mother Earth, to protect the land for non-natives too,” says Susan Levi-Peters, the former Chief of Elsipogtog. “My people are speaking up for everyone.” Others have heard. Since the beginning of the summer, Levi-Peters has seen indigenous Maliseet, Acadians and anglophone New Brunswickers drawn to this new epicentre of resistance on her community’s traditional lands. “People care about the water. People care about the environment. This isn’t just a native issue.”

But let’s be clear about one way this is a “native issue”: the rush underway for dirtier and more extreme fossil fuels and minerals, in New Brunswick and across Canada, is just the latest stage of colonial pillage. It’s a badly-kept secret that Canada’s oil, gas and mineral wealth, the key to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s reckless resource obsession, are mostly on Indigenous lands. And if industry is to have them, the country’s national myths must be summoned. In last week’s Speech from the Throne, Harper praised the “courage and audacity” of the country’s “pioneers,” who “forged an independent country where non would have otherwise existed.” A day later, the raid on Elsipogtog was effectively a footnote.

Levi-Peters says the Mi’kmaq remember the “audacity” all too well. How their nation signed a peace and friendship treaty in 1761 to let the English settle but not to trample Mi’kmaq interests. How before they came for the shale gas, they came for the timber, the fish, the wildlife. And then for the children, locked away in residential schools and split from their connection to the land. The farms that were burnt to push them onto reserves. And how every act of resistance has been greeted by the same lectures from authority. “In no way can we as a country of laws condone the breaking of laws and violence,” Premier Alward reminded them on Friday.

Tell that to Levi-Peters and the rest of the Mi’kmaq, who have been betrayed again and again by the law. The Canadian Supreme Court’s judgment in the historic Marshall case in 1999 recognized the Mi’kmaq rights to fish for a living. But when the Mi’kmaq’s attempted to practice that right, their boats were rammed by government officials, their nets destroyed by non-native fishers agitated by state misinformation. That same judgment confirmed that the treaty of 1761 had never surrendered their lands. That Elsipogtog still owns, in fact, what SNW Resources now covets. And that the injunction order by a provincial judge is a convenient legal fiction, backed only by the power of brute police force.

This is the vast and enduring violence that is scarcely spoken of: a history of dispossession and resource theft under the guise of the “law.” What Harper and every premier now offers indigenous peoples are promises they will have “every opportunity to benefit.” They won’t. In Elsipogtog, unemployment tips 80 percent and they want jobs, but fracking is too great a risk. As many as twenty people crowd into one house, in a community that needs 500 new homes. Their share of a multi-billion dollar resource rush will be destitution and despair on its outskirts.

But in the protest movement against shale gas, many young Indigenous people have discovered a new reason for hope. Like one young man, 17 years old, who has camped at the site for the last weeks. “I’m worried about the water and the future of my children,” he says. He is among the terrifying warriors that shale gas-drunk politicians unleashed an armed police force on last week. Anxious that this might come, Levi-Peters sent a message this summer to the Premier. “You’re going to make criminals out of us, because there is no way we can allow the fracking,” she wrote him. His office never bothered to reply. She now has his response: Harper’s pioneers aim to march on.

Unless, of course, Canadians are prepared to break with the past. Many are. Tens of thousands have signed petitions, and many others marched alongside indigenous peoples in dozens of cities and towns since Thursday. It is a sign that the the actions of the New Brunswick and the Canadian government may backfire. What the government and corporate media crave now is more mayhem, to sell to the public the repression they have sought all along. What they fear most is a movement armed only with drums and eagle feathers and a sacred relationship to the land, touching the hearts of ever more Canadians.

Freed of the distractions, we will be left with a single question. Do we obey provincial dictates that grant a company license to pollute the water? Or the laws of Indigenous peoples, of the Supreme Court, and of our conscience, calling us to protect it? The answer will tell us everything about the kind of country we will have.

Global: Judge rules not to extend SWN injunction against shale gas protesters

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Sacred Fire NB

SOURCE: http://globalnews.ca/news/915092/judge-rules-not-to-extend-swn-injunction-against-shale-gas-protesters/

October 21, 2013 2:25 pm

Judge rules not to extend SWN injunction against shale gas protesters

By Staff Global News

A police vehicle is seen in Rexton, N.B. as police began enforcing an injunction to end an ongoing demonstration against shale gas exploration in eastern New Brunswick on Thursday, Oct.17, 2013.

Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press

MONCTON – A Moncton judge has ruled against a request by SWN to extend a court injunction against shale gas protesters in Rexton, N.B.

The injunction, which SWN obtained on Oct. 3, was to remove protesters who were blocking access to SWN equipment needed for shale gas exploration.

SWN Resources had asked for the injunction to be extended indefinitely.

BELOW: The original SWN injunction paperwork

It was hoped talks between the protesters — which included members of the nearby Elsipogtog First Nation and other First Nations, the company and the government — would help the situation come to a peaceful end.

WATCH: Elsipogtog First Nation leaders criticize RCMP over anti-shale protest crackdown

The injunction was due to expire on Friday, and RCMP acted on it Thursday morning. Police clashes with protesters led to 40 arrests after five RCMP vehicles were torched.

SWN claimed it has lost $60,000 a day while access to its equipment has been blocked.

With files from Nick Logan and Laura Brown

APTN: Solidarity with the Mi’kmaq people all over Canada

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Sacred Fire NB

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO: http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2013/10/21/solidarity-mikmaq-people-canada/

APTN National News
Demonstrations have been on going across the country in support of the anti – fracking protestors in New Brunswick.

From British Columbia to the east coast hundreds of Aboriginal and non – Aboriginal activists have been hitting the pavement to show they’re in solidarity with the Mi’kmaq people.

As APTN’s Shaneen Robinson reports, it looks like a resurgence of the Idle No More movement.

APTN: Route 134 camp cleared, burned-out cruisers moved if RCMP grounds surveillance flights: Elsipogtog War Chief

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Sacred Fire NB

Route 134 camp cleared, burned-out cruisers moved if RCMP grounds surveillance flights: Elsipogtog War Chief

National News | 21. Oct, 2013 by Jorge Barrera | 0 Comments

By Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
ELSIPOGTOG FIRST NATION–The remaining encampment along Route 134 that was the scene of a heavily-armed raid Thursday will be dismantled if the RCMP grounds its surveillance aircraft, said Elsipogtog’s War Chief John Levi.

Levi said stopping the surveillance flights would be an act of good faith and allow people in the community to heal.

Levi said he spoke with RCMP officers Sunday who also wanted free passage to remove the burned-out shells of their vehicles torched during Thursday’s raid.

“I told them, get rid of that plane. We are trying to heal and you are still there poking us with a stick,” said Levi. “They are not willing to call off the plane and I told them I am not backing them up on cleaning up their mess. It works both ways, when you negotiate something, you get something.”

He said he came away frustrated from the meeting, but hoped to convince the police to do the right thing Monday.

“Let our people heal, don’t agitate any more, it is so simple,” said Levi. “Yet they can’t even do that.”

New Brunswick RCMP could not be reached for comment.

Levi is the war chief specifically for Elsipogtog and is not connected to the Mi’kmaq Warrior Society which was in charge of security at the encampment at the time of the RCMP raid by camouflaged tactical units.

Levi was a prominent spokesperson for Elsipogtog’s anti-fracking movement throughout this past summer.

Levi said there are plans to move the encampment and light a sacred fire in an open area used during the summer. The area, which was once the nerve centre of the region’s anti-fracking movement, sits just off Hwy 116 which runs through Elsipogtog First Nation’s territory.

“We are planning on going to the 116 where the sacred fire was before and do our healing there and get ready for the next round,” said Levi.

Levi said there is no longer any point to the Route 134 encampment after the raid freed the exploration trucks it was blocking.

“There is no sense to being on the side of the road, it’s only a danger for our people,” said Levi.

Many of the Warrior Society’s core members were among the 40 arrested during the raid. At least two involved in its leadership are still in custody. The RCMP also seized three hunting rifles, ammunition, knives and crude improvised explosive devices.

The encampment is less than a kilometre away from a high school.

“For the safety of the students there, we don’t want anything to escalate here anymore,” said Levi.

Levi said he’s never advocated the use of weapons or violence.

“I told my supporters, let’s kill them with kindness. The only weapons we carry are drums, sweetgrass and sage,” said Levi.

A community meeting was held in Elsipogtog Sunday afternoon to discuss the trauma experienced by community members as a result of the raid.

Levi said the community hall would remain open 24-7 throughout the week for people who need counselling as a result of the events.

“We have to help our people heal,” said Levi, in an interview with APTN National News by the burned out police cruisers as the RCMP’s surveillance plane circled overhead.

Elsipogtog Chief Arren Sock also asked the community to allow RCMP members to return to the detachment on the reserve, said Willi Nolan, from Elsipogtog.

“There is great disappointment, there is mistrust of (the RCMP by) the people,” said Nolan.

Nolan said Thursday’s raid, which triggered widespread chaos and clashes between police and demonstrators, left many people shaken.

“The community suffered terrible trauma. We saw our elders, youth and women being injured, being hurt by the police because a corporation wants to poison everything,” she said. “They saw what the law does.”

But there was another sentiment just beneath the pain, said Nolan.

“It was also celebratory. One elder said, ‘we are winning,’” she said. “Even though it doesn’t feel like it now, it feels like we are all traumatized, but he said we are winning and I want to believe him.”

The encampment along Route 134 continued to hum with life late Sunday evening as volunteers split and piled fire wood while others sat around fires chatting and smoking cigarettes. In one area, a group of warriors were called into a circle and told that their job was not to instigate, but to keep the peace.

There was an air that this could all continue indefinitely, even as they opened the road back to two lanes of traffic. The day before, over 100 Mi’kmaqs and their supporters marched from the site and for about an hour blocked Hwy 11, which passes over Route 134.

Some people, who did not want to be named, criticized the meeting held earlier in the day. One long-time supporter said he thought the meeting was going to map out the next steps in the protest and came away disappointed. He said he planned to dig in for the long haul.

Assembly of Manitoba Grand Chief Derek Nepinak visited the site late Saturday night and attended the meeting Sunday after participating in a ceremony on the community’s Sundance grounds with Sock. The two exchanged gifts and smoked a peace pipe.

Nepinak said he suspected there was collusion between the RCMP and Houston-based SWN Resources Canada, which had its vehicles trapped by the encampment. SWN is conducting shale gas exploration in the region. Shale gas is extracted through fracking, a controversial method many believe poses a threat to the environment.

“How is it that during this process that the company was able to come in untouched and remove their equipment?” said Nepinak. “There was obviously a degree of collusion.”

APTN VIDEO: Mi’kmaq block New Brunswick highway

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Sacred Fire NB

SOURCE: http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2013/10/20/video-mikmaq-block-new-brunswick-highway/

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Over 100 Mi’kmaq and supporters briefly blocked a main highway in New Brunswick Saturday afternoon.

Shortly after 2 p.m. local time, waving red and white Mi’kmaq and red Mohawk Warrior flags, the group occupied the Hwy 11 overpass that crosses above Route 134.

OC: Op-Ed: Heavy-handed response to the Elsipogtog blockade in New Brunswick

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Sacred Fire NB

SOURCE: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/op-ed/Heavy+handed+response+Elsipogtog+blockade+Brunswick/9054564/story.html

Op-Ed: Heavy-handed response to the Elsipogtog blockade in New Brunswick

By Peter Raaymakers, Ottawa Citizen October 18, 2013

Photograph by: Andrew Vaughan , THE CANADIAN PRESS

On Thursday morning, RCMP officers were deployed with rifles, non-lethal bullets, pepper spray, and dogs to enforce a court injunction and attempt to disperse a blockade of protesters on New Brunswick Route 134, about an hour north of Moncton. At least 40 people were arrested for continuing a protest against natural gas exploration in the area, which comprises traditional lands of the Mi’kmaq people.

Perhaps it can be seen as an extension of the Canadian “pioneer” spirit mentioned by Governor General David Johnston in the most recent speech from the throne. That spirit, according to the current government, pushed settlers to build “an independent country where none would have otherwise existed.”

Of course, Canada wasn’t depopulated when settlers arrived here from Europe. Our country’s wealth and prosperity has been built through the persistent and usually violent removal of First Nations from their traditional lands in order to make room for resource development — and, as we saw Thursday, that’s as true today as it was centuries ago.

As we watched the blockade, we also witnessed the violent response that often follows violent provocation. Although thankfully there were no serious injuries reported, five flaming police cars have a way of catching the attention of the general public. After RCMP officers converged on the blockade, Elsipogtog First Nation Chief Arren James Sock — who was allegedly “roughed up” in the process, according to at least one eyewitness — was among those arrested, and as matters escalated, police also began using non-lethal bullets, pepper spray, and physical confrontation in an attempt to break the blockade.

It seems that cooler heads have prevailed and the RCMP pulled back their offensive for the time being, but it’s unfortunate that the violence seems to be what’s generating headlines in the aftermath. It’s distracting many from the injustice of gas exploration and fracking around Richibucto and Canada’s relations with First Nations in general.

The Mi’kmaq people of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, including the Elsipogtog First Nation, have never signed a treaty relinquishing authority to the land on which the Route 134 blockade stands today, or that on which SWN Resources is conducting exploratory testing. They signed a Peace and Friendship Treaty in 1761, which was re-affirmed in 1982 with Canada’s Constitution Act and then again in a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision, but that agreement included no mention of the surrender of any lands. Although the federal and New Brunswick governments are currently engaged in exploratory discussions to address issues of land ownership, rights, and sovereignty, there has been no agreement yet.

Given this reality, SWN Resources’ exploration permits aren’t legitimate. Nor was the court injunction criminalizing the blockade, and the police action was ridiculously illegitimate, not to mention unjust, unreasonable in its heavy-handedness, and terribly bad public relations for the RCMP.

In the above-mentioned Supreme Court case, the federal government was encouraged to negotiate with all First Nations in Canada in order to resolve the many outstanding issues and fulfil its treaty obligations. The negotiation process takes a lot of time, but that’s the point. It’s designed to be a meaningful engagement to avoid violent confrontation and find a mutually acceptable solution to these complex issues. If we hope to avoid more destructive events like that which took place on Thursday in New Brunswick, negotiation is the only way forward.

Negotiations are taking place with the provincial government, too. Premier David Alward and Chief Sock met as recently as last week to find a way to end the blockade, and they agreed to form a working group with representatives from the governments of the province and the Elsipogtog First Nation as well as the energy industry. Why the RCMP felt that it was appropriate to intervene in what was at the time a peaceful protest in the midst of active negotiations is unclear, but thankfully all sides have agreed to resume negotiation now that the police have stepped back.

Before gas exploration continues, those negotiations must reach a settlement. Continuing them while the industry conducts testing is disingenuous, putting the cart before the horse and assuming that the settlement will allow fracking without any indication that it’s an acceptable component. If New Brunswick was negotiating in good faith, SWN Resources would be required to stop looking for shale gas deposits — and if testing were halted, the blockade and the hugely excessive police response that followed it could have been avoided.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which outlined the First Nations land rights. That proclamation was further guaranteed in 1982 within the Canadian Charter or Rights and Freedoms. With that in mind, it’s high time the federal government redoubles its efforts to resolve the many outlying issues that are causing conflicts such as that in New Brunswick.

Peter Raaymakers is an Ottawa resident who thinks 400 years should have been long enough to build peace between Canada and the indigenous people who live within its borders.

APTN: Drums, sweetgrass, song amid flashing police lights on an October New Brunswick night

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Sacred Fire NB

Drums, sweetgrass, song amid flashing police lights on an October New Brunswick night

National News | 20. Oct, 2013 by APTN National News | 0 Comments

By Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
REXTON,NB–Beneath an overcast October night veiling the moon, with police lights spraying the darkness red and blue, a group of four women walked up the exit ramp blocked by the RCMP cruisers.

As they lit thick strands of sweetgrass, two RCMP officers with flashlights approached them and asked what they were doing.

“We’re out here walking,” said one of the women.

The RCMP officer said he had no problem with them walking. He said the exit was shut down because the ramp led to a section of Route 134 that has been reduced to one-lane by the anti-fracking encampment that remains despite Thursday’s heavily armed RCMP raid on the site.

“We got some complaints from the public,” said the officer. “Some of them were concerned for their safety.”

“That’s funny, you guys on that side over there have a totally different story,” said one of the women.

“Listen to what I’m telling you, do your own opinion,” said the officer. “We have to deal with the complaints ourselves.”

The women had just returned from the exit ramp on the other side of Hwy 11, which was also blocked by RCMP cruisers. The officers there told them a different story. The women said they were initially told the exit was shut for public safety reasons stemming from an incident with CTV journalists, who were evicted from the site and were forced to leave behind a satellite truck.

CTV journalists were separated from their satellite truck by a small group of demonstrators early Saturday. The satellite truck has since been returned and none of the journalists were harmed. Global journalists were also separated from their vehicle and equipment, which have also been returned.

The women then asked the officer if they could smudge him with the smouldering sweetgrass, but he refused. The women then circled the RCMP cruisers, smoke trailing them.

After the smudging, the women gathered in a circle and began to drum and sing.

About an hour after the women finished their singing and drumming, the RCMP opened the exits.

Back at the encampment people gathered around fires amid more drumming and singing as rumours swirled of police cars amassing here, or travelling there and fears of impending action.

In nearby Richibucto, RCMP officers were seen by an APTN National News reporter packing riot gear into duffle bags which were put in police cruisers.

A senior officer at the detachment said he was on standby for word from his command.

Hours earlier, over 100 Mi’kmaq and supporters briefly blocked a main highway in New Brunswick Saturday afternoon in response to the RCMP raid.

Shortly after 2 p.m. local time, waving red and white Mi’kmaq and red Mohawk Warrior flags the group marched a few hundred metres from the remains of the raided encampment and occupied the Hwy 11 overpass that crosses above Route 134.

Hwy 11 runs north from Moncton to the Miramichi and onto Bathurst,

The blockade lasted a little over an hour and ended amid rumours a heavy police reaction was headed toward the scene.

The encampment sits about 15 kilometres northeast of Elsipogtog First Nation, which has been at the heart of anti-fracking actions, and 80 kilometres north of Moncton.

“We are not going to turn around and we are not going to back down from what we are protecting. The government is not going to scare us in any way,” said one camouflaged-clad women going by the name of Spiked Black.

“Think about your future generations and your grandchildren. Would you like them to grow up in a chemical desert,” said Jason Milliea, from Elsipogtog First Nation.

The RCMP raid, which included camouflaged clad officers wielding assault weapons and firing rubber bullets, has done little to dissuade people here. In some ways, it has increased their resolve to keep up the opposition to shale gas exploration in the area. The raid freed exploration trucks owned by Houston-based SWN Resources which had been trapped by the encampment. SWN is conducting shale gas exploration in the area.

The RCMP’s announcement it had seized three rifles, ammunition and improvised explosive devices also had little impact here.

Several individuals who spoke to APTN National News on condition of anonymity said they didn’t know who the weapons belonged, quickly adding that it was an Aboriginal right to hunt.

Thursday’s raid led to 40 arrests and a day of chaos on Route 134. Several RCMP vehicles were torched and their burned-out shells still sit along the road.

One local resident, a mother whose children attend an English school in the area expressed exasperation at the RCMP for not removing the charred remains.

The events that day have since sparked sympathy actions across the province and the country.

All eyes are now on Elsipogtog.

Assembly of Manitoba Grand Chief Derek Nepinak visited the encampment late Saturday night.

The Assembly of First Nation of New Brunswick Chiefs issued a statement condemning the actions at the encampment and Saturday’s blockade, including hostility toward the media.

“The Chiefs fully endorse (Elsipogtog) Chief Aaron Sock’s call for peace, and agree emphatically that a cooling off period is required. This means an end to violent protests, an end to the blockades, and an end to violence by all parties in all its forms,” said the statement.

jbarrera@aptn.ca

@JorgeBarrera

CBC: Pamela Palmeter on NB protests

Video | Posted on October 19, 2013 by Sacred Fire NB

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/ID/2412799896/

News | Oct 17, 2013 | 7:59

Mi’kmaq lawyer on N.B. protests

Pam Palmeter is Chair in Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University

Press TV: RCMP repression as a war on indigenous people

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Sacred Fire NB

CBC: N.B. shale gas solidarity protests spread to other regions

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Sacred Fire NB

N.B. shale gas solidarity protests spread to other regions

Events held in Montreal, Ottawa, Thunder Bay and elsewhere in support of New Brunswick demonstrators

CBC News Posted: Oct 18, 2013 3:45 PM ET Last Updated: Oct 18, 2013 10:16 PM ET

Demonstrators rally in Calgary to show support for members of the Elsipogtog First Nation, who have been protesting seismic testing in New Brunswick. (CBC)

CTV: Coverage of Non-Violent Civil Disobedience Training at Elsipogtog to Defend Kent County from Shale Gas

Video | Posted on July 21, 2013 by Sacred Fire NB

Click here for video: http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=969147&binId=1.1145463&playlistPageNum=1

APTN: John Levi, war chief, speaks about anti-fracking protest

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Sacred Fire NB

SOURCE: http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2013/07/12/john-levi-war-chief-speaks-to-aptn-about-anti-fracking-protest/

John Levi, war chief, speaks to APTN about anti-fracking protest

National News | 12. Jul, 2013 by APTN National News | 0 Comments

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

APTN National News

He says he’s a warrior chief defending the land from environmental destruction.

John Levi leads a group from Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick who are fighting against a fracking company looking for shale gas.

The battle may be unwinnable, but Levi isn’t giving up.

APTN’s Ossie Michelin has the story.

APTN: (video) Reporter arrested by RCMP alleges he turned down offer to become paid informant

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Sacred Fire NB

SOURCE: http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2013/07/05/reporter-arrested-by-rcmp-alleges-he-turned-down-offer-to-become-paid-informant/

Reporter arrested by RCMP alleges he turned down offer to become paid informant

National News | 05. Jul, 2013 by APTN National News | 1 Comment

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO: http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2013/07/05/reporter-arrested-by-rcmp-alleges-he-turned-down-offer-to-become-paid-informant/

By Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
An independent reporter charged Thursday by the RCMP in New Brunswick allegedly rejected the force’s offer to become a paid informant.

Miles Howe, a reporter with the Halifax Media co-op, was released late Thursday afternoon from the Codiac RCMP detachment after he was arrested on Salmon River Rd. where RCMP officers were restricting access to an area under shale gas exploration.

Howe faces charges of uttering threats and obstructing justice stemming from an incident that occurred June 21 during an anti-shale gas protest near Elsipogtog, a Mi’kmaq community in northern New Brunswick.

Howe, however, said he was approached by the RCMP on June 30 to become a paid informant and pass information to the police on the people he had been reporting on for weeks.

Howe said they told him “we could compensate you financially,” but they didn’t present a specific dollar figure.

“The funny thing about this situation is that one week ago they were offering me money to inform for them and now they are charging me with an incident that allegedly occurred two weeks ago,” said Howe.

RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Chantal Farrah said in an email the RCMP couldn’t talk about informants and referenced a Supreme Court ruling.

“Given the broad scope of informer privilege I would have no knowledge of any informant relationship, in this case or any others, nor would the RCMP be able to comment on such a topic,” said Farrah. “The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the importance of protecting this police officer/informant relationship.”

Howe believes that his charges are part of an attempt by the RCMP to get at Elsipogtog War Chief John Levi.

Levi has been charged with obstructing a peace officer. He was charged the same day Howe was arrested. Levi was informed he was being charged at 2 p.m. Thursday during a meeting with his probation officer.

Howe was arrested at 12:34 p.m.

The charges against both men are linked to a protest that occurred on June 21 along Hwy. 126.

The RCMP allege that Levi helped Howe evade arrest during the heated protest.

The RCMP also allege that Levi told protesters to “stand their ground,” according to Levi’s information sheet.

Sgt. Richard Bernard, who arrested Howe Thursday, is the main source of the allegations.

“On the side of the roadway, a man yelled, ‘Bernard you’re going to pay for this,” the information sheet alleges. “Sgt. Bernard looked over and saw a slim built man, with a black ball cap that had the word ‘dad’ on it.”

The information sheet alleges that Bernard tried to arrest the man, but he escaped his grasp and eventually fled in Levi’s truck.

None of these allegations have been proven in court.

“To me the fact Levi was charged (Thursday), an hour and a half after I was charged, suggests an intent to remove a capable man (Levi) from his appointed duties, rather than a desire to uphold the law,” said Howe.

Levi is being held in custody over the weekend for allegedly breaking his probation. He has a scheduled court date Monday.

jbarrera@aptn.ca

@JorgeBarrera

TT: Protesters Gather in Solidarity Against Seismic Testing in N.B.

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Sacred Fire NB

Source: Moncton Times Transcript

TT: Protesters Gather in Solidarity Against Seismic Testing in N.B.

Moncton Times-Transcript: Protesters Gather in Solidarity Against Seismic Testing in N.B.