First Nation activists stopped a Stantec engineering firm truck contracted by the fracking company SWN Resources Canada today near the Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick. CBC reports, “Elsipogtog Chief Aaron Sock had said earlier in the day his council does not welcome SWN’s seismic testing in New Brunswick. …SWN Resources Canada (plans to conduct seismic testing for shale gas) in Kent County this summer.”
CBC Radio’s As It Happens covered this story this evening. They note on their website, “It was a short bit of drama that underscores a long-standing complaint. Today, in eastern New Brunswick, First Nations activists took control of a truck belonging to the mining company SWN Resources. They were protesting against the company’s plan to do seismic testing in the area — which could lead to extraction of shale gas, through the controversial practice known as ‘fracking’. Susan Levi-Peters is the former chief of the Elsipogtog First Nation, and she watched the events unfold. We reached her in Elsipogtog, New Brunswick.”
In the interview, Levi-Peters highlights that the company is on their territory (on Highway 116 and 126) and have been told numerous times that the First Nation does not want seismic testing because it is their responsibility to protect Mother Earth, the land and the water. She also notes that the provincial government of New Brunswick has never consulted with her people despite their legal obligation to respect their Treaty. She also said that the government will make criminals of all of us because there is no way that they can allow this fracking to happen.
In the NB Newsmaker interview, John Levi of the Elsipogtog First Nation asks what is against the law, stopping a truck or a company contaminating their water in traditional hunting and medicine grounds through fracking?
For more:
CBC Radio As It Happens interview with Susan Levi-Peters
CBC NB Newsmaker interview with John Levi
Shale gas truck seized by ‘native warriors’ in N.B.
