Council of Canadians National Chairperson Maude Barlow will travel to the East Coast this weekend to express solidarity with the ongoing protests to stop the seismic testing by Texas-based SWN Resources and to support the demand for the free, prior and informed consent needed on the unceded Mi’kmaq territory that is being defended.
Barlow, along with a delegation of Council of Canadians activists, will be at the Elsipogtog Benefit Concert on Saturday November 30 in Halifax, and then on Sunday December 1 will visit Chief Arren Sock and Warrior Chief John Levi of the Elsipogtog First Nation, and the Laketon and Rexton encampments in Kent County, New Brunswick.
The Council of Canadians fights to protect freshwater sources and campaigns to stop fracking, a natural gas extraction process that uses and pollutes massive volumes of water. The Council is standing in solidarity with community members who are saying “no” to fracking in New Brunswick and elsewhere.
The Council of Canadians has provided materials – including a generator, sleeping bags and tarp – to assist the protest camp in Elsipogtog, helped provide training for non-violent civil disobedience, donated to the bail fund for those who have been arrested maintaining the blockade, and provided a presence at the camp. Numerous Council of Canadians chapter activists have been on the ground to provide daily support to those in the camps, and two of them have been arrested in non-violent protests attempting to stop the thumper trucks from conducting seismic testing.
Maude Barlow will be available for media interviews Sunday.
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