Anti-fracking protesters say report won’t lessen their resolve

Amanda Polchies, in a famous image from the 2013 shale gas protests in Kent County. (CBC)

‘Are you kidding, are we up to do it again?’ says protester

CBC News, Feb 26, 2016

People involved in the Kent County anti-fracking protests of 2013 were watching the announcement of Friday’s shale gas report closely.

Dozens of people from First Nations and nearby communities in Kent County took part in barricades to block exploration equipment in the area.

Fracking returning to NB after firing of top doctor, says provincial NDP

Two of six police vehicles torched, Oct 17, Mi’kmaq territory, 2013.

by APTN National News, December 7, 2015
New Brunswick’s top doctor was fired by the provincial Liberal government to clear the way for the lifting of a moratorium on shale gas exploration this spring, according to the leader of the provincial NDP.

Provincial NDP leader Dominic Cardy says a senior government source told him Eilish Cleary, New Brunswick’s now-fired chief medical officer, would stand in the way of a government decision to lift the moratorium.

Fracking-induced earthquakes could leave workers vulnerable, says geophysicist

A fracking drill in BC’s Horn River Basin (Two Island Films).

Seismic scientist David Eaton says Canada’s fracking-induced quakes are the biggest in the world

By Betsy Trumpener, CBC News, Aug 27, 2015
A leading seismic scientist says B.C.’s energy infrastructure and gasfield workers may be vulnerable to earthquakes caused by fracking.

Earthquakes triggered by fracking have been felt in Fort Nelson and Fort St. John, but University of Calgary geophysicist David Eaton says the shaking is strongest in remote areas near fracking sites.

Documents reveal Indian Act chiefs colalboration during 2013 New Brunswick anti-fracking protests

Mi’kmaq face RCMP riot cops on Oct 17, 2013, near Elsipogtog, NB.

Internal documents show repeated Warrior Society requests for negotiating assistance denied

by Miles Howe, Halifax Media Coop, July 29, 2015

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) — An Access to Information request has revealed that during the course of anti-shale gas protests in New Brunswick in 2013, 5th Canadian Division Support Base (CDSB) Gagetown, Eastern Canada’s largest military facility, was contacted on two separate occasions by high ranking members of the Mi’kmaq Warrior Society. On each occasion, the Warrior Society – one of the key strategic groups involved in the on-the-ground protests that would ultimately see 100 activists arrested – requested negotiators from the Canadian Armed Forces, citing a breakdown in trust and an increasingly toxic working relationship with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

New Brunswick moratorium on fracking has 5 conditions, including consulting First Nations

Women warriors at a tire fire blockade on Hwy 11, Dec 2, 2013.

by APTN National News, Dec 18, 2014

FREDERICTON – The New Brunswick government is introducing a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing that the premier says won’t be lifted until five conditions are met.

Those conditions include a process to consult with First Nations, a plan for wastewater disposal and credible information about the impacts fracking has on health, water and the environment, Brian Gallant said Thursday.

“We have been clear from Day One that we will impose a moratorium until risks to the environment, health and water are understood,” Gallant told a news conference in Fredericton.

Hundreds of complaints filed against RCMP after Elsipogtog fracking blockade

Some police “impartiality”; Mi’kmaq warriorPaul “Soda Pop” Francis assaulted by RCMP, Dec 2, 2013.

Trina Roache, APTN National News, Oct 16, 2014
The RCMP’s watchdog is looking into hundreds of complaints stemming from protests against fracking in New Brunswick late last year. The Mi’kmaq led the fight was against provincial government sanctioned shale gas exploration by SWN Resources Canada.

Calls to the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP started to roll in as far back as July, 2013. And when the RCMP raided a Mi’kmaq Warrior camp on the morning of Oct. 17, it triggered violent clashes with police. By the end of the day, RCMP snipers in camouflage with rifles were hiding in the tall grass, 40 people were arrested and six police cars were set on fire.

RCMP watchdog reviews police handling of shale gas protests

Colonial terrorism: RCMP Tactical Armoured Vehicle lurks in the background behind “Tactical Troop” riot cops, Oct 17, 2013.

Dozens of anti-shale gas protesters were arrested during months of protests in Kent County

CBC News, Posted: Oct 14, 2014

The independent Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP is investigating complaints about police conduct during the shale gas protests in Kent County.

Commission staff members are in New Brunswick as a part of the watchdog agency’s investigation, which was prompted following the violent clashes between the RCMP and anti-shale gas protesters in eastern New Brunswick last year.

A Close Look at Two Jailed Mi’kmaq Warriors Who Protested Big Oil in New Brunswick

Germaine Breau looks on during the RCMP raid of Oct 17, 2013, when he was arrested.

By Miles Howe, Vice,  Aug 5 2014

On Tuesday, July 29^th, after over nine months in custody and an extended trial which took place over the course of several months, Mi’kmaq Warrior Society members Germaine ‘Junior’ Breau and Aaron Francis were finally sentenced for their involvement in an RCMP raid of an anti-shale gas encampment near Rexton, New Brunswick in October last year.

Elsipogtog man says RCMP officers visited home with questions about Facebook comment

Brian Milliea of Elsipogtog.

Jorge Barrera, APTN National News, Aug. 1, 2014
A man from the Mi’kmaq community at the centre of intense anti-shale gas protests says he was visited Wednesday by two plain clothes RCMP officers who were asking questions about a Facebook post calling for a protest on New Brunswick Day.

Brian Milliea, a Mi’kmaq man from Elsipogtog First Nation, said the two officers showed up at his house at about 2 p.m. looking for him. Milliea was in his office at the Elsipogtog forestry department when he received a phone call from his wife saying two men wanted to speak with him. Milliea rushed home to find the two officers waiting for him.

Shale gas protesters sentenced to 15 months for violent clash with RCMP

Aaron Francis (right) and Germain Junior Breau (left).

Germain Junior Breau and Aaron Francis convicted of several charges tied to protest near Rexton, N.B

CBC News,  July 29, 2014

Two anti-shale gas protesters have been sentenced to 15 months in jail in connection to a violent clash with police near Rexton, N.B., last fall.

Germain Junior Breau, 21, of Upper Rexton, N.B., and Aaron Francis, 20, of Eskasoni, N.S., were sentenced in Moncton provincial court on Tuesday on several charges.

Judge R. Leslie Jackson gave Breau 423 days of credit for the 282 days he has already spent in custody. That means he has about a month left to serve in his sentence.