There is some serious shite going down at a fracking protest in Rexton, New Brunswick.

[Are_grits_groceries]

Last edited Thu Oct 17, 2013, 04:04 PM - Edit history (1)

Natives reportedly torch police cruisers at anti-fracking protest in N.B. 43

HALIFAX - A Native anti-fracking protest turned violent Thursday after RCMP moved in to break up a standoff, with protesters hit with rubber bullets and pepper spray and then retaliating by torching cop cars.

Mounties were trying to enforce an Oct. 3 court injunction against the standoff near Rexton, where SWN Resources Canada is testing for shale gas.

Elsipogtog Mi'kmaq First Nation members have been blocking workers access to their trucks.The protesters had been there since Sept. 30."It is a dangerous situation," Const. Jullie Rogers-Kent told QMI Agency.

A video posted online shows protesters cussing at cops and daring them to release their police dogs while others yelled that there were elders and children present. Other videos shows a line of police stretched across Hwy. 11, moving slowly to contain the protest, and protesters washing out their eyes from what appeared to be pepper spray.

Const. Rogers-Kent would not confirm, but tweets and photos from the scene suggest several arrests and at least four police cruisers up in flames.

A moratorium on fracking was recently lifted by the provincial government.

The Native are concerned the fracking — extracting shale gas through fracturing deep underground rock — could damage the environment and contaminate their drinking water.
http://www.torontosun.com/2013/10/17/natives-reportedly-torch-police-cruisers-at-anti-fracking-protest-in-nb

The RCMP came well-armed. Neither side is backing down.

[Bennyboy]

1. Good for them, I wish we had a bit more of that

moxie.

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. The RCMP is moving in and they man-handled the chief.

All hell broke loose.
Several police cars have been torched.

[Bennyboy]

13. Good article, Protectors versus destroyers...

Protectors vs destroyers — Canadians unite to stop fracking in New Brunswick

Sam Koplinka-Loehr
October 14, 2013

Email
Print
Leave a Tip

A community meeting at the encampment in Rexton, New Brunswick. (WNV / Carolyn Gray)

A community meeting at the encampment in Rexton, New Brunswick. (WNV / Carolyn Gray)

For the past two weeks, an unprecedented coalition of Acadians, Anglophones and members of the Elsipogtog First Nation have blockaded a compound in the Canadian town of Rexton, New Brunswick, where trucks and equipment used in the process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, are stored. The company that owns the facility — SWN Resources Canada — has been working all summer to conduct seismic tests as the first step in the fracking process. While the natural gas derived from the drilling would primarily be sold over the border in the United States, the impacts of extraction — namely polluted water and air — would be felt in these communities for generations to come.

In New Brunswick, the provincial government owns all underground mineral and gas rights. The local people have little influence over their own land. In some cases, citizens only receive a written notice within 24 hours of seismic testing and drilling on their land. Realizing their lack of legal power in the decision-making process, impacted landowners began organizing in New Brunswick’s Kent County about three years ago, when shale gas companies moved in to start exploration. Groups like Our Environment, Our Choice and Upriver Environment Watch began educational campaigns — including speaking tours, lobbying the provincial and local governments, and public actions such as a blue ribbon campaign for clean water, where activists tied ribbons along the major roads in the area to publicize the issue.

Denise Vautour, a local Acadian, got involved in the Upriver group after seeing the 2010 anti-fracking documentary Gasland. As a retired medical social worker, Vautour has focused on what she perceives as the immorality of exposing the populous to fracking. While the industry has claimed in local public meetings that fracking fluid is safe enough to drink, Vautour believes they are lying. Beyond the obvious carcinogens in fracking fluid, she has argued that even the best medical reports still need years-worth of evidence before the longterm effects of fracking on human and ecological health can be determined.



http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/protectors-vs-destroyers-canadians-unite-stop-fracking-new-brunswick/

[Cleita]

3. They had some coverage on AlJazeera. Our media? Apparently *crickets*

that I've been able to find. If it happens in Canada or Mexico, I guess it's not newsworthy to our corporate media.

[EvilAL]

4. This is happening in Rexton, New Brunswick,

Not in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/shale-gas-protesters-clash-with-police-in-rexton-n-b-1.2100703

[Are_grits_groceries]

9. Thanks! Corrected. nt

[Downtown Hound]

5. Good. Fucking pigs.

Even if they torched every pigmobile there, it wouldn't even come close to what the cops have done to us in the name of protecting the 1%, I mean, law and order.

[Erose999]

6. Halifax? I wonder if Bubbles is there with his nunchucks?

[Erose999]

7. On a serious note though, I'm glad people in Canada are standing up against Big Oil.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

8. Unfortunately,

Most Canadians are at best indifferent, and the resource extractions supporters are numerous and quite vocal. Many white, suburbanite slobs will condemn the First Nations; it happens every time.

[EvilAL]

10. It's happening already, don't worry

They are calling them terrorists and everything.. Doesn't help when they torch cop cars, but there are white people there as well involved in the protests. Mostly Mi'kmaq natives from Elsipogtog First Nation. I live next to a large reserve and they have blocked traffic to one lane on the bridge going to New Brunswick and they will be meeting to decide what other actions they want to take. I have friends that are in Elsipogtog right now.

[malaise]

11. Freaking wow

Go First nation!!

[pinboy3niner]

12. Meanwhile, in Romania..."Chevron Halts Shale Gas Search After Protests"

Chevron Halts Shale Gas Search After Protests
BUCHAREST, Romania October 17, 2013 (AP)

Chevron said Thursday it has suspended searching for shale gas in northeast Romania following protests in the capital and the local area against fracking.

The company said in a statement its priority was to "conduct these activities in a safe and environmentally responsible manner." It said it had permits to start drilling for shale gas in the village of Pungesti.

The statement came after hundreds of protested Wednesday in a field where Chevron plans to launch its operation, followed by a protest in Bucharest.

...


Local environmentalists say pumping water and chemicals at high pressure into deep rock formations to free oil and gas could contaminate groundwater. Local authorities say they would hold a non-binding referendum on Nov. 24 on whether to allow Chevron to explore for shale.


http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/chevron-halts-shale-gas-search-protests-20599310