N.B. protests and the fight for First Nation Rights
Channel: EKENNYE
Date: 23/10/2013

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"Canada faces crisis over natives' issues: UN"
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/10/22/330650/canada-faces-crisis-over-natives-issues/

Canadian aboriginals and activists have demanded an indefinite stop to fracking operations, following a series of violent clashes against police, a prominent journalist says.


"For the first time in Canadian history...the Mi'kmaqs of New Brunswick and their allies across Canada in Idle No More are putting the option of "No!" on the table, not just "How much money will we get to let the corporations destroy our land?" Canadian journalist Eric Walberg said in an article on Press TV.

Fracking is a method of gas extraction where water is mixed with sand and chemicals and injected at high pressure into a wellbore to create small fractures, yielding natural gas and petroleum. In the process, it pollutes ground water, which now bears toxic chemicals and dangerously high levels of radiation, as well as emitting foul odors.

This is while, a Global Frackdown protest had spread across cities around the world the past weekend, with 'fracktivists' from over 20 countries calling for an end to fracking and "dangerous" shale gas extractions, and demanding action to protect the public.

The use of hydraulic fracturing technique, commonly known as fracking, in gas and oil exploration involves pumping water and chemicals at high pressure into deep rock formations to free oil and gas.

Violent conflicts have also erupted in cities across Canada, including Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa and Thunder Bay, as well as in New York and at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC over the past week, with demonstrators protesting against shale gas exploration on Canada's native lands.


Canada's First Nations are prepared to reclaim all unoccupied Crown Lands in Signigtog District (New Brunswick), said Walberg, adding that "[Mi'kmaq Elsipogtog tribe] Chief Sock issued his own eviction notice, warning the oil and gas company to leave native land."

The Mi'kmaq tribe near Rexton, New Brunswick, has accused the Canadian subsidiary of the American frackers, Southwest Energy, of operating illegally on tribal land.

The prominent journalist also condemned the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his refusal "to resolve simmering treaty disputes with Canada's First Nations...with no effective opposition from the Liberals or New Democrats".

"Instead of opposition party leaders joining the Mi'kmaqs on the barricades in protest, Canadians are left with the impression that natives are violently violating the 'law'. But whose 'law'?" Walberg said.

This is while last week, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples James Anaya blasted Canada for its weak handling of the massive problems facing the country's indigenous people, saying Canada is facing a "crisis" in terms of its treatment of its natives.

The natives complain that various levels of government in Canada have not adequately consulted them before approving the exploitation of the natural resources that lie where indigenous people consider their ancestral land.

"This principled action by New Brunswick natives is being echoed in dozens of other campaigns by native communities across Canada, where natives are stubbornly refusing to be swallowed up by corporate Canada," Walberg concluded.







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