*** Click HERE for easy to download leaflet and handbills

*** Growing list of Solidarity Actions on Oct 17 and Oct 18
(25+ actions so far including Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Victoria, New York, Lethbridge, Edmonton, Nanaimo, Regina, Toronto, Fort McMurray, Sault Ste. Marie, Six Nations, Saskatoon, Halifax and more) :
http://www.wearepowershift.ca/stand_with_elsipogtog_actions
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AosCZUVjH-UBdF9PakZmNzFDd3RtTzYwM0FxMTlBclE

*** Sign this petition:
http://you.leadnow.ca/petitions/tell-the-rcmp-don-t-violently-intervene-in-peaceful-first-nations-protests

*** Idle No More is requesting people contact the New Brunswick Premier:
Express your concern over the government and RCMP’s actions against the Mi’kmaq.
New Brunswick Premier – David Alward
Email: premier@gnb.ca
Phone: (506) 453-2144
Fax : (506) 453-7407

BACKGROUND:

On the morning of October 17, 2013, approximately 200 RCMP – some dressed in military fatigues and armed with snipers – stormed a Mi’kmaq anti-fracking blockade and camp near Rexton, New Brunswick. Journalist Miles Howe, on site, described the situation as “RCMP having their guns drawn.” RCMP have confirmed at least 40 arrests, with reports of Elsipogtog Chief Arren Sock as well as Mi’kmaq Warriors being targeted. Media reports have also been pouring in of people being tasered, having police dogs set on them, and rubber bullets being fired – including at young children.

According to eye witness Susan Levi-Peters, “There are people who have been tasered…It’s Oka all over again and it’s sad because we said all we need is public consultation…These Warrriors, they are not militant. They are youth and they have had enough…The blockade was being mounted with drums and feathers.”

Since the summer Mi’kmaq residents, as well as anglophone and Acadians, have confiscated fracking equipment and blockaded the road leading to an equipment compound leased to South Western Energy or SWN. SWN is a Texas based energy company that has been attempting to conduct natural gas exploration in the area’s shale formations. If significant deposits of gas are found through seismic testing, SWN would then employ the highly-polluting and water-intensive extraction method of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, to extract natural gas deposits from shale gas formations.

While industry sells fracking as a “green transition fuel,” Robert Howarth from Cornell University, says it clearly: “Shale gas is worse than conventional gas, and is, in fact, worse than coal and worse than oil.” A number of doctors, including the the New Brunswick College of Family Physicians, have called for a moratorium on fracking. Various jurisdictions, including France, Quebec, and New York, currently have moratoriums on fracking.

Last week, Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services, on behalf of and at the request of the Mi’kmaq, hand-delivered a request to SWN Energy’s head office in Houston, Texas. The request was for “all projects, leases, and permits issued to SWN Resources by the Government of New Brunswick come to a halt until all Mi’kmaq-L’nu, and Wabanaki communities, as sovereign individuals are Meaningfully Consulted, and that we are able to come to an informed decision as individuals.”

For extensive reporting on the Mi’kmaq anti-fracking blockade:
http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/author/miles-howe
http://www.submedia.tv/stimulator/2013/10/16/mikmaq_blockade/
https://www.facebook.com/APTNNationalNews

For other anti-fracking struggles:
– Unist’ot’en Camp: http://unistotencamp.com/
– Caleb Behn (Eh Cho Dene and Dunne Za, Treaty 8 Territory) on Fracking in Northeastern BC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMUI_FQfrcA
– Fracking Map Tracker: http://canadians.org/fracking/fracker-tracker
– Overview of Impacts: http://commonsensecanadian.ca/category/energy-2/fracking-2/