Escalating Anti-Fracking Standoff in New Brunswick

Members of the Mi'gmaw Warriors Society light fires at a road blockade designed to prevent exit of "thumpers" used in pre-fracking seismic testing30th Sep­tem­ber, An ongo­ing stand­off con­tin­ues to esca­late between

Members of the Mi'gmaw Warriors Society light fires at a road blockade designed to prevent exit of "thumpers" used in pre-fracking seismic testing30th Sep­tem­ber, An ongo­ing stand­off con­tin­ues to esca­late between anti-frack­ing activists and police in Kent Coun­ty, New Brunswick, Cana­da.

From Hal­i­fax Media Coop:

CMP have cur­rent­ly closed off auto­mo­bile access to the Irv­ing-owned com­pound that hous­es five of SWN Resource Canada’s seis­mic test­ing trucks, or ‘thumpers’. The police have closed off both north and south exits to high­way 134 off the high­way 11, as well as the 134 itself in both direc­tions. Walk-in access to the com­pound is cur­rent­ly the only way in and out.

Seis­mic test­ing is the pre­cur­sor to hydraulic frac­tur­ing [frack­ing].

Police aggres­sion has already result­ed in friv­o­lous arrests and even injuries to the pro­test­ers who have con­verged on the site. The pro­test­ers have respond­ed by set­ting up their own block­ade:

Mem­bers of the Mi’gmaw War­riors Soci­ety, an inde­pen­dent­ly-run group that self-describe them­selves as a ‘Home­land Secu­ri­ty’ force, have felled sev­er­al pine trees and are in the process of light­ing fires along the high­way. One van and numer­ous pine trees now also block access to the Irv­ing-owned, gat­ed com­pound that cur­rent­ly hous­es five of SWN Resources Canada’s seis­mic test­ing trucks, or ‘thumpers’. The thumpers are per­ceived by the activists to be a key piece of SWN’s equip­ment, with­out which the Texas-based gas giant will be unable to con­tin­ue seis­mic test­ing in New Brunswick.

Read the full articles here:

Break­ing: More Arrests at Ongo­ing New Brunswick Anti-Frack­ing Stand-Off

Cop Block Turns to Road Block