UPDATE: Full Invasion Force Arrives at Mi’kmaq Blockade

17th Octo­ber  700 RCMP are cur­rent­ly report­ed at the scene of the Mi’kmaq block­ade with an armored per­son­nel car­ri­er. Talks have failed. Snipers with the RCMP have been seen point­ing their scopes at groups of young sup­port­ers, draw­ing intense crit­i­cism from observers. In a state­ment, one RCMP offi­cer declared, “the Crown land belongs to the gov­ern­ment, not fuck­ing Natives,” reveal­ing the sys­temic con­tempt for treaty rights with First Nations and inter­na­tion­al agree­ments. RCMP are now lined up with riot shields, as the stand­off con­tin­ues to main­tain the block­ade that is cur­rent­ly keep­ing “thumper trucks” from destroy­ing the land in Mik’maq ter­ri­to­ry. Chief Aaron Sock of the Elsli­pog­tog has been released by the RCMP after being arrest­ed while blockad­ing the com­pound of Texas-based SWN Resources. How­ev­er, over 40 Mi’kmaq war­riors remain in cus­tody, as the RCMP con­tin­ue to use pep­per spray, tear gas, and rub­ber bul­lets in attempts to break up the block­ade. Cana­da is clear­ly in vio­la­tion of inter­na­tion­al treaties with this war-like act against a peace­ful nation engaged in law­ful direct action against the theft and destruc­tion of their land by a multi­na­tion­al ener­gy com­pa­ny. Accord­ing to Sub­me­dia, “Dur­ing my short stay [at the two-week-strong block­ade] I’ve wit­nessed the co-oper­a­tion between natives and set­tlers, a part­ner­ship that has kept this block­ade ful­ly stocked and oper­a­tional. Food, wood, hot cof­fee, tents and oth­er sup­plies keep stream­ing all the while SWN berates the police in the media for not arrest­ing the pro­test­ers.” In retal­i­a­tion against the inva­sion, which comes one day before an inter­na­tion­al day of sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Mi’kmaq Block­ade and two days away from a meet­ing set to con­tin­ue peace talks, unknown per­sons have set six RCMP vehi­cles ablaze, hurled stones at the police line, and con­fis­cat­ed frack­ing equip­ment. In relat­ed news, SWN stock hit a sharp decline today on the New York Stock Exchange. As of this time, the RCMP is not let­ting media in. How­ev­er, rein­force­ments con­tin­ue to swell the num­bers of sup­port­ers at the block­ade. The Mi’kmaq have issued a call for con­tin­ued inter­na­tion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty, and for increased sup­port for the block­ade.