Category: Action Reports

Icelandic road protest — elves and lava fields, Gálgahraun

Lögreglumenn fjarlægja mótmælendur í Gálgahrauni
21.10.2013
 
A group of pro­test­ers, hop­ing to stop planned road con­struc­tion through a pro­tect­ed lava field, were arrest­ed by police today. A law pro­fes­sor believes that arrest was pre­ma­ture.

As report­ed last month, the con­tro­ver­sy sur­rounds the lava fields of Gál­gahraun, which is locat­ed on the Álf­tanes penin­su­la. Although the fields were offi­cial­ly pro­tect­ed in 2009, con­struc­tion of a new road — Álf­tanesve­g­ar — was green-lit ear­li­er this month, and will in part go through Gál­gahraun.

This has sparked protests that have tak­en the form of direct action, as pro­test­ers put them­selves between the lava fields and con­struc­tion equip­ment, stop­ping devel­op­ment before it could begin.

Today, Vísir reports, police offi­cers moved in on the pro­test­ers, arrest­ing them, car­ry­ing some of them phys­i­cal­ly away from the site of con­struc­tion.

Among those arrest­ed was not­ed jour­nal­ist and envi­ron­men­tal­ist Ómar Rag­nars­son, as can be seen in this video.

Law pro­fes­sor Sig­urður Lín­dal told Vísir that he believes no arrests should have hap­pened before a court of law has decid­ed whether or not build­ing a road through a pro­tect­ed lava field is even legal.

“It is com­plete­ly nat­ur­al that [author­i­ties] wait for a court deci­sion first,” dis­trict court lawyer Katrín Odd­s­dót­tir said. “I admire peo­ple who stand up for this. Peo­ple should be able to sub­mit such mat­ters before a court of law to have con­firmed whether oper­a­tions that threat­en nature are legal.”

 
More pho­tos
Project cor­rup­tion back­ground
Over to the elves

200 Beagles Liberated! Historic Night in Brazil

beagles119th Octo­ber “An anti-vivi­sec­tion protest out­side the Roy­al Insti­tute in the city of São Roque began with a few dozen peo­ple on Thurs­day, Octo­ber 17 and dur­ing the night grew to at least 100 peo­ple.

beagles119th Octo­ber “An anti-vivi­sec­tion protest out­side the Roy­al Insti­tute in the city of São Roque began with a few dozen peo­ple on Thurs­day, Octo­ber 17 and dur­ing the night grew to at least 100 peo­ple. At 2:00 ear­ly Fri­day morn­ing, activists stormed the com­plex and went straight for the ken­nels. As many as 200 dogs were res­cued.”

 

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Solidarity Protests and Blockades Ignite Across Turtle Island in Solidarity with Mi’kmaq

photo of yesterday's solidarity blockade at Esgenoopetitj18th Octo­ber

photo of yesterday's solidarity blockade at Esgenoopetitj18th Octo­ber

The RCMP retreat from the Mi’qmak block­ade has not stemmed the out­rage against the Cana­di­an government’s ruth­less attack yes­ter­day on the peace­ful Mi’qmak block­ade. As South­west­ern Ener­gy attempts to extend the injunc­tion against the Mi’qmak, sol­i­dar­i­ty protests are spread­ing through­out Tur­tle Island.

Numer­ous infra­struc­ture points through­out Cana­da were snarled by indige­nous block­ades in the imme­di­ate after­math of the state inva­sion of the Mi’qmak. At least 30 sol­i­dar­i­ty protests are also being under­tak­en accord­ing to Idle No More.

Accord­ing to San­ta Cruz Indige­nous Sol­i­dar­i­ty, by 3pm yes­ter­day six peace­ful high­way and bridge block­ades had been errect­ed at Roads in Burnt Church (NB), Tobique (NB), Esgenoopetitj (NB), Hamil­ton (ON) and Six Nations (ON).

The Lis­tuguj Mi’Gmaq built a tipi on the Van­Horne bridge, block­ing traf­fic on the Que­bec-New Brunswick bor­der.

In Win­nipeg, pro­tes­tors tied up traf­fic at the inter­sec­tion of Portage and Main, burn­ing a Cana­di­an flag to protest against the Crown’s his­toric betray­al of First Nations treaty rights. Police appeared to be clear­ing the way for the march, halt­ing traf­fic at numer­ous points.

In Mon­tre­al, mem­bers of the Mohawk nation gath­ered to show sol­i­dar­i­ty. Dur­ing the RCMP crack­down on the Mi’kmaq Block­ade, many observers com­pared the state’s repres­sive response to the 1990 Oka Cri­sis, which saw the Mohawk resist devel­op­ment on their lands for months.

New York, Wash­ing­ton, DC, and numer­ous oth­er cities across the US have also seen sol­i­dar­i­ty demon­stra­tions.

There is a call for sol­i­dar­i­ty for today and tomor­row, which hap­pens to be an inter­na­tion­al day of action against frack­ing (the #glob­al­frack­down http://www.globalfrackdown.org/). The day of sol­i­dar­i­ty will use the hash tag #INDIGENIZE, with orga­niz­ers send­ing report backs and media updates to Reclaim­TurtleIs­land [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Mi’kmaq Blockade Update: RCMP Has Withdrawn, Resistance Continues

946395_10153342098695417_350941597_n18th Octo­ber by Trash­fire / Earth First! News

946395_10153342098695417_350941597_n18th Octo­ber by Trash­fire / Earth First! News

After a day of clash­es yes­ter­day, the police with­drew around 7pm to cheers from the crowd.

40 peo­ple are report­ed arrest­ed and 5 police vehi­cles were burned.

No One Is Ille­gal reports these lists of sol­i­dar­i­ty actions – Google Docs

Pow­er­shift Cana­da

Yes­ter­day saw many emer­gency sol­i­dar­i­ty actions includ­ing a major through­way being shut­down in Win­nipeg.

Today is a day of action called for by the Mi’kmaq ear­li­er this week.

Tomor­row is anoth­er day of action against frack­ing orga­nized under the ban­ner Glob­al Frack­down.

 

There has also been a request that sup­port­ers call the pre­mier of New Brunswick to express con­cerns over the RCMP’s actions against the Mi’kmaq – .New Brunswick Pre­mier – David Alward
Email: premier@gnb.ca
Phone: (506) 453‑2144
Fax : (506) 453‑7407

Charges for those arrest­ed includ­ed firearms offences, utter­ing threats, intim­i­da­tion, mis­chief and for refus­ing to abide by a court injunc­tion.

The pro­test­ers arrest­ed were tak­en to three dif­fer­ent com­mu­ni­ties where they are expect­ed in court Fri­day morn­ing around 9:30 to face charges. Police spread the arrest­ed pro­test­ers out in an effort to pre­vent the cour­t­hous­es being over­whelmed by protest sup­port­ers dur­ing the arraign­ments.GAMW1AP

Chief Aaron Sock was among those arrest­ed in the clash. He and a few of his band coun­cil mem­bers were released a few hours after their arrests.

Sock is the leader of the band that has been blockad­ing Route 134 near Rex­ton since Sept. 30.

On Oct. 1, Sock issued an evic­tion notice to SWN Resources of Cana­da. His band and his band coun­cil planned to pass a res­o­lu­tion pre­vent­ing the gov­ern­ment and shale gas com­pa­nies from con­tin­u­ing their work by reclaim­ing all unoc­cu­pied reserve land and giv­ing it back to First Nations.ZNAmSQ1

The road between Rex­ton and High­way 11 has been the scene of the protest, involv­ing a coali­tion of natives and non-natives opposed to shale gas explo­ration.

Pro­test­ers moved into the area on Sept. 30, ini­tial­ly estab­lish­ing a bar­ri­cade to the stag­ing area used by SWN Resources Cana­da to park its explo­ration vehi­cles and equip­ment.

The protest pro­gressed to the point where bar­ri­cades were also estab­lished on the road, pre­vent­ing traf­fic from going through.

SWN Resources went to the Court of Queen’s Bench and suc­cess­ful­ly sought an injunc­tion to end the protest.

Dur­ing a hear­ing, court was told SWN Resources is los­ing $60,000 every day its seis­mic explo­ration trucks remain block­ad­ed in the com­pound off Route 134.

Let's watch that shit again #elsipogtog #mikmaqblockade ... on Twitpic

Video by the Stim­u­la­tor (click for video) and @stimulator on for up to the minute updates

 

Romanian Villagers 3‑day Occupation Forces Chevron to Stop Fracking

pungesti_vaslui_2_5505350018th Octo­ber

pungesti_vaslui_2_5505350018th Octo­ber

US ener­gy giant Chevron said Thurs­day it has sus­pend­ed shale gas test drilling in north­east­ern Roma­nia after three days of protests by vil­lagers opposed to frack­ing.

“Chevron can today con­firm it has sus­pend­ed activ­i­ties in Silis­tea, Pungesti com­mune, Vaslui coun­ty,” a press release read.

The move comes a day after Roman­ian police clashed with vil­lagers who have occu­pied since Mon­day a field to pre­vent Chevron from drilling its first explo­ration well.

The pro­test­ers are afraid of the envi­ron­men­tal and health impact of the high­ly con­tro­ver­sial drilling method used to unlock shale gas, called hydraulic frac­tur­ing or ‘frack­ing’.

The tech­nique con­sists of pump­ing water and chem­i­cals at high pres­sure into deep rock for­ma­tions to free oil and gas, with envi­ron­men­tal­ists warn­ing the process may con­t­a­m­i­nate ground water and even cause small earth­quakes.

Chevron has per­mits to explore for shale gas in three vil­lages in this impov­er­ished part of north­east­ern Roma­nia as well as on Romania’s Black Sea coast.

“Our pri­or­i­ty is to con­duct … activ­i­ties in a safe and envi­ron­men­tal­ly respon­si­ble man­ner con­sis­tent with the per­mits under which we oper­ate,” the group said Wednes­day.

No Dash for Gas Protestors Have Sentences Quashed

Activists occupy 300ft chimneys at the West Burton power station - video

Activists occupy 300ft chimneys at the West Burton power station - video

18th Octo­ber from No Dash for Gas

Six activists out of 21 who shut down EDF’s West Bur­ton Gas pow­er sta­tion last year walked free from Not­ting­ham Crown Court today, tak­ing the total num­ber of those giv­en con­di­tion­al dis­charges to eleven. Lawrence Carter, Han­nah Dav­ey, Alis­tair Can­nell, Anea­ka Kel­lay, Ewa Jasiewicz, and David Shake­speare had their sen­tences for Aggra­vat­ed Tres­pass over­turned on appeal.

All six had been sen­tenced to 150 hours com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice. None had any pre­vi­ous con­vic­tions.

Five pro­test­ers received con­di­tion­al dis­charges in June when the 21 ini­tial­ly appeared at Not­ting­ham Mag­is­trates Court.

The con­vic­tions had been for tak­ing part in the UK’s longest ever pow­er sta­tion protest which last­ed eight days from Octo­ber 29th – Novem­ber 5th of last year.

The pro­test­ers, all from the group No Dash for Gas, had camped up two 80 meter Chim­ney flues for a week in protest at gov­ern­ment plans to build up to 40 new gas pow­er sta­tions and make the UK reliant on gas for the next 30 years.

The group argues that the ‘dash for gas’ which also includes drilling for shale gas will exac­er­bate cli­mate change, crash the UK’s legal oblig­a­tions to cut car­bon emis­sions and keep mil­lions stuck in crip­pling fuel pover­ty.

EDF sued the group for £5million dam­ages but were forced to drop their claim after wide­spread protest, loss of cus­tomers and a suc­cess­ful social media cam­paign which saw 64,000 peo­ple sign a peti­tion in sup­port of the group in less than four weeks.

The remain­ing ten pro­test­ers from the group chose not to pur­sue an appeal on legal advice.

Ewa Jasiewicz said ‘This is yet anoth­er vic­to­ry for civ­il dis­obe­di­ence in defence of our cli­mate and against fuel pover­ty. As ener­gy com­pa­nies ramp up their prices and mil­lions turn to food­banks and suf­fer cold homes and win­ter deaths, we believe anoth­er ener­gy sys­tem is pos­si­ble – one that val­ues peo­ple and plan­et over prof­it. One that is demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly con­trolled and based on sus­tain­able, clean ener­gy. Both are not just pos­si­ble, they are vital if we want to avoid cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mate change and ensure not just real ener­gy secu­ri­ty, but social and eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty for all’.

David Shake­speare said ‘Direct action is a vital part of cre­at­ing social change – this is why, after peti­tions, let­ters and all oth­er means failed, we took a stand and shut down the first of up to 40 new gas pow­er sta­tions last year. Whether it’s pro­tect­ing the Arc­tic, camp­ing against Frack­ing or occu­py­ing pow­er sta­tions, all these acts of prin­ci­pled protest are part of a move­ment that is act­ing to safe­guard the future of gen­er­a­tions to come. We need to keep the pres­sure up until gov­ern­ments act in the pub­lic inter­est’.

Blockade Against Monsanto in Argentina Enters Second Month

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1malvinas

18th Octo­ber from Rev­o­lu­tion News

Today is day 28th of the block­ade against Mon­san­to in Malv­inas, Argenti­na and around 50 pro­tes­tors camp­ing there have no inten­tions of going home any time soon. Cit­i­zens are mak­ing them­selves at home near the main entrance of the new Mon­san­to plant cur­rent­ly under con­struc­tion.

They are camp­ing out indef­i­nite­ly to protest the new GMO seed pro­cess­ing plant which is sched­uled to open for busi­ness in 2014. Rev­o­lu­tion News spoke with activist Celi­na Moli­na from Asam­blea Malv­inas Lucha por Vida who said sim­ply, “We do not want Mon­san­to to install the 2nd largest GMO seed pro­cess­ing plant of Latin Amer­i­ca in our city.”

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The plans for Monsanto’s new plant show future con­struc­tion of 240 silos for stor­age of chem­i­cal­ly treat­ed GMO corn. The silos have fans that are required to ven­ti­late the shafts. GMO corn in an enclosed area tends to rub togeth­er and pro­duce chem­i­cal dust which explodes with­out prop­er ven­ti­la­tion. Peo­ple there fear that when Mon­san­to switch­es on the fans the local town of Malv­inas will be engulfed in a cloud of chem­i­cal dust.

Mon­san­to has already done enough health dam­age to cit­i­zens of Argenti­na. They have wit­nessed the long term effects of expo­sure to Roundup for the past decade. Epi­demi­o­log­i­cal sur­veys were con­duct­ed 2001–2002 in areas heav­i­ly fumi­gat­ed with Mon­san­to Roundup her­bi­cide. Results of the sur­veys showed alarm­ing­ly high rates of birth defects and mal­for­ma­tions in chil­dren, can­cer clus­ters and mis­car­riage rates 100 times high­er than the nation­al aver­age. The onset of sky­rock­et­ing health issues in Argenti­na coin­cides direct­ly with the rise of soya cul­ti­va­tion and spray­ing of her­bi­cides near pop­u­lat­ed areas. Pro­fes­sor Andres Car­ras­co, Direc­tor of Mol­e­c­u­lar Embry­ol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Buenos Aires con­duct­ed lab­o­ra­to­ry stud­ies link­ing local health issues to Glyphosate, the active ingre­di­ent in Monsanto’s her­bi­cide Roundup.

Mon­san­to has a ter­ri­ble track record in Argenti­na and the cit­i­zens of Malv­inas are not going to allow fur­ther expan­sion for the agro­chem­i­cal giant with­out a fight. Videos of police repres­sion of peace­ful pro­tes­tors on Sep­tem­ber 30, 2013 cir­cu­lat­ed online. Sofia Gat­i­ca, spokes­woman for Madres de Ituzain­go Anexo was injured dur­ing the clash­es with police. Videos of the repres­sion have since cir­cu­lat­ed online and more peo­ple are arriv­ing at the con­struc­tion site every­day to join the block­ade.

Birth defects found in child born in barrio Ituzaingo Anexo.

Birth defects found in child born in bar­rio Ituzain­go Anexo.

Mon­san­to – Argenti­na

Time­line

1996 – Soya crops first intro­duced to Argenti­na along with Mon­san­to Roundup her­bi­cides

2001 – Res­i­dents of Ituzain­go Anexo start­ed notic­ing health irreg­u­lar­i­ties in their neigh­bor­hoods and began their own epi­demi­o­log­i­cal sur­veys

2002 – Results of sur­veys were alarm­ing: can­cer clus­ters, high rate of mal­for­ma­tions and birth defects, mis­car­riages 100 times high­er than the nation­al aver­age. Pro­fes­sor Andres Car­ras­co (Direc­tor of Mol­e­c­u­lar Embry­ol­o­gy U. of Buenos Aires) per­forms lab stud­ies link­ing health prob­lems with expo­sure to Glyphosate (the active ingre­di­ent in Mon­san­to Roundup). Local moth­ers formed activist group “Madres de Ituzain­go” and protests began.

Also in 2002, Argenti­na default­ed on it’s for­eign debt, coun­try was in a state of eco­nom­ic upheaval & riots ensued

2004 – First for­mal crim­i­nal com­plaint against local farmer & aero­fu­mi­ga­tion pilot, Par­ra, was filed for ille­gal pol­lu­tion

2008 – Com­plaint filed against Pan­cel­lo (anoth­er local farmer & aero­fu­mi­ga­tion pilot) for ille­gal pol­lu­tion

2011 – Com­plaints from 2004 & 2008 are com­bined and a tri­al date is sched­uled.

June 11, 2012 – Crim­i­nal tri­al against Par­ra & Pan­cel­lo began

June 15, 2012 – Pres­i­dent Cristi­na Fer­nán­dez de Kirch­n­er announced arrival of a new Mon­san­to plant to be built in Malv­inas, Argenti­na. It will be the largest Mon­san­to plant in Latin Amer­i­ca

July 2012 – Activist group “Asam­blea Malv­inas Lucha por Vida is formed”. Protests against new Mon­san­to plant con­struc­tion began.

August 22, 2012 – Land­mark ver­dict in crim­i­nal case against Par­ra and Pan­cel­lo – both farm­ers are found guilty of ille­gal pol­lu­tion and giv­en 3 year sus­pend­ed sen­tences. Both are giv­en com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice and banned from work­ing with agro­chem­i­cals for 10 years but nei­ther will serve jail time.

2012 – 2013 – Cit­i­zens begin to take legal action against Mon­san­to thanks to Par­ra & Pan­cel­lo case. No com­pen­sa­tion is offered to fam­i­lies of vic­tims affect­ed by con­t­a­m­i­na­tion. Protests against Mon­san­to con­tin­ue.

Sep­tem­ber 18, 2013 – Block­ade in front of new Mon­san­to plant entrance in Malv­inas begins.

Sep­tem­ber 30, 2013 – Videos of police repres­sion at Malv­inas cir­cu­late online, local well-known activist, Sofia Gat­i­ca is injured on cam­era by police.

Cur­rent – Block­ade ongo­ing

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UPDATE: Full Invasion Force Arrives at Mi’kmaq Blockade

Screen Shot 2013-10-17 at 12.44.31 PM17th Octo­ber  700 RCMP are cur­rent­ly report­ed at the scene of the Mi’kmaq block­ade with an armored pe

Screen Shot 2013-10-17 at 12.44.31 PM17th 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. 1379310_242702739212593_1480884763_n 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.

Mi’kmaq Resist! 6 RCMP Cars Torched, Fracking Equipment Confiscated

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Pho­to by Ossie Michel

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Pho­to by Ossie Miche­lin

17th Octo­ber

In retal­i­a­tion against a vio­lent police raid this morn­ing on a peace­ful First Nations block­ade, Mi’kmaq war­riors and sup­port­ers have fought back.

The RCMP appear to have arrest­ed jour­nal­ist Miles Howe, who has been report­ing on the Elsi­pog­tog strug­gle against the ille­gal gas grab on indige­nous lands. More than 200 RCMP are par­tic­i­pat­ing in the raid, includ­ing snipers in fatigues. Ambu­lances have been pre­vent­ed from treat­ing pro­tes­tors wound­ed by pep­per spray, plas­tic bul­lets, and gen­er­al bru­tal­i­ty.

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As of the time of writ­ing this, six RCMP vehi­cles have been torched, and melees of stones have been hurled in response to tear gas, plas­tic bul­lets, and pep­per spray from the RCMP (update: it is being claimed that the fires were start­ed by an agent provo­ca­teur). Mi’kmaq allies have also con­fis­cat­ed frack­ing equip­ment in con­tin­ued efforts to main­tain the block­ade against the gas com­pa­ny.

Block­ades are report­ed­ly spring­ing up else­where through­out Mi’kmaq ter­ri­to­ry, as news has spread of police bru­tal­i­ty and unnec­es­sary use of force against peace­ful pro­tes­tors, includ­ing elders and chil­dren. Idle No More’s twit­ter account has called on all the Sacred Fires of the World, and sol­i­dar­i­ty demos in DC, NYC, Van­cou­ver, BC, and Win­nipeg have already been announced.

The Mi’kmaq Block­ade has cost the gas com­pa­ny an esti­mat­ed $50,000 per day, and has been ongo­ing for two weeks. Today’s crack down is a direct betray­al of a peace process ongo­ing between the Elsi­pog­tog and the New Brunswick pre­mier, and a vio­la­tion of the rights of Indige­nous Peo­ples as accord­ing to the UN. The gov­ern­ment of Cana­da has insti­gat­ed a major diplo­mat­ic inci­dent, and glob­al sol­i­dar­i­ty is com­ing in from coun­tries around the world.

The whole world is watch­ing!

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Tense Standoff at Elsipogtog Blockade, Molotovs Thrown

Image from Twitter

Image from Twitter17th Octo­ber from Earth First! Newswire

A tense stand off is ongo­ing between 200 RCMP, Mi’kmaq block­aders, and about 200 sup­port­ers. Accord­ing to the Stim­u­la­tor, the chief and trib­al coun­cil per­son­al­ly block­ad­ed gas com­pa­ny trucks behind bar­ri­cades. Pro­test­ers have hurled rocks and a cor­po­rate news tri­pod at the RCMP. At the moment, RCMP are mak­ing mass arrests, SWN vehi­cles appear to be rolling out of the com­pound, and six RCMP vehi­cles have been set ablaze.

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Molo­tov cock­tails were thrown from the woods ear­li­er this morn­ing in defense of the land and peo­ples. The RCMP, some with long rifles, entered the woods. Shots were fired, and scream­ing was heard. There is an uncon­firmed report that activist Steven Gould has been shot. (UPDATE: We are now receiv­ing reports that less-than-lethal rounds have been fired at sup­port­ers, as well as tear gas. Pep­per spray has been deployed against sup­port­ers attempt­ing to get through police lines. The RCMP is cur­rent­ly unload­ing riot gear.)

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Sup­port­ers broke through police lines to join the Mi’kmaq (video here). The RCMP have erect­ed a bar­ri­er on one side of the block­ade, and appear to have the block­ade sur­round­ed. More peo­ple are com­ing to sup­port with food and water.

Sol­i­dar­i­ty block­ades have sprung up else­where in the Mi’kmaq ter­ri­to­ry. There are sol­i­dar­i­ty actions planned at the Cana­di­an Con­sulate in NYC at 5pm and the Cana­di­an Embassy in DC, as well as Van­cou­ver and Win­nipeg.

As of time of writ­ing, arrests have been made, and there is at least one report of police bru­tal­i­ty against Mi’kmaq war­rior Suzanne Patles, an Ilnu woman and mem­ber of the Mi’kmaq War­rior Soci­ety. (UPDATE: It appears that mass arrests are cur­rent­ly being made.)

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Accord­ing to the New Brunswick, Anglo­phone North School Dis­trict, the RCMP did not noti­fy them of the raid as is legal­ly required. Schools are cur­rent­ly on lock-down.

The Mi’kmaq are blockad­ing High­way 132 near Rex­ton to halt the activ­i­ty on the com­pound belong­ing to a gas com­pa­ny, SWN Resources Cana­da. SWN Resources has been ille­gal­ly try­ing to frack the land of the Elsi­pog­tog for months, and the tribe has been joined by oth­er tribes of the Mi’kmaq and Wabana­ki Con­fed­er­a­cy peo­ples in attempts to take direct action against the gas com­pa­ny.

epsilogtogfirecarAccord­ing to Ellen Gabriel of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation, “Forcible removal of Mi’kmaq on their tra­di­tion­al lands, [is] an ille­gal act by Police who should not enforce.”

Last week, a Cana­di­an judge issued an injunc­tion against the block­ade, but the Elsi­pog­tog have sought peace­ful nego­ti­a­tion. Today’s raid must be seen as a pre­emp­tive action to pre­vent the Octo­ber 18 day of action from tak­ing place, which was called by the Mi’kmaq War­riors Soci­ety for phys­i­cal sup­port of the SWN block­ade.

The demands of the War­riors Soci­ety are the fol­low­ing:

  1. Pro­duce all Bills of Sales, Sold, Ced­ed, Grant­ed and Extin­guished Lands for New Brunswick.
  2. Pro­duce doc­u­ments prov­ing Cabot’s Doc­trine of Dis­cov­ery.
  3. Pro­duce the Treaty of Peace and Friend­ship 1686.
  4. Pro­duce Treaty of Fort Howe 1768.
  5. Pro­duce con­sents for Loy­al­ists to land in Nova Scotia/New Brunswick.
  6. Pro­duce records of Town­ships cre­at­ed and con­sents by Chiefs to allow this.
  7. Pro­duce agree­ments or con­sents by all New Brunswick Chiefs who agreed to Con­fer­era­tion of 1867.
  8. Pro­duce evi­dence of con­sents to The Indi­an Act by all Native Tribes.
  9. Pro­duce records of Trust Funds.
  10. Pro­duce agree­ments for 4% of all min­er­al shares of fin­ished prod­ucts in Cana­da, except coal.
  11. Pro­duce all cor­re­spon­dence let­ters per­tain­ing to Num­bered Treaties (Promis­es).
  12. Pro­duce all doc­u­ments cre­at­ing bor­der divi­sions, that divide the Wabana­ki con­fed­er­a­cy.
  13. Pro­duce the Orders from the Lords of Trade to the Gov­er­nor of the Colonies.