Elsipogtog First Nation Arrested Blocking Shale Trucks During Sacred Fire

Twelve peo­ple were arrest­ed Fri­day morn­ing by the RCMP [Roy­al Cana­di­an Mount­ed Police] at the site of a sacred fire as part of an on-going protest in New Brunswick over seis­mic test­ing in the area.

RCMP spokes­woman Cpl. Chan­tal Far­rah said the arrests were made because peo­ple were attempt­ing to block trucks and work­ers.

Far­rah said sev­en men and five women were tak­en into cus­tody on Route 126 out­side Monc­ton near Elsi­pog­tog First Nation.

The sacred fire was lit by mem­bers of Elsi­pog­tog on June 11 beside a high­way where seis­mic test­ing vehi­cles are search­ing for shale gas deposits.

Oppo­nents of the explo­ration fear that once the com­pa­ny, SWN Resources Cana­da, finds shale gas, it won’t be long before it employs a con­tro­ver­sial drilling tech­nique called hydraulic frac­tur­ing, bet­ter known as frack­ing, to get at it.

Pho­tos on social media show some of the arrests, includ­ing one that appears to be a man hold­ing a sacred pipe, with his hands in plas­tic cuffs.