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

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.

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!