Mi’kmaq Warrior Society Members Beaten in Jail

1st Novem­ber

Two mem­bers of the Mi’kmaq War­rior Soci­ety say they were roughed up and beat­en by RCMP offi­cers and jail guards after they were arrest­ed fol­low­ing a heav­i­ly-armed raid on a Mi’kmaq led anti-frack­ing camp in New Brunswick ear­li­er this month.

Jason Augus­tine, War­rior Soci­ety dis­trict chief, said he was kicked in the head by an RCMP offi­cer after he was cuffed and arrest­ed dur­ing the Oct. 17 raid.

Augus­tine said he was lat­er diag­nosed with a con­cus­sion at the hos­pi­tal in Monc­ton, NB.

“I was kicked in the head three times when I was tak­en down,” said Augus­tine. “I wasn’t resist­ing arrest, I had my hands behind my back, and this one RCMP start­ed bash­ing my head in.”

Augus­tine said he was nod­ding-off while he was held in one of the cells with oth­er war­riors at the Codi­ac RCMP detach­ment in Monc­ton. He claimed his head was hit against the wall as he was being tak­en to the ambu­lance.

“One of the guys called the guards up and said I need­ed an ambu­lance,” said Augus­tine. “The RCMP picked me up, they roughed me up and hit my head against the wall when they were tak­ing me to the hos­pi­tal.”

 

David Maze­rolle, anoth­er War­rior Soci­ety mem­ber, claimed in a YouTube video that Aaron Fran­cis was beat­en while hand­cuffed as he was being tak­en to a cell at the South East Region­al Cor­rec­tion Cen­tre in She­di­ac, NB.

Augus­tine and Maze­rolle, who were released from cus­tody last Fri­day, both said they were denied use of the tele­phone.

Augus­tine said all six of the war­riors kept in cus­tody fol­low­ing the raid were put into soli­tary con­fine­ment.

An offi­cial at the cor­rec­tion cen­tre referred queries on the alle­ga­tions to New Brunswick’s Pub­lic Safe­ty depart­ment. The depart­ment did not return tele­phoned and emailed requests for com­ment.

RCMP spokesper­son Con­st. Jul­lie Rogers-Marsh said she would look into the issue before pro­vid­ing a response.

A total of 40 peo­ple were arrest­ed the day of the raid which spi­ralled into chaos after mem­bers of the Elsi­pog­tog First Nation clashed with police.

The RCMP raid, which includ­ed tac­ti­cal unit mem­bers wear­ing cam­ou­flage and wield­ing assault weapons, freed sev­er­al vehi­cles owned by a Hous­ton-based com­pa­ny doing shale gas explo­ration work in the region. The anti-frack­ing camp was block­ing SWN Resources Canada’s trucks from leav­ing a com­pound in Rex­ton, NB.

Augus­tine and Maze­rolle face sev­er­al charges includ­ing forcible con­fine­ment, mis­chief, assault­ing a peace offi­cer and escap­ing law­ful cus­tody.

Augus­tine also denied RCMP alle­ga­tions that the war­riors forcibly con­fined secu­ri­ty guards employed by Indus­tri­al Secu­ri­ties Ltd in the com­pound hold­ing SWN’s vehi­cles.

Augus­tine said the secu­ri­ty guards were escort­ed by the RCMP at the begin­ning and end of their shifts.

“They were not held unlaw­ful­ly,” he said. “They stayed there until their shift changes.”

Augus­tine also denied RCMP alle­ga­tions that the war­riors uttered death threats or bran­dished weapons at the secu­ri­ty guards.

“There were no death threats, we had nobody in con­fine­ment and we had no weapons,” he said.

The RCMP held a press con­fer­ence fol­low­ing the raid where they dis­played three rifles and ammu­ni­tion seized dur­ing the raid. The RCMP said offi­cers also found crude explo­sive devices.

Augus­tine claimed the guns and explo­sives were plant­ed after the raid.

“I do believe they were plant­ed, they knew we want­ed peace,” said Augus­tine. “They had a one track mind to hurt the war­rior soci­ety.”

Augus­tine said the war­riors were pre­pared to nego­ti­ate the release of SWN’s vehi­cles.

“They kept telling me, ‘we just want the trucks out’ and I said I was going to our War Chief to tell him to get the trucks out,” said Augus­tine.

Augus­tine said he was shot four times by RCMP offi­cers using bean-bag rounds.

He said two RCMP offi­cers pre­sent­ed the war­riors with tobac­co bun­dles the night before the raid.

Augus­tine said his main defence against the charges will be to demand a hear­ing before an inter­na­tion­al court.

“Under our treaty laws we have to go to inter­na­tion­al court,” said Augus­tine. “We can’t be under the Crown because we are not under the Indi­an Act, we are treaty peo­ple.”

Since spring 2013, RCMP in New Brunswick arrest­ed 82 peo­ple in con­nec­tion with anti-frack­ing relat­ed protests