First Nations Light Sacred Fire to Protest Fracking in New Brunswick, 12 Arrests Made

After several days of silent protest, prayer blockades and arrests, First Nations in New Brunswick are gathering support around the embers of a sacred fire. The fire, set to burn for four days near the junction of highways 126 and 116 west, is meant to symbolize a new boundary for fracking in the area, reports the Halifax Media Co-op.

Organized by the Mi’kmaq people in the New Brunswick community of Elsipogtog, the fire and gathering have impeded seismic trucks or “thumpers” believed to signal the beginning of shale gas fracking in the area. The region is currently under lease to SWN Resources.

Elsipogtog war chief John Levi told Miles Howe of the Halifax Media Co-op, “We’re not going to let them pass. This is the reason why we’ve set up.”

The peaceful gathering was recently broken up by a line of police officers, caputred in this video released today:

Twelve arrests took place early this morning during a sunrise ceremony.

David Alward, Premier of New Brunswick, has repeatedly promised that New Brunswick will have the strictest regulations in North America when it comes to shale gas exploration.

Yet Dr. Eilish Cleary, New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health, told CBC news that the provincial government will not be implementing her principal recommendations for rules to protect human health.

Last Fall Dr. Cleary presented an 82 page report containing her recommendations for regulations to protect the health of New Brunswick’s citizens to the provincial government. While the provincial government has adopted some recommendations, such as the disclosure of the chemicals used in the fracturing process, the province has ignored a number of other recommendations.

Most strikingly, the province’s regulations exclude Dr. Cleary’s recommendation for project-by-project health-impact assessments as well as her recommendation for ongoing assessments of the adverse effects that the industry may cause. Not only has the province neglected to included these recommendations, it is possible that the public health office may not receive sufficient funding to carry out such research on its own.

Fracking has had a strange courtship with New Brunswick. New Brunswickers have been protesting for more than a year against the controversial method for extracting shale gas by blocking roads, gathering in front of the legislature building, organizing marches, and holding town hall meetings to discuss the dangers of fracking in the province.

Nevertheless, Premier Alward announced his plans to go ahead with fracking in his throne speech last November.

Opposition has not relented however, which may explain why the federal Minister for the Environment, Peter Kent, felt the need to come out in support of developing a shale gas industry in New Brunswick.

The Minister said that the economic benefits to the province would be “significant” even though seeing a “drill rig in one’s backyard is not the most pleasant of visions.” New Brunswickers, however, have been protesting over the threat posed to the health of their communities and environment and not the threat posed to pleasantness.

The province’s Conservative government is already failing to act on expert reports, showing how eager it is to get the industry up and running. The decision to develop shale gas was determined from the start, handed down from on high with federal support.

New Brunswick is a suffering province. After the closure of the Bathurst mine, unemployment in the north of the province has hit 20.2% and the province as a whole is operating with a $411 million deficit. Add to that an aging population and one can hardly blame the provincial government for being eager to find a way to turn things around. This is a province that has watched Newfoundland and Labrador transform itself into a ‘have’ province through its oil and gas industry.

The first draft of the fracking regulations stipulated that the company involved in a suit had the onus of proving that they did not damage private land. This was struck. The province has promised to compensate citizens in the event of an accident and pursue legal action against the company responsible. This was proposed to prevent scenarios where private citizens have to take on multi-million dollar companies.

At first glance it seems beneficial but Stephanie Merrill of the New Brunswick Conservation Council pointed out that this would in fact lead to a conflict of interest. Namely, it pits a provincial government desperate for economic development against the industry it is beholden to; an industry they have committed to develop in spite of opposition from the New Brunswick College of Family Physicians, environmental groups, and first nations leaders.

The new regulation may result in an elaborate pay off system that could allow the province to keep shale gas developers out of the lime light.

Thomas Homer-Dixon, the director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation at the University of Waterloo, criticized the province for making a permanent commitment to such an unpredictable resource. Shale gas may actually become scarce in the next 10-15 years, and the economic benefits would dissipate with it.

The residents of the town of Taymouth, near Fredericton, have organized a series of meetings to consider alternatives to the shale gas industry. Peter DeMarsh, who chairs the Taymouth Community Association, told CBC news: “Grasping at shale gas as the miracle that’s going to save us is beyond belief.”