by Miles Howe

While RCMP arrest those against shale gas exploration and drilling in New Brunswick, they appear to share a more comfortable relationship with those who threaten to run them over. [Photo: M. Howe]

ELSIPOGTOG, NEW BRUNSWICK – At approximately 9:45am this morning, June 20th, a crew of Geokinetics workers began collecting the geophone sensors within the close vicinity of the sacred fire encampment, located at the junction of highways 126 and 116 west, in Kent County, New Brunswick. The crew from the Texas-based company, contracted by SWN Resources Canada to do seismic testing in search of shale gas, consisted of a pick-up truck, two persons in the cab, and a crew of five other workers picking up equipment.

As they continued in a southerly direction towards the sacred fire encampment, Amy Sock and Louis Jerome, both Mi’kmaq people, approached them with drums in hand. They drummed near the workers and truck, but in no way impeded their procession. Sock and Jerome were joined by a contingent of five other people, who joined them in singing the Mi’kmaq Honour Song. At this point the truck stopped and the driver of the truck appeared to be filming or taking photographs of people with his cell phone.

A twelve-year-old Mi’kmaq youth from Elsipogtog First Nation then began to smudge the stopped truck and workers with burning sage in an abalone shell. The youth, whose parents have requested he not be publicly named due to safety reasons, then recounts that the Geokinetics worker in the passenger seat of the truck threatened to run him over.

“[While I was smudging them] the people in the back were saying ‘thank you’ to me,” says the youth. “I was saying ‘I will pray for you.’ [When I got to the front of the truck] the man in the passenger seat said ‘Send backup’ and ‘If you don’t leave I’ll run you over.”

Several people in the immediate vicinity verified that the individual in the passenger seat of the pick-up truck did indeed threaten the youth with running him over.

RCMP arrived several minutes later and the youth’s mother noted that a report has been filed with them.