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Tobique First Nation, NB November 2013 Wulustuk Times Wulustuk - Indigenous name for St John River This publication produced monthly at Tobique, NB, Canada E7H 5K3 Table of Contents November 2013 SHALE GAS PROTESTERS STAKE CLAIMS ON CROWN LAND NB FRACKING PROTESTS AND FIGHT FOR ABORIGINAL RIGHTS MALISEET ANTI-SHALE GAS LETTER DELIVERED TO PREMIER'S OFFICE SIGNIGTOG MI'KMAQ RECLAIM STEWARDSHIP OF NATIVE LANDS ESIPOGTOG CHIEF ISSUES EVICTION NOTICE TO TEXAS-BASED FRACKERS. BAND COUNCIL RESOLUTION TO RECLAIM ALL UNOCCUPIED CROWN LAND N.B. SHALE GAS SOLIDARITY PROTESTS SPREAD TO OTHER REGIONS FIRST NATIONS WARN HARPER'S ZEAL FOR RESOURCES MAKES THE ELSIPOGTOG PROTEST PART OF A WIDER STRUGGLE A MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY AND SUPPORT TO THE MI'KMAQ OF ELSIPOGTOG IN THEIR STRUGGLE TO RESIST CANADIAN OCCUPATIONAL TERRORIST FORCE WOODSTOCK WINTERS A FRACKING PROTEST PERSPECTIVE DEAN'S DEN: WULUSTUK EAGLE LEGAL NOTICE Wulustuk Times: Each month we gather and publish the latest, most current and relevant native information for our readers. Proceeding with this concept, we feel that a well informed person is better able to see, relate with, and assess a situation more accurately when equipped with the right tools. Our aim always is to provide the precise tools and the best information possible. Contact: We can be reached at Box 3226, Perth-Andover, NB. Canada, E7H 5K3, or at Box 603, Ft. Fairfield, ME 04742. By phone, call us at 506-273-6737. Our email address is, [email protected] SHALE GAS PROTESTERS STAKE CLAIMS ON CROWN LAND Elsipogtog members lay symbolic plaques CBC News Members of the Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick are staking symbolic claim on Crown land in their continuing opposition to shale gas exploration. About 20 members gathered on Saturday to reclaim public land in Kent County by placing plaques on 50 separate 40-hectare lots. SWN Resources intends to resume operations on Monday. Now, band members, like Kenneth Francis, are taking action. "The plan today for us is to go out and plant our stakes of claims in areas that are very vulnerable to exploration. Because it seems to be the only way to get our message across that we are very, very determined on this issue," he said. The demonstrators are using a bus to travel throughout the county, nailing stakes into the ground to assert their sovereignty. Each member of the band said they'll take ownership for the care of the land But Serge Rousselle, a professor of aboriginal law at the University of Moncton, said it's a symbolic exercise with no legal consequences. Rousselle told CBC News in order to prove their claim to the land the Elsipogtog First Nation would have to show regular occupancy and use of the land for hunting and fishing. Chief Aaron Sock said he was assured the premier would ask SWN Resources to delay exploration to hold more negotiations. On Friday, he told reporters he felt deceived. After violence broke out during protests near Rexton last month, both Sock and the premier agreed to a cooling off period. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NB FRACKING PROTESTS AND FIGHT FOR ABORIGINAL RIGHTS CBC News Protests this month at a potential shale gas site in New Brunswick involve an issue that has been at the heart of resource development battles across Canada - the duty to consult and accommodate aboriginal people when the development is on their traditional land. The latest round of the protests by Elsipogtog First Nation members and their supporters resulted in a violent clash Thursday when the RCMP moved in to enforce a court injunction against the protesters' blockade. But long before that, local First Nations leaders were raising concerns about the failure of government and industry to consult with them before development went ahead. Rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada and lower courts have established a duty to consult and accommodate aboriginal people when development is considered on their land, even non-reserve traditional lands. Since the mid-'80s, aboriginal groups have recorded 186 victories in lawsuits over resource development, a 90 per cent success rate. "First Nations have far more legal rights than most Canadians understand," Ken Coates, one of Canada's leading experts on aboriginal issues told CBC Radio in Moncton. The University of Saskatchewan professor explained that the Supreme Court "has made it absolutely, unequivocally clear that First Nations people have to be consulted... and accommodated." Coates said it's not about special treatment, "It means following the law." Environmental issue The exploratory drilling in New Brunswick also faces opposition from the local non- aboriginal community. Allan Marsh, the chair of the nearby local service district for Saint- Charles, told CBC News that the provincial government "isn't listening to any of the other messages that it's getting." His county council voted nearly unanimously for a moratorium on shale gas exploitation, Marsh added. Environmental concerns are also a key issue for many of the protesters, a topic CBC News covers in other stories. Land wasn't surrendered First Nations in New Brunswick didn't surrender their land through treaties, Stephen Augustine, the principal of Unama'ki College at Cape Breton University, told CBC News. "Those pre-Confederation treaties were just treaties of peace and friendship, the government of Canada has acknowledged that," he said. The situation in "unlike any other found in Canada," according to the federal government. "Under the Peace and Friendship Treaties of 1760 and 1761 in the Maritimes, the Mi'kmaq and the Maliseet signatories did not surrender rights to lands or resources," Aboriginal Affairs states on their website. Cross-country protests, cross-country issues Following Thursday's violence and arrests, the protests went cross-country, with over 45 planned on short notice for the next day. Shannon Houle, a band councillor with Saddle Lake Cree Nation in northern Alberta, went to the protest in Edmonton. She says it was an act of solidarity not only with the Mi'kmaw people but solidarity with the land and the water as well. "We have a responsibility to protect these lands and defend them." Although Houle is not opposed to development on First Nation land - she told CBC News about resource agreements Saddle Lake has with companies - she said fracking is out of the question. "It leaves too much damage underneath to the aquifers." Augustine does not rule out the possibility that a First Nation could allow fracking on its land in the future, but said it would be very difficult to persuade people because of concern about the water. He pointed to an example from earlier this year at Lake Ainslie, N.S., where aboriginal and non-aboriginal opponents of fracking succeeding in blocking plans for a possible fracking project. Many resource developments, however, do have the support and participation of a First Nation. Finding common ground In Alberta, aboriginal entrepreneur Dave Tuccaro said he has been working with oil sands developers for more than 30 years and has developed a good working relationship with the companies. "We've been able to find a common ground, a place where everybody can thrive," said Tuccaro, founder, CEO and president of Tuccaro Inc., which provides support services to the oil industry. "For us it's worked well. We've been able to adjust to the changes that happen in our traditional area." "There are issues that still have to be ironed out, I'm sure, but in the end we need to benefit by any kind of development that happens no matter where it is. Whether it's shale gas in the East Coast or oilsands in Alberta, nickel in Voisey Bay, diamonds in N.W.T., pipelines going across from Alberta to B.C., we need to be involved and we need to own some of this stuff." Tuccaro said he didn't have enough information about the current conflict in New Brunswick to comment, but that in general terms, anybody that's going to develop resources in Canada has a legal duty to consult the aboriginal community if that development is on or near their traditional lands. "Nobody can bypass that system anymore," he said. "Anybody that tries is just wasting their time, wasting a lot of money and getting a lot of people pissed off for no reason at all." Resource development part of N.W.T. land claims Nellie Cournoyea, chair and CEO of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and former premier of the Northwest Territories, said all the comprehensive claims in the territory that have been settled in the last 25 years are clear on how resource development should treat the land and the people who live in the region. "The companies, when they operate up here, they know what the name of the game is and it's been like that for many, many years," she said. Cournoyea said that whether it's in the Northwest Territories or New Brunswick, if there hasn't been due diligence, you're going to have severe opposition. "Right at this juncture in time, native people are saying let's not play games. Let's get down to it. Maybe they will be opposed to it, but maybe if it was properly done, people might weigh the pros and cons." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MALISEET ANTI-SHALE GAS LETTER DELIVERED TO PREMIER'S OFFICE Maliseet grand chief Harry LaPorte invites Premier David Alward to meet with First Nations leaders. (CBC) But the gathering at the legislature will not be like the anti-shale gas demonstration in Kent County that turned violent earlier this month, stressed Tremblay. "Oh much, much different," he said. "Our total focus is on peace and friendship and unity and solidarity.