The Canadian government and the mining companies must respect indigenous rights!

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) is deeply concerned about a court decision that allows preparatory work for a project to produce gas by fracking on the land of the Elsipogtog-Mi'kmaq First Nation in New Brunswick on Canada's east coast. "We hope there will be no further violent clashes between the fracking-opponents and the police. The situation is quite tense already," warned Yvonne Bangert, the STP's expert on questions regarding indigenous communities, on Friday. "Therefore, our human rights organization would like to send an urgent appeal to the Canadian government to ensure that the constitutional rights of the native communities will be respected. The production company must respect this too." Earlier this week, a court in the Province of New Brunswick had dismissed a claim by the Indians who had tried to enforce a restraining order to stop the company SWN Resources Canada from working on Elsipogtog territory.

"Canada should refrain from trying to solve its energy problems by ignoring the land rights of the Indians," criticized Bangert. The fracking-opponents fear that their drinking water and groundwater might be contaminated by the chemicals used for this gas production method. Also, the Elsipogtog are emphasizing their rights as an indigenous community according to (inter alia) paragraph 35 of the 1982 Constitution and have stressed that the First Nation must be consulted before their land can be used. Apparently, there had been no attempts for consultations. According to the principle of prior informed consent defined by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (which Canada signed in 2010), indigenous peoples must agree to any activities that affect their livelihood.

A first confrontation between police forces, the Elsipogtog and fracking-opponents already took place a month ago, on October 17. Back then, the police had ruthlessly broken up the blockade of a warehouse of the energy group, by which the protesters had tried to stop the project. The police used pepper spray and rubber bullets. Several protesters who tried to resist the eviction were injured. Some of the police cars were set on fire during the rally. 40 demonstrators were arrested, four are still in detention.

The Elsipogtog-Mi'kmaq live in the eastern Canadian province of New Brunswick. 2383 members of the First Nation live in the two reservations Richibucto and Soegao, about 700 live outside the reservations. In Canada and the United States, the indigenous communities are referred to as "First Nations".