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RCMP
warns more confrontations loom if reinforcements bolster Mi’kmaq
ranks
RCMP
officers display cache of weapons seized during Thursday’s raid.
APTN/Photo
APTN,
18
October, 2013
FREDERICTON,
N.B.-A senior RCMP officer warned Friday reinforcements reportedly
travelling to New Brunswick to bolster Mi’kmaq ranks could lead to
a repeat of the heavily-armed raid of a warrior society-anchored
anti-fracking encampment by RCMP tactical units the day before.
Assistant
Commissioner Roger Brown issued the warning during a press conference
displaying rifles, ammunition and knives seized during Thursday’s
raid. Brown said RCMP officers also seized improvised explosive
devices.
“I
am very concerned that others may be coming in support of or
otherwise and my concern on that is how this is going to unfold today
or tomorrow,” said Brown.
While
Thursday’s raid appears to have temporarily neutralized some key
players within the Mi’kmaq Warrior Society, there are widespread
reports reinforcements are travelling to New Brunswick from other
First Nation communities to join in the cause.
Images
of camouflaged RCMP officers in sniper positions and burning cruisers
inflamed emotions as they flashed across social media platforms
Thursday.
Brown
called for calm.
“I
am urging everybody to allow things to calm down and everyone who
wants to demonstrate to do so in a peaceful and law abiding manner,”
he said.
Brown
said shots were fired from within the encampment and Molotov
cocktails were thrown at police during the raid. He said the RCMP
seized three bolt-action, single shot hunting rifles, one fashioned
with a bayonet, at the site which sits about 15 kilometres northeast
of Elsipogtog First Nation and 80 kilometres north of Moncton.
RCMP
officers, some wearing camouflage and wielding assault weapons,
cleared the encampment Thursday to free SWN Resources Canada’sÂ
exploration vehicles which had been blocked by anti-fracking
activists backed by the Mi’kmaq Warrior Society.
The
guns were displayed on a table during a press conference at the
RCMP’s New Brunswick headquarters in Fredericton. The guns appeared
alongside piles of ammunition, bear spray and knives.
Brown
said the guns, which were all legal, were hidden within the
encampment which proved there were nefarious intentions behind their
possession.
“When
you see firearms of that nature, hidden underneath a tent, with ammo
and fully accessible at a second’s notice, that is not the
context one would find normal firearms in this situation,” he said.
Chief
Superintendant Dwayne Gallant said seized improvised explosive
devices included large commercial-grade fireworks packed with
shrapnel made from shotgun pellets and small crushed rocks.
Brown
said the encampment’s weaponry posed a serious public security
threat.
“What
triggered it was that situation was no longer secure, this situation
was no longer a peaceful protest and that lives could be in danger,”
said Brown.
A
total of 40 people were arrested during a volatile day of protest
that followed the raid. The RCMP said nine people had been charged
with pointing a firearm, mischief, assaulting a police officer,
resisting arrest, obstructing justice and failing to abide by a court
injunction.
The
RCMP said 31 people had been released on undertakings and promises to
appear.
There
was also an attempt to burn the Elsipogtog RCMP police station at
2:30 a.m. Friday morning. The building is owned by the First Nation
and the reserve’s fire department put out the flames before it
caused any major damage, said the RCMP.
The
band council for Elsipogtog First Nation, which has been at the heart
of the anti-fracking opposition, distanced itself from the seized
weapons. Chief Arren Sock and some band councillors also met with
Brown on Thursday evening.
“Chief
and Council of the Elsipogtog First Nation wish to state clearly that
guns and bombs, if any, have no place in our peaceful efforts. The
destruction of police vehicles was unfortunate and unnecessary,”
said the statement. “A peaceful path forward still exists, but the
situation is extremely volatile.”
Sock
was meeting with New Brunswick Premier David Alward late into the
evening Friday.
Elsipogtog
solidarity is spreading across Canada
APTN,
18
October, 2013
It’s
a growing grassroots response similar to that of the IdleNoMore
movement. Groups across the country are mobilizing Thursday after
violence broke out on the anti-fracking protest line in rural New
Brunswick.
First
Nations people across the country are being asked to show their
support for Elsipogtog protesters fighting a protest injunction being
enforced by the RCMP.
At
least four RCMP cruisers were burned in Rexton, NB, as chaos rages
following a raid by heavily-armed front line officers backed by a
tactical unit including police dogs on a Mi’kmaq-led blockade that
has trapped exploration vehicles belonging to a Houston-based firm
conducting shale gas exploration in the province.
APTN’s
Ossie Michelin is reporting that RCMP officers are using sporadic
volleys of tear gas to disperse the crowd that gathered near the
blockade site after news spread about the police raid. Michelin said
it appears police have lost control of the situation with smoke from
the burning cars and tear gas drifting into the air about
increasingly volatile situation.
The
officers were initially met Thursday morning by members of the
Mi’kmaq Warrior Society which has anchored the barricades for over
two weeks. Images have emerged showing a Molotov cocktail thrown at
the RCMP officers as they approached one of the encampments at the
site.
Officers
fired rubber bullets in the woods around the barricade and the RCMP
has arrested Elsipogtog Chief Arren Sock and some of his councillors
who went to the blockade site in solidarity. All were later releaed.
Tensions
were high on both sides as the raid unfolded.
“Crown
land belongs to the government, not to fucking natives,” APTN’s
Ossie Michelin heard one of the camouflaged officers involved in the
raid shout to protestors.
“Go
back where the fuck you came from,” shouted one of the activists at
the scene.
Dramatic
images of the blockade have flashed across social media sites like
Twitter and Facebook.
Video
shot by M’ikmaq Warrior member Suzanne Patles showed RCMP officers
moving in with dogs.
Support
for the protestors quickly spread across the country.
In
Listuguj supporters blocked the Listuguj bridge and a section of
Highway 6 near Caledonia was closed Thursday by supporters from Six
Nations.
There
were reportedly small shows of support in New York City and
Washington, D.C. outside the Canadian consulates.
Supporters
and activists are issuing the call for peaceful action through social
media sites like Facebook and Twitter. PowerShift.ca has the most
up-to-date list of events and adding more as they crop up. People are
already promising to gather and light sacred fires in major cities
like Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Edmonton tonight.
The
creators of IdleNoMore in Lethbridge, Alta., said via Twitter they
wasted no time in getting a group together to march down the city’s
main drag Thursday afternoon. Its hashtag was popping up on Twitter
alongside #ElsipogtogSolidarity.
Events
are planned for the West Coast tomorrow.
More
to come.
There
has been a histpry of the Canadian mounted police infiltrating
protest organisations and of provocation of violent acts. This
article counsels caution before making specific accusations.
Statement
on Provocateurs, Informants, and the conflict in New Brunswick
18
October, 2013
In
the aftermath of the RCMP raid on the anti-fracking blockade in New
Brunswick, in Mi’kmaq territory, there has emerged a conspiracy
theory that the six police vehicles set on fire were the act of
police informants acting as agents provocateurs.
In
particular, one individual has been identified and publicly labelled
a police informant: Harrison Friesen. It has been implied that he,
along with one or two others, were responsible for several Molotov
cocktails thrown at police lines and the torching of the police
vehicles.
We
saw similar theories promoted following the Toronto G20 protests in
2010, during which four cop cars were burned in the downtown streets.
Conspiracy theorists immediately claimed that the police set their
own cars on fire to justify their massive police operation and
violent repression of protesters.
Not
a single piece of evidence has ever emerged to justify these theories
about the G20 protests, and they remain nothing more than
speculation.
Harrison
Friesen first came to prominence in 2010 as the leader of Red Power
United (RPU). At that time, he released a public statement against
the arson of a Royal Bank of Canada branch in Ottawa. I sent his
group an email stating that I disagreed strongly with his
denunciation of the attack.
Just
prior to the Toronto G20, Harrison set up a meeting with agents of
the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), who had requested
an interview with him (a common practise of CSIS). Unknown to CSIS,
Harrison had also contacted reporters from the Aboriginal Peoples
Television Network (APTN), who secretly filmed the meeting.
Aftermath
of May 18, 2010 arson of RBC branch in Ottawa.
During
the APTN broadcast, my email was flashed across the screen. The
implication was that I was involved in the RBC attack. The email was
supplied to APTN by Harrison.
A
dirty trick, approaching the level of informant? Yes. But it does
not prove that Harrison is one, only that he is an opportunist. Over
the last three years, more people have come forward with allegations
against Harrison, most of which implicate him as a movement hustler
and abusive towards women.
In
fact, despite these new allegations against him, including a widely
circulating meme accusing him of being both a police and CIA
informant (!), there is no evidence that Harrison is, in fact, an
informant. It’s all speculation.
To
back up the claim that police would participate in burning their own
vehicles (again, to justify their repressive actions), conspiracy
theorists have found an actual example of the RCMP blowing up an “oil
installation.”
On
October 15, 1999, the RCMP blew up an unused shed belonging to the
oil corporation AEC, in northern Alberta. The bombing had no effect
on oil production and was intended to bolster the credibility of an
informant: Robert Wraight, aka Agent K4209.
Four
RCMP vehicles burned in New Brunswick on Oct 17, 2013.
The
bombing was part of Operation Kabriole, the RCMP’s effort to entrap
Wiebo Ludwig. Wiebo and his family had been a thorn in the side of
the oil industry due to their determined opposition. The police
worked closely with oil corporations, including AEC, to neutralize
the Ludwigs, who were suspected of carrying out a campaign of
sabotage against the industry.
As
part of the resistance against oil companies, roads had been blocked,
pipelines drilled with holes, and facilities damaged. None of these
scores of sabotage attacks were reported in the media, although they
are documented in the book Saboteurs, written by Andrew Nikifouk and
published in 2002. It should be noted that these low-level attacks
actually impacted industry, while the RCMP’s bombing did not.
According
to those re-posting this old bit of news, if the RCMP would blow up
an “oil installation” in northern Alberta, what’s to stop them
from torching their own vehicles in New Brunswick?
The
question is: for what purpose? In the case of the Alberta bombing,
it was part of an extensive effort to insert an informant into the
Ludwig family circle. In New Brunswick, we are told, it was to
justify the acts of repression carried out by the RCMP. But those
acts of repression were already in motion, long before the police
cars were set on fire.
In
their own statements, the RCMP justify their raid on the basis of
alleged threats made to SWN employees, the presence of firearms, and
general concerns for public safety.
If
police are going to go through the efforts of staging an attack on
their own resources, it is only logical they would do this prior to a
raid thereby justifying the raid itself. It is highly unlikely they
would instruct an informant to do so after the raid has begun, a raid
already justified by “public safety” concerns, etc.
In
fact, the burning of the six police vehicles appears to be a response
to the raid. But there are those who seek to dampen the fighting
spirit of our warriors by implying that any act of militant
resistance is a police conspiracy. Some of these people are
pacifists, ideologically committed to nonviolent acts, while some are
conspiracy theorists who see the hand of the “Illuminati” behind
any acts of resistance.
Two
police vehicles torched, Oct 17, 2013.
This
is what one radical journalist, an eyewitness present during the
conflict on Oct 17, stated about the burned cop cars and the theories
of who burned them:
“To
all the people spreading misinfo about provocateurs at Elsipogtog,
listen up. RCMP cars were not burned by provocateurs. It was an
expression of rage by an angry crowd sick of being trampled by the
government. People put their cameras away as the cars were being
lit, as to not incriminate comrades and cheered every time one went
up in flames. Hundreds of people witnessed this, so drop all the
propaganda and snitch jacketing and raise your glass to all the brave
peeps who risked life and limb to protect your fuckin water.” –
The Stimulator, Oct 18, 2013
When
we consider the 1999 RCMP bombing of an unused shed in northern
Alberta, we should not forget that there were scores of sabotage
attacks carried out against the oil industry prior to this. Were
these all the result of police conspiracies? Highly unlikely. It
was due to their inability to stop these attacks that police resorted
to the bombing in order to insert their informant.
In
the past, it was common sense that you did not label a person a
police informant without substantial evidence. Extraordinary claims
demand extraordinary evidence. Informants and police infiltrators
have been exposed in the past based on real evidence, through court
transcripts or intercepted communications with their handlers, for
example.
At
this point, Harrison is being made a scapegoat by those pacifists and
conspiracy theorists who are either opposed to militant resistance on
principle, or who see a government conspiracy behind any spectacular
event.
So
far, we have no evidence that Harrison Friesen is an informant or
that any agents provocateurs set the cop cars on fire in New
Brunswick. And until such evidence is produced, those circulating
unsubstantiated claims should cease doing so.
Other previous examples of RCMP infiltration and provocation
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