Saturday 19 October 2013

Elsipogtog - update

RCMP warns more confrontations loom if reinforcements bolster Mi’kmaq ranks

RCMP officers display cache of weapons seized during Thursday’s raid. APTN/Photo


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’s 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


For video GO HERE


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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