Revisiting Elsipogtog: The Fire Over Water

On October 17, 2013, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided a protest site set up by the Mi’kmaq people and their supporters trying to prevent a Texas-based corporation from fracking after the company had been given the right to explore for shale gas by the province of New Brunswick.

Carried out by police with dogs and automatic weapons, the raid turned to chaos as residents of the Elsipogtog First Nation arrived to confront them. 

Police pepper-sprayed elders and used “bean bag” rounds to control the crowd. Six police vehicles were set on fire. About 40 people were arrested. It was the most spectacular eruption yet of a struggle led by indigenous people to protect land they say they never ceded and water they consider sacred – a struggle that grew quietly over three years before the raid. 

In late 2013, Fault Lines travelled to New Brunswick to ask why their fight caught fire, and to find out what happens when Canada‘s First Nations say “no” to resource extraction projects they oppose. 

Four years on, Wab Kinew, a Winnipeg indigenous leader and now an elected politician, tells REWIND development in Elsipogtog “has been at a standstill”. 

“I think across the region, the standoff in Elsipogtog set a sort of precedent for many of the indigenous people,” he says.