Almost 200 people rallied outside the Provincial Shale Gas Forum today, Thursday, June 23rd from 8 am to 4pm at the Fredericton Inn.
The forum, hosted by the New Brunswick government, was criticized for not being opened to the public. About 50 organizations including municipalities, industry groups, universities and community groups were invited to attend to hear Minister Bruce Northrup unveil regulations for the shale gas industry in the province. Earlier in the week, Northrup said that the New Brunswick government would not be banning shale gas.
The group chanted, “No Means No” and a half dozen people disrupted the forum including Caroline Lubbe-D’Arcy, a Fredericton-based environmental activist and Susan Levi-Peters, the former Chief of Elsipogtog.
Lubbe-D’Arcy told forum participants that, “this shouldn’t be an invite-only forum.”
Levi-Peters drew applause from some of the shale gas forum participants when she said that she is “very disappointed that there is no Mi’kmaq representation here… Nobody is sitting here representing us when you are talking about our land, our children and our children yet to come. None of this is going to happen without us agreeing to it and we do not agree to it today.”
Video courtesy of Charles LeBlanc:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqB5ihTJ8wc
Tracy Glynn is on the board of the NB Media Co-op.
