Kent South NO SHALE GAS Kent Sud

Justice, the Law and Non-Violent Resistance

During 2013 hundreds of citizens demonstrated against unconventional shale gas exploration and future development in New Brunswick. 21 people were arrested on Highway 126, and dozens more arrested at the Highways 134 encampment on October 17 and along Highway 11 defending the environment by peaceful civil disobedience and non-violent resistance.  Our opponents say we are ‘going too far’, but consider the very great things people willing to break the law ‘for the good of all’ have accomplished using peaceful civil disobedience and non-violent resistance as their tool:

• In 1918, women in Canada won the right to vote because brave people were willing to be arrested and go to jail;
• Slaves in the United States were freed in 1863 after years of struggle during which thousands of people went to jail to demand justice for Black people (for example, people hid slaves to help them get to safety in Canada);
• India achieved independence in 1947 after years of peaceful civil disobedience and non-violent resistance with thousands of people demanding justice by going to jail; and 
• In 1993, Africans living in South Africa became full citizens in their own land because people went to jail to demand justice and freedom!

People willing to be arrested and go to jail for justice for all are ‘prisoners of conscience.’  Their decision to resist unjust, bad laws using only peaceful civil disobedience and non-violent resistance has won freedom and justice for millions of people around the world.  

What about Unconventional Shale Gas and Oil Development?

We know from the experience of people in other places that unconventional shale gas and oil development poses the most serious threat to our environment that New Brunswick has ever seen!  It is fundamentally unjust to place the health and safety of an entire province at risk for any reason! 

• Ten years of failed experience by the unconventional shale gas and oil industry has not resulted in a safe method of extraction for people or the environment;
• There is simply no known way to prevent wells from leaking, and no known safe and permanent way to clean up those chemicals once they’re in the environment;
• A growing number of countries and cities have already banned unconventional shale gas and oil exploration and development; 
• Only governments that place private profit ahead of public health and safety would allow unconventional shale gas and oil development;
• Doctors and scientists around the world are warning about the dangers of unconventional oil and shale gas development;
• Without baseline data and research, the New Brunswick College of Family Physicians has called for an industry moratorium; and
• ‘Water is life’ because nothing can live without it.

If a river or the land is poisoned, the animals, plants and people who need that water and land to live must either leave, become ill or die.  When an aquifer is poisoned, all the communities and people that depend on it for their water must leave or die. 

Who really thinks politicians and gas companies know more about our health than doctors?  Are we ready to sacrifice our family’s health and our province’s future for a short-term industry and a few, temporary jobs in New Brunswick?

The struggle to ban unconventional shale oil and gas is a struggle to protect life itself.