Bad Day for David Alward

What a week. At the beginning, David Alward couldn't offer a single new word on how he would deal with the protests on highway 126. By week's end, he had it down: he was planning to begin a consultation with the natives.

Between these two non-events other players, that would have been better advised to stay out of the debate, weighed in with such nonsense that they lost a big chunk of the people that were trying to believe in them.

Today, the growing coalition of people opposed to shale gas exposed the futility of the political output for the week. Natives and non-natives decided this afternoon to stop the trucks, again!

Civil disobedience has become rather mundane in the province of New Brunswick. It is evident that quite a few are willing to defy whatever laws oppose putting their bodies in the way of thumper trucks in the hope we can prevent fracking from destroying our province as has happened elsewhere.

It was a routine affair at first. The protestors were well behaved, the cops so polite one wannabe arrestee (female, non-native) was gently ushered to the far side of the road to await freedom, while the rest were hauled into the paddy wagon.

The party atmosphere ended abruptly when the trucks began moving and three natives, two men and one woman, threw themselves into the path of the thumpers. It seems the police training wore off as they punched the woman, giving her a bloody lip, and threw her and both men on the ground.

David Alward should get out more. Visit David! People do not want shale gas here, there or anywhere. The time for useful discussion (consultation) about exploiting shale gas in New Brunswick was two years ago. Any possibility for you starting a positive dialogue with the native people of this province may have ended today, and I recommend offering gifts.