By Tim Fontaine
APTN National News
HALIFAX – The holiday season did little to slow the growth of the Idle No More movement in the Maritimes with demonstrations, round dances and group fasts taking place across the region.
On Christmas Eve, the Elsipogtog First Nation wrapped up a four day “information traffic slowdown” of Hwy. 11 in New Brunswick.
The RCMP monitored the slowdown but the event was peaceful and there were no reports of any incidents.
Hundreds of Mi’kmaq and Maliseet with hand drums took to shopping malls in Dartmouth, N.S. and Fredericton, N.B. to participate in what is now being called the “round dance revolution.”
And over the next four days, as many as 200 people will fast in solidarity with Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence who has been on a hunger strike for over two weeks.
People from across Nova Scotia are participating in the solidarity fast but the majority are from two Mi’kmaq communities, Eskasoni and Millbrook.
Eskasoni Chief Leroy Denny has joined the fast and is camped with community members in an area of the First Nation called Goat Island.
Mi’kmaq chiefs say they’re considering taking legal action against the federal government over Bill C-45, the omnibus budget bill which became law in mid-December.
The chiefs say Bill C-45 threatens the Mi’kmaq right to harvest fish for food, removes environmental protections on their traditional territory and strips the Crown of its duty to consult with First Nations.
@anishinaboy
I would like to see the Fracking companies come in our homelands and try! It will be a fight! NO SHALE GAS!