Hard life lessons fuel Elsipogtog man’s passion to stop frackers

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I can’t imagine any white landowner just passively standing by while an oil company moves in and starts sending poisonous water through a shaft in fracking or for oil exploration. Why should the Mi’kmaq be any different? I mean, they are only requiring that the oil companies TRY to get the Mi’kmaq permission. They aren’t mandating that they get it in writing, and who is paying what to whom, who is responsible for damages, environmental concerns, etc. This would not be tolerated if it were a white landowner.

Zig Zag's avatarWarrior Publications

Kenneth Francis, a member of the Elsipogtog First Nation, is planning on launching a legal challenge to prevent fracking on Aboriginal territory in New Brunswick. (Credit: Ann Pohl). Kenneth Francis, a member of the Elsipogtog First Nation, is planning on launching a legal challenge to prevent fracking on Aboriginal territory in New Brunswick. (Credit: Ann Pohl).

Inspired by the victory of B.C.’s Tsilhqot’in Nation, Kenneth Francis of New Brunswick’s Elsipogtog First Nation wants to lead his people into court

Vidya Kauri, Vancouver Observer, Mar 4th, 2015

Kenneth Francis was six when his father’s job-search experience became a lesson that would shape the rest of his life.

Circa 1950, Joseph Francis, a member of the Mi’kmaqs’ Elsipogtog First Nation, was travelling all over his native Kent County, New Brunswick to find a job. He came home ecstatic one evening because he had finally found work at a lumber mill on the Miramichi River. But the elation did not last long.

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