Date/Time
Date(s) - October 30, 2015 - October 31, 2015
6:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Location
Unitarian Church
Categories No Categories
Over the past two years KAIROS, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, has investigated the ecological and Indigenous rights issues raised by hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), the practice of injecting water, sand and chemicals deep underground at high pressure to fracture rocks containing natural gas or oil.
On October 30 – 31, 2015, KAIROS will sponsor a public forum on fracking that will take place simultaneously in Vancouver, B.C. and Moncton, N.B.
The goal of the forum is to raise the profile of the social, ecological and human rights concerns of Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities across Canada and to facilitate action regionally and nationally. We will also be gathering content for an educational video.
Fracking activities have lead to problems with respect to water consumption, air and water contamination, greenhouse gas emissions and induced seismic activity.
Fracking projects have been initiated on the traditional territories of Indigenous peoples in New Brunswick, British Columbia and in other jurisdictions often without their free, prior and informed consent as required by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution.
Our concern for defending the rights of Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities affected by fracking was heightened by the October 17, 2013 police raid on a peaceful blockade by members of the Elsipogtog First Nation and their allies protesting against exploratory seismic testing in search of shale gas on their territory.
Similarly, Indigenous peoples in British Columbia have resisted the expansion of shale gas fracking projects and pipelines across their territories even though the industry is already established in parts of the province. The Unist’ot’en people are maintaining a camp to prevent surveyors for the Pacific Trails gas pipeline from entering their unceeded territory.
KAIROS’ analysis of the major ecological and human rights issues raised by fracking is summarized in our discussion paper Ethical Reflections on Fracking. [Extrait disponible en français: Réflexions éthiques sur la fracturation]
http://www.kairoscanada.org/what-we-do/ecological-justice/fracking/