Fracking protests thin across Nova Scotia
Anti-fracking protests are winding down in Nova Scotia after hundreds came out to support demonstrators blocking roads in New Brunswick.
More than 40 people were arrested Thursday as the shale gas protests in Rexton, N.B., turned violent.
The next day dozens of Mi'kmaq people gathered near Millbrook to shut down a lane of Highway 102 around 2 p.m. AT.
The Nova Scotia Native Women's Association called it a "peaceful slowdown of traffic." Some cars came to a complete standstill in support, reported the CBC's Michael Dick.
Nova Scotia's Department of Transportation urged motorists to drive slowly and watch for pedestrians.
The protest began to thin around 4:30 p.m. as heavy rains set in.
About 200 people met on Robie Street in Halifax to protest near an Irving gas station, according to the CBC's Bob Murphy.
The street, a main artery in the city, was partially blocked with people waving no "No fracking way" signs.
After the speeches wrapped up the protesters marched down Robie Street singing and drumming before gathering on the Halifax Common.
The protest disbanded before 5 p.m.
Anti-fracking protesters are also demonstrating with flags and signs along two sections of highway in Cape Breton.
About 30 protesters are on the shoulder of the road on the Trans-Canada Highway south of Waycobah, near Baddeck. Traffic is flowing uninterrupted, but demonstrator Jenny Marshall said that could change.
"If they place the illegal injunction [in New Brunswick], then we’ll be blocking the roads. We will be shutting the economy down, but not the people. The people are free to go as their please. It will be the trucks we stop, the merchandise," she said.
Protester Madonna Bernard said Nova Scotia's First Nation's protesters were to showing solidarity with protests in Rexton, N.B.
“We’re hoping it will be a unity thing. The public need to know why we’re doing what we’re doing," she said. "It’s not just for our children, it’s for everybody’s children. We’re trying to assert our treaty rights against the government."
The Waycobah protesters arrived at 5 p.m. Thursday. Six hours later, about 30 people gathered at Membertou First Nation in Sydney.
Another 75 people took park in an information picket along Highway 104 in Aulds Cove near the Canso Causeway.
Fracking involves extracting natural gas trapped in shale rock through the use of chemically treated water and sand forced under high pressure into a well bore. Critics say the process could compromise groundwater, but the energy industry says fracking is safe and does not harm the environment.
Nova Scotia has a moratorium on fracking.
