Debriefing Elsip
ogtog is a book about intersections. It is a book about treaty rights and the origins of New Brunswick and colonialism and how a place called Elsipogtog First Nation came to be.
It is also a book about hydraulic fracturing and unconventional gas extraction and political corruption and state interference.
It is a book about water and how, when it is threatened, people from all walks of life come together to protect it. They put their lives on hold, in some cases get arrested together, spend time in jail together. When they are asked why, mostly they say they are doing it for their children.
It is a book about long odds and survival. In the end, one of North America’s largest hydraulic fracturing companies was sent back to Texas and a political party was ousted from office, so you might say it is a book about victory.
With a 2013 image of six burnt police cars often serving as the only reminder that any of this ever happened, personally I think it is a book you should read.
“With a probing eye, extensive research and thorough on-the-ground reporting, Miles Howe shares the remarkable events of the 2013 Elsipogtog uprising against fracking. Most inspiringly, he weaves into this story an exploration of the deep significance of Indigenous treaty rights and asks what it would mean for real solidarity to shape our relations with the land and with each other.”
— Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything
“Miles Howe has a remarkable nose for a story and an enviable knack for being at the flashpoints of social change. His acute critical intelligence and his unwavering moral compass lead him unerringly to the heart of the events he chooses to cover. I don’t know who else could have told the story of the Elsipogtog confrontation both passionately and dispassionately, as an insider who also sees the events in a long historical context and simultaneously views them with a keen eye to the future. We’re lucky he was there; this is likely to be the only such book about this transformative moment in Maritime social history.”
— Silver Donald Cameron, author of A Million Futures
Dates/locations:
May 28th – Halifax, Nova Scotia: Halifax Central Library, 6:30 – 8:45pm
May 29th – Moncton, New Brunswick: Cafe C’est La Vie, 7 – 9pm
May 30th – Saint John, New Brunswick: Anthony’s Cove, 2:30pm – As part of the ‘March to the End of the Line’
June 1st – Fredericton, New Brunswick: Three Sisters Cafe, 289 Regent St. 7 – 9pm
June 4th – Millbrook First Nation, Nova Scotia: Sma’knis Trading Post, 7 – 9pm
June 5th – Halifax, Nova Scotia: Canadian Association of Journalists National Conference, Atlantica Hotel, 7pm
June 7th – Noel, Nova Scotia: Burntcoat Head Park, 2pm