If you followed the twitter hashtag #Elsipogtog yesterday, you were well ahead of the mainstream media on the conflict between Mi’kmaq protestors and the RCMP in New Brunswick, Canada.

The Mi’kmaq have been blockading fracking exploration for some time, as I’ve mentioned here before. The province sought and obtained an injunction against them, and yesterday sent in RCMP – replete with snipers and dogs.

Several stories are now out on the conflict here, here and here. Lots of additional pictures are available on twitter. The Mi’kmaq demands are for the consultations they are legally entitled to and for proper stewardship of the land and water. On this latter point, and particularly in New Brunswick, they’ve got a good argument to make considering that the person in charge of that province’s fracking review panel was a fraud.

The end result was a show of state force. Several dozen people taken into custody, pepper spray used on elders.

There was also response from the Mi’kmaq, including the burning of police vehicles.

QUICK UPDATE: I meant to include a link to this interview with Pam Palmater on CBC’s Power and Politics last night.

Everybody condemns the violence, one hopes, when it erupts so explicitly. And yet there is a lot of violence buried within the legal injunction itself. Especially when proper consultation is guaranteed by Supreme Court decisions.

Yesterday there was also a new report released on fracking and the global land grab.