Rexton, New Brunswick – As the stand-off along highway 134 continues, RCMP negotiators Marc Robichaud and Denise Vautour today asked the anti-shale gas activists who have blockaded and surrounded an Irving-owned compound by what authority they had blocked the highway, and in fact what they were doing there.

Robichaud and Vautour initially made the request of the Mi'kmaq Warriors Society. The Society, in deference to what is now – and ostensibly has always been – the true source of power in Mi'kma'ki, told the RCMP that it would be the women who would be providing the forthcoming answers. The written document, which has just been provided to the RCMP negotiators on the promise that the police will be providing it to the provincial government, is as follows:

'We are here for the water: To protect it and the Earth. We have been placed here on Turtle Island by our Creator, and we were granted Sacred Responsibilities by our Creator.

Our Rights are International, and protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Constitution.

We are uniting an standing in solidarity with grassroots people to assert our rights. We are also uniting with our Acadian brothers and sisters, who also have Treaty Rights (1686)

Our Rights:

1. Sui Generis Treaty Rights

2. Treaty Rights: 1686 (Acadian), 1724, 1725, 1752, 1760, 1763

3. Aboriginal – Original Title

4. Aboriginal Rights

5. Our Inherited Authority and Sovereignty.

Signed: The 8 women of the 8th Fire – Mi'kma'ki'