Frack off First Nations land!

When the RCMP confronted the First Nations fracking protesters at Elsipogtog late last week and things turned violent, Anonymous got involved almost immediately, announcing #OpFrackOff. Now they’ve gone farther, a lot farther.

When an unidentified RCMP officer shouted, “crown land belongs to the government not to fucking natives,” he probably didn’t expect Anonymous to issue a call to action inviting the public to help ID him. He probably should have.

In a pair of documents released on Pastebin today and a video, Anonymous and their allies have announced they intend to carry their investigation much further. In the newly-announced #OpSWN they intend nothing less than laying out all the corporate, political, and social connections for SWN (Southwestern Energy), the American gas company at the heart of the conflict.

“Why is Canada attacking it’s First Nations population with a self-described paramilitary force? To protect the right of a Texas oil company’s fracking ambitions?  And what do Wendy’s french fries have to do with fracking? “

They then answered that question at length and in detail, using the online mapping tool Pearltrees to lay out the links between Cavendish Farms, Wendy’s, and SWN. And the New Brunswick political establishment. And the Irving family, a local corporate and media power clan whose influence extends internationally. And then called on Anonymous and supporters to fill in missing connections as well.

The point of all of this, according to one of the investigators we spoke with via Twitter, is to enable people to protest the RCMP response at Elsipogtog by demonstrating at their local Wendy’s, instead of trucking all the way to the Texas headquarters of SWN. The goal is to show that the events taking place on unceded Mi’kmaq territory are connected in a very real dollars and cents way to consumer choices that everyone makes in their day to day lives, and to show that other choices are possible.

Since SWN and the RCMP are hitting the Mi’kmaq where they live, Anonymous has decided to hit them where they live: right in the bank account.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons