I attended the no-fracking rally in Port Hastings last Saturday afternoon. Sixty of us stood beside the rotary, stamping our feet to keep warm and holding hand-made signs that said "Water Not Oil" and "No Drilling, No Spilling." We smiled and waved our thanks at the passing motorists who honked their support.

We came from Antigonish, Mulgrave, Port Hawkesbury. From communities along Route 19 and around Lake Ainslie, including Waycobah First Nation. It was a diverse group: students from St. F.X., a hairdresser, two carpenters, an organic farmer, a nurse, a man who has just lost his job at the NewPage mill; a retired accountant, two sisters of St. Martha’s; four young mothers, one of them Mi’kmaq, another holding her seven-month-old baby; a woman who will celebrate her 80th birthday this year, a young couple who had just become engaged, a mail driver, a chef, a Mi’kmaq grandmother, a fisherman, the mayor of a small town, a social worker, a teacher, a woman who works in a small-options home.


The Chronicle Herald