ST-LAMBERT, Quebec — In an echo of situations that significantly disrupted the railroad’s operations in early 2020, protesters staged a blockade Saturday of Canadian National’s line in St-Lambert, adjacent to Montreal , saying they were acting in solidarity with a First Nations group in British Columbia.
The Montreal Gazette reports protesters said they were responding to a Royal Canadian Mounted Police raid on Wet’suwet’en First Nation territory where a gas pipeline is being built.
“What we’re doing is we’re responding to Wet’suwet’en’s calls to shut down Canada,” protester Marianne Côté told the Gazette. “And we’re inviting everyone to respond to the call for solidarity and to block transit infrastructure.”
The protest ended after about 5½ hours, as Longueuil and Canadian National police lined the site. A CN spokesman told the newspaper that the railroad was “monitoring the situation closely” but declined to comment on how the protest ended. The blockade delayed some freight traffic and led to cancellations and delays for some VIA Rail Canada trains.
Blockades at a number of locations across Canada disrupted CN operations for about three weeks in 2020, taking both a political and financial toll [see “Toll of blockages includes huge cost for farmers …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 28, 2020].
Protesting or not, they are on private property and should be subject to arrest. They are also interfering with intraprovince and possibly international commerce. They are putting themselves in danger standing on the tracks and/or highway.
They are interfering with public transportation. That’s at least three strikes. book’em Danno.
Well Michael, when the provincial police do not enforce injunction after injunction because of the mess both senior levels of government, especially the federal government refuse to address nothing is going to change. And on top of that the indigenous folks have two different governing bodies, one progressive the other hereditary just compounds the problem. If you look at every flashpoint the progressives have seen what they believe is a good path forward while the hereditary side believes their way is correct to protect their rights as given to them.
This most recent flair up in Caledonia has a few dozen OPP officers watching and allowing the blockade to stand. Nothing has been said but most likely behind the seen negotiations have removed the blockade, not force.
They will be back another day, favourite location to protest since it is right beside the largest reserve in Canada.
Timothy and Mike, unfortunately when it comes to indigenous protests in Canada there is a whole different approach due to past promises and treaty’s that have not been honoured by Canada that predate Confederation all the way back to the war of 1812.
The good news is this morning the highway blockade came down on the bridge that parallels the blocked rail line to Nanticoke so maybe the blockade is over as well.
In the old old days, Firehoses were used to disperse protesters….
Canada?
Too polite (spineless?) to deal with protesters by enforcing the law.
The line to Nanticoke Ontario is blocked, two weeks now so no rail traffic to the Imperial Oil Refinery or Stelco. The First Nations protesters are protesting the arrest of Indigenous protesters at the coastal gas link project in British Columbia, same group that was at the heart of the rail blockades in 2020.
Law enforcements would rather give a 675$ to railfans taking pictures a little too close from the railroad property (or even sometimes from public properties). But when dozens of trespassers (none of them of native origins) block a vital commercial artery for several hours, they can all walk-out free, without any penalty. Go figure.
CN, CP and the government settled with First Nations. These are outliers and they should be turned over to law enforcement.