Transport Minister Marc Garneau says Canada’s freight rail system faces “many, many weeks” of delays as a result of protests by and in support of indigenous groups across the country. As of this morning, just one of the blockades that have appeared over the last three weeks is reported to remain in place.
In a subscribers-only Wall Street Journal story, Garneau said recovery will be slow because there is “inertia in the system. There have been companies that have virtually stopped their operations. There are 50 ships on the Pacific Coast waiting to pick up grain.”
The first and arguably most crippling blockade, on the Canadian National near Belleville, Ontario, was cleared on Monday, but Mohawk protesters remain at the Tyendinaga site. On Wednesday night, some set fires near the railroad right-of-way, slowing or stopping train movements. Global News footage shows fires just feet from passing trains, as well as an earlier incident when protesters stood on the tracks in front of an oncoming train.
Global News also reports that 37 people were arrested in Tuesday evening’s move to clear a blockade in Toronto’s West end, which had disrupted service on GO Transit’s Milton line. Twenty-five of those were released unconditionally, while 12 were charged with mischief and seven face charges related to the Rail Safety Act
Another 19 people were arrested Tuesday at Lennoxville, near Sherbrooke, Quebec, as police cleared a blockade on Genesee & Wyoming’s St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad. Those protesters were also charged with mischief, the Sherbrooke Record reports.
The remaining blockade is on First Nations land — at Canadian Pacific’s Adirondack Junction at Kahnawake, Que., south of Montreal. It continues despite an injunction served earlier this week. The law enforcement authority at the Mohawk blockade at Kahnawake, which is blocking CP and Exo commuter traffic, is the indigenous group’s only police group, the Peacekeepers, and its head has said his agency has no interest in “criminalizing people for standing up for our rights,” the CBC reports. At Listuguj on the Gaspe Peninsula, where a provincial railroad connects to New Brunswick, protesters refused to leave when served the injuction but cleared the tracks “as a show of good faith.”
VIA Rail Canada says that as of Wednesday, 859 trains have been cancelled and more than 143,500 passengers have been affected by the blockades. Ongoing cancellations of Toronto-Ottawa and Toronto-Montreal service are now extended through at least March 1, as is the Canadian and service between Senneterre and Jonquiere, Que. Service to Prince Rupert, B.C., is cancelled through at least March 4.
— Updated at 8:30 a.m. CST to reflect just one remaining blockade.
The First Nations are a diverse group just like “white people”, “Asians”, etc. and I think part of what gave rise to the original “pipeline” issue is partly a difference of opinion / priority / position between the hereditary chiefs and their supporters and the band council(s) and their supporters. Money in some hands and not in others may also play a part in this but ideology, pride, heritage and other subjective aspects are also involved.
The escalation to rail, highway and other blockades seems to have arisen subsequent to RCMP intrusion on FN lands, and this is more an issue of sovereignty which I suspect cuts across many First Nations members regardless of their views on a specific pipeline. As mentioned there are also many long-standing unresolved issues between the various governments and First Nations, likely these are adding to the adversity and perhaps even serving to unite the First Nations behind the more radical elements.
This will not end well.
Charles, off topic but have you seen the news around Teck Resources oil sands project?
Our inept liberal government and eco terrorists at work killed a $20B project that would have given the FN people of the area years of employment, they approved the project.
Charles, I do agree with you the blockades are wrong.
Not sure if you seen it in your readings and I did make mention this would happen the other day. The blockade at Bayview junction in Hamilton resulted in four arrests, all local agitators that were not indigenous people. The FN protesters simply walked away. I believe the same thing happened in Toronto, the police are more lenient towards the FN protestors, regardless of what we all think, for the time being and for the last 20 years or so that is how it has been handled by law enforcement.
The Mohawk Confederacy still have the bypass road blocked in Caledonia, that is one of their favourite spots, happens all the time and they will be most likely allowed to stay there for as long as they want, again, just the way it is.
Standing up for their rights my bum.
“…indigenous group’s only police group, the Peacekeepers, and its head has said his agency has no interest in “criminalizing people for standing up for our rights,…”
What a convenient reason not to do your job. Grain not being shipped to those in need. Plus who knows how much other freight has been halted. The result workers being laid off trying to support their familes. 143,000+ people had their transportation interrupted.
This group must be proud & emboldened by Canada’s inept response. Pathetic!
JIM – I don’t know whether or not it’s all about the money. Quite possibly this is one of the few times it’s not about the money. Whichever, whether about the money or not about the money, the protestors simply are criminals, nothing more. If they don’t want the pipeline, they have access to the courts, the right to vote, the right of petition, etc. Not the right of blocking railway tracks.
Canada is maybe the most racially diverse country on earth, more so probably than USA or France. FN people have every right to move off the Reserve and support themselves and their families like Canadians of any other race or color. It’s when they stay on the Reserve and play the card of their special status (same in USA or Canada) that friction develops and festers.
Canada – like USA, like my own grandparents, is populated by immigrants who fled poverty and oppression in Europe or Asia or Africa and came over here with nothing. If the FNs think the Reserves aren’t a whole lot, try thinking about how much more it is compared to North America’s other races and colors. Go to Windsor or Chatham, you will see the ancestors of Americans who fled from slavery and America’s hideous Fugitive Slave Act. Talk about having ancestors who had a bad time of it! Are there Afro – Canadians blocking CN or CP in SW Ontario? Of course not. Because unlike FNs, Afro Canadians have no special status. They get on with their lives like anyone else.
I beg to differ Andrew, this time it’s not all about the money.
did FN previously agree to this project? Also, it’s all about the money. enough money cures most problems.
It’s pretty interesting to hear people complain about the Canadian government not doing mass arrests and how the protesters have no business protesting about a pipeline being run through their property etc but if the posters who have such an issue with the protesters had the same thing happen to them they would be doing the exact same thing and they would be suing the bejeebers out of the pipeline companies as well.
…..your GOVERNMENT (??) SIR is ” a doing nothing about it government (??) “
Instead of doing what the government should do they are playing politics looking after their pocket books instead of looking after the country….