CN Rail expressed frustration with police for refusing to stop an illegal blockade in Eastern Ontario that disrupted the key train system that transports $100-million worth of goods along the crucial Montreal-Toronto corridor Friday.
For the third time in 15 months, a blockade forced CN Rail to leave 25 trains sitting idle, while transport trucks were slowed on the highway and nearly 5,000 Via Rail passengers had to change their long-weekend travel plans.
On a National Day of Action characterized by first nations members and their supporters demonstrating peacefully across the country, a rogue group of 70 fatigue-wearing Mohawk warriors ignored pleas to minimize disruption.
CN Rail spokesman Mark Hallman would not discuss revenues the company might have lost when it cancelled its freight trains for the day, but said the company operates 25 trains carrying about $100-million worth of commodities between Montreal and Toronto every day.
“This is frustrating,” said Mr. Hallman, whose company obtained a court injunction in April to stop a 30-hour blockade. The company was upset when the Ontario Provincial Police refused to enforce the order at the time.
Via Rail does not yet know how many refunds it will have to pay out after cancelling all 24 trains scheduled to run between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal Friday, as many passengers opted to exchange their tickets, spokeswoman Catherine Kaloutski said.
By last night, the protesters behind the blockade had toned down their rhetoric of economic upheaval and were measuring their success in terms of having generated discussion and debate.
“We'll take it till midnight, fulfill our mandate,” said a conciliatory Shawn Brant, the Mohawk from the Tyendinaga reserve near Deseronto, Ont., who led the action.
Mr. Brant referred to Highway 401 as his group's “bargaining chip,” but it was the OPP who first moved in and shut it down between Belleville and Napanee, Ont., to minimize a threat to public safety. The highway was open again by noon.
Elsewhere, the National Day of Action was decidedly peaceful.
In Ottawa, about a thousand people joined Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine in a march through the downtown core before settling in for speeches and music on Victoria Island near Parliament Hill.
“I truly believe in my heart Canadians want everyone to have a fair chance in life,” Chief Fontaine told the crowd.
He said he welcomed the Conservative government's recent announcement that it would speed up the land-claims process, but urged the Tories to reverse their opposition to the $5-billion Kelowna accord and support a declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples currently before the United Nations.
At a demonstration outside Queen's Park in Toronto, aboriginal protester Doreen Silversmith slammed the federal government's offer of $125-million to end the 15-month standoff with native protesters in Caledonia, Ont.
“The government can goddamn shove it up their asses,” she said to the cheers of about 400 natives and University of Toronto students.
Order prevailed at the site of the occupation in Caledonia, where about a dozen protesters began the day by praying for peace and calm before holding a potluck dinner and information session.
At noon in Montreal, dozens of Mohawks from the Kahnawake reserve at the heart of the 1990s Oka standoff blockaded the Mercier bridge in a peaceful protest that snarled traffic.
On Vancouver Island, police thwarted a small group's attempt to take over a house in an expensive new development in a Victoria suburb. Undeterred, the dozen or so protesters moved across the street and unfurled a banner protesting against urban sprawl.
At the boundary between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, dozens of Mi'kmaq protesters and their supporters lined the shoulders of the Trans-Canada Highway to call attention to native issues.
In Kenora, Ont., the mayor and a native leader signed an accord pledging to work together to press the provincial and federal governments to resolve outstanding land claims and treaty issues.
The OPP said motorists were easily diverted around small groups of protesters who peacefully blockaded two rural roads in Ontario's cottage country.
