Wet'suwet'en protester blocking trains in Vaughan served with injunction

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 18, 2020
Tess Kalinowski

Protesters who have been blocking all trains leaving in and out of Macmillan Yard in Vaughan since Saturday morning, in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en land defenders, have announced that they will be shutting things down 5 p.m.

Protest organizer, Vanessa Gray, said the group was served an injunction, ordering them to vacate CN’s rail lines, by police around 3 p.m., but Gray said it won’t dampen their fervour, and will only embolden the demonstrators, as it is proof that their action is proving effective.

“It’s part of the paperwork that comes along with shutting down a major corridor and impacting the economy,” Gray said. “Their injunctions show us we’re being effective and we will keep going.”

She said the decision to leave is a matter of safety for the legion of protesters, based on the fact that it’s getting dark and colder as the day progresses.

“We want to get everyone out of the cold for now and then plan our next action,” Gray said.

The decision to leave the tracks was delivered around 3:30 p.m., to the group converged along the typically busy corridor of tracks, near the Pioneer Village Subway Station.

“Please try to stick around for that, so we’re leaving as a strong group, it keeps everybody a lot safer,” said one of the group leaders to cheers from the flock of protesters huddled around fires along the tracks.

She would not reveal when or how that next act of protest will unfold, only that at plans are already underway.

“I would just say expect more action in the near future,” Gray said.

Trains going west to Hamilton, London, New York and Michigan were blocked as of 10 a.m. As of 1 p.m., all north and north-west traffic to Sudbury, North Bay, BC and on to Wisconsin had also been blocked.

GO service was also suspended in Barrie. A statement from GO said “There’s a large group of people near our tracks on the Barrie corridor north of York University Station. To ensure everyone remains safe near the tracks, we have had to unexpectedly cancel and / or modify service on the Barrie line until further notice.”

In Toronto, a group called Toronto Wet’suwet’en Solidarity gathered at Bloor and Spadina Sts. early Saturday and took the subway north to Pioneer Village subway station, then proceeded to Macmillan Yard.

Approximately 200-300 people were gathered, chanting “What do you when justice fails? Block the rails!” as about a dozen cars from York Region, Toronto and CN Rail police were stationed nearby, though numbers of police and protesters fluctuated throughout the day.

Trains going west to Hamilton, London, New York and Michigan were blocked at 10 a.m. Then at 1 p.m. a group of about 75 people moved a kilometre down the tracks to block all north and north-west traffic to Sudbury, North Bay, BC and on to Wisconsin.

Throughout the bitterly cold day protesters carried signs saying “Uphold Indigenous sovereignty,” “Hands off Wet’suwet’en,” “Capitalism is organized crime,” and “No RCMP on Wet’suwet’en lands.”

Protesters lit fires to keep warm put a collection of wood along the tracks at the second site. Railway police were pulled over at Keele St. Bridge overlooking the tracks as protestors sang and chanted.

“We are here to shut down Canada,” said Vanessa Gray, 27, a member of Aamjiwnaang First Nation near Sarnia and spokesperson for Toronto Wet’suwet’en Solidarity.

“To Canadians who feel inconvenienced by our actions, they should think about the stolen Indigenous lands they currently stand on, the genocide the same government has committed on my grandparents, on the older generations. We are the newer generations who are standing up for a younger generation. We’re here to protect everyone’s right to a healthy environment and that means solidarity with Indigenous land defenders.”

Via Rail and CN have suspended their services indefinitely amid the Wet’suwet’en blockades as students at many Universities struggled to get home for reading week.

An injunction in B.C. was enforced earlier this month by the RCMP to give Coastal GasLink access to a work site for the pipeline, which is part of a $40-billion LNG Canada export project in Kitimat.

Coastal GasLink has signed agreements with all 20 elected band councils along the pipeline route. However, Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs assert title to a vast 22,000-square-kilometre area and say band councils only have authority over reserve lands.

Protests are ongoing throughout Canada.

Protestors in Toronto shut down Yonge and Dundas intersection during Friday evening rush hour.

A small group of people from the Mi’kmaq territory of Listuguj in Quebec continue to block a rail line in their community.

Eric Dube, president of the affected railway, says the blockade that began Monday is costing his company about $15,000 a day in lost revenue.

Dube said he spoke to protesters Wednesday and they said they are there for the long haul.

Victoria police said “peaceful” demonstrations at B.C. government offices in the city appeared to be wrapping up.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the blockades and subsequent rail shutdown is “becoming a very serious threat” to the Canadian economy.

Canada’s largest propane supplier predicts critical shortages of the fuel in central and eastern Canadian markets as a suspension of service on sections of Canadian National tracks continues.

Superior Propane says in a statement released today that the supply shortages will “affect its customers and the entirety of the industry.”

Greg McCamus, president of Superior Propane, says the company is unable to move rail cars of propane to supply Central and Eastern Canada and customers who rely on the fuel to heat and power their homes, businesses, farms, hospitals and more will see shortages “in the coming days.”

Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau says Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s suggestion of ordering police to end rail line blockades across the country was unhelpful.

Scheer wants the prime minister to order the public safety minister to tell RCMP detachments to end blockades by supporters of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs.

But Garneau is dismissing Scheer’s remarks.

“This is a complex situation and I think that that does not indicate an understanding of the situation,” he said.

Trudeau says he has no plans to order the RCMP to end the blockades of vital rail links across the country. Speaking in Munich, where he’s attending a global security conference, Trudeau brushed off demands made in Ottawa earlier by Scheer.

“We are not the kind of country where politicians get to tell the police what to do in operational matters,” said Trudeau.

Trudeau said Canada has failed Indigenous Peoples for generations and there is no quick fix to problems that have sparked the latest disputes.