First Nations Blockade: Via Rail Says Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal Line Impacted

NAPANEE, Ont. - Via Rail service on the busy Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal line is to resume Thursday after a First Nations blockade forced Via to bus passengers between Toronto and Ottawa on Wednesday.

Jacques Gagnon, a spokesman for Montreal-based Via Rail, said 26 trains were cancelled on Wednesday, affecting an estimated 5,000 passengers.

Vic Toews was asked to stop Sarnia CN blockade: emails

A national trade group for propane asked Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to step in and dismantle a CN rail blockade set up by First Nations protesters in Sarnia, Ont. last winter during the Idle No More movement, according to correspondence obtained by Global News.

The Canadian Propane Association wrote a letter to Toews “urging the federal government to take the necessary steps to remove the CN rail blockage in Sarnia, Ontario in an orderly and safe manner,” according to an email.

Idle No More: Protesters force VIA to stop trains

VIA Rail has been forced to stop passenger trains between Toronto and Montreal and Toronto and Ottawa because of a blockade on the tracks near Marysville, Ont.

VIA Rail says ground transportation will get passengers through the site of the blockade, which is one of several protests across the country as part of a national day of action in the Idle No More movement.

Idle No More activists block VIA rail tracks near Kingston

More than a thousand VIA Rail travellers were stranded on four trains Saturday night when Idle No More protesters blocked off the main rail route between Toronto and Montreal.

About a dozen protesters took over the tracks in Marysville, near Kingston, around 4:30 p.m., forcing VIA Rail to dispatch 20 buses to transport passengers to their respective destinations, which included Toronto’s Union Station, Ottawa and Montreal.

'Longest running' First Nations blockade continues

First Nations activists were back at the blockade on Monday after celebrating a decade of turning back logging trucks from Grassy Narrows traditional lands.

The road block first went up at Slant Lake, about 600 km northwest of Thunder Bay, on Dec. 2, 2002.