First Nations protesters have stopped VIA service between Toronto-Ottawa and Toronto-Montreal for an indeterminate period of time, among other blockades in Canada this weekend.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/idle-no-more-protests-target-rail-service-border-crossings-1.1102263
Bruce
Buried in a story about other aspects of this ongoing protest is the news that the blockade of the VIA trains ended after midnight last night. VIA stated that about 1,000 passenger were affected.
It was interesting reading the columnists in the local right-wing paper today. I usually don’t agree with them, but I think this is increasingly looking like a problem wanting a throw-more-money-at-it solution. These issues have been dragging on for 35 years, but in today’s era of tight government money the old solution isn’t very likely. Nobody has yet figured out what the new solution is going to look like, or when it will happen. So, I expect this is the type of railway related news we are going to see out of Canada for the next while.
Bruce
Not being Canadian - what is the root problem that is being protested?
Balt
Root problem has to do with the dysfunctional constitutional, legal, economic and other relations which have existed for many years between the Federal Government (which is responsible for Indian Affairs…their term, not mine) and First Nations (aboriginal people). As Bruce also pointed out the previous ‘solution’ has been to throw money at the problem; however, as is usually the case this is little better than a band-aid and a mighty expensive one at that. At the root of the change will be IMHO an extensive overhaul of the Indian Act, the legislation which effectively administers most (if not all) aspects of First Nations lives, on or off reserve, and possibly also the Treaties (1-11) which were ‘negotiated’ in the C19th. To date, little in the way of significant change has occurred and the result is an increasingly dissatisfied grassroots, especially within the FN community and outside of FN leadership significantly, which has decided that peaceful protest is the only available and realistic way to go. It has expanded rapidly in the past couple of weeks (the Kingston Sub and Sarnia blockades are part of this protest, the Hunger strike of Chief Theresa Spence of Attawapiskat is another expression of this protest as well as is the protest re: the Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat BC) and has finally resulted in a meeting being called between the Prime Minister, the Minister of Indian Affairs and the Assembly of First Nations (the umbrella group which represents First Nations in Canada ). Usually these are pretty pro-forma and highly politicised affairs, however FN’s have said that this time substantive and substantial progress must be made or the protests will continue.
As someone who worked for many years among FN’s in Northern Canada (Yukon) I agree the relationship is badly flawed, even broken, and will require significant and substantial changes, legal constitutional and more, to be made. This is, again IMHO, a significant juncture in this sorry histo
What do the protesters want?
Bucyrus
The answer to your question is generally contained in the first paragraph of my post above. I will enlarge for you as Balt’s question did not concern specifics, rather root causes…
Specifically they are matters such as:
-constitutional and legal rights they do not currently have under the Indian Act (such as property rights which they do not currently have and other related matters)
-acknowledgement and further clarification of treaty rights, especially to their traditional territories and reserve lands, including subsurface mineral and other such rights.
-attached to this last item at least an equal voice with other stakeholders in environmental and regulatory issues which primarily concern shale gas drilling and fracking, dilbit pipeline rights of way on their traditional territories and reserve lands and the development (and profit sharing) of subsurface minerals (such as diamonds in the Attawapiskat case)
-the list goes on and is an eminently reasonable one.
A working knowledge of the RSC Indian Act (and whatever the US equivalent is) and other relevant legislation is helpful when discussing such matters in detail.
I hope this summary clarifies matters for you.
Charlie
Chilliwack, BC
Hang on to your hats, boys! A Provincial Judge has just slammed the Ontario Provincial Police for not enforcing injunctions issued in CN’s favour against First Nation protesters. Says future of law enforcement is in doubt!
Bruce
The plot thickens…
Charlie
Chilliwack, BC
First Nations protesters are again blocking rail lines in what they are calling a “Day of Protest”. Whether they will hold to this schedule is unclear.
The first blockade is at Tyendinaga Township, ON, between Belleville and Kingston, where CP and CN lines cross. It has disrupted VIA service between Toronto-Ottawa and Toronto-Montreal. Neither freight railway has made a comment about this yet.
CN has said their service in Manitoba has been stopped on their mainline after protesters blockaded a train at Portage-la-Prairie.
I won’t post any links as this info is buried in much larger stories.
Bruce
Bruce
I just heard on the CBC noon radio that CN Skeena Sub was also blocked at Kitwanga, BC to a VIA passenger train just long enough for the blockade members to speak briefly (15 min they said) to the VIA passengers about why the blockade was in place there in the first place. They had contacted CN and VIA prior to doing so and informed them of what they were going to do.
Charlie
Chilliwack, BC
The Victor diamond mine near Attawapiskat spent $93 million on goods and services of which $49 million went to aboriginal services, the reserve got $32 million to supply goods and services, also $321 million in contracts were let within the community, this does not include the hundreds of millions of dollars sent to this reserve over the years by the Canadian Government, the residents are living in filthy shacks, no education, no social services because these benefits do not get to the people.
What they need up there is their own railroad.
Enough on this off-topic- - it’s too controversial
Hearing this as an outsider, these many grievances do seem quite broad and generalized. That suggests that working out these issues might be a long process. So why are the protesters suddenly stopping trains?
Short form: lack of progress in the discussions.
One First Nation leader has come right out and said he wants the leaders of businesses affected by delays to their rail shipments to bring pressure on the Prime Minister.
As of about 10 PM MST the protests in Ontario and Manitoba have ended, but there is no information, either way, that I can see about the situation in BC. Of course it is still two hours to their 11:00 News there, so anything could happen yet. It is all about getting the biggest media bang you can.
Bruce
Tatans
Without getting too far off topic, and responding to you, the research I did from De Beers annual reports 2011 conflicts with your analysis. According to this report, direct spending by DeBeers in the communities located near the Snap Lake Mine NWT and the Victor Mine Ontario totaled approximately 5.5M. How and where these monies were spent was not detailed. The 49M you reference for aboriginal services is described as ‘joint ventures with aboriginal partners’ by the company. DeBeers does not detail the structure or purpose of these joint ventures, therefore who receives the financial benefit from these ventures is unknown through this source. I have no idea where the 32M to supply goods and services comes from, much less the 321M in contracts let within the community (I assume you refer to Attawapiskat in both cases). Neither is referenced in DeBeers Report to Society (Annual Report 2011).
Re: hundreds of millions spent…IAND has spent approximately 90M on direct financial support of the Attawapiskat Band since 2005, their accounting not mine, approximately 18M annually for all services. I assume you are familiar with the economics of utilities operation, provision of basic health and educational services as well as construction of any kind in areas such as this. 18M annually for all such operating costs and Capital Improvements especially, will be eaten up very quickly and quite likely is inadequate overall. As you are likely aware, the last Auditor General’s Report by Sheila Fraser, was highly critical of IAND’s financial practices and operation. There’s plenty of blame to go around if it comes to that.
The Federal Court of Canada in August 2012 rescinded the Third Party Management imposed by IAND on Attawapiskat Band, describing it as ‘unlawful’. The court’s reasons are public knowledge. There is question about the band’s fiscal management practices as the recent Deloitte Touch audit indicates. I will read this befo
Give First Nation what has become the US solution - Native American Gambling Casinos!
That made me laugh.
Given the nature of railroading, most of those business leaders aren’t even going to notice. About the only exception would be ‘just in time’ shipments. With terminal dwell times sometimes measured in days, a few hours of delay isn’t even going to cause a ripple in the general scheme of things. If it doesn’t get there today, it’ll get there tomorrow. Business as usual.
Passenger service is another story, but the railroads are used to dealing with such interruptions there, too.
Is it legal in Canada to stop trains and close borders as part of a peaceful protest?
The Mashatuxet Pequots have a very successful casino called Foxwoods in northestern Connecticut. A reservation that used to be home to a very few and very poor members of the tribe is now very successful. Many tribe members have moved there and are now quite affluent.
If you want to go Amtrak Northeast Regional trains stop at New London where Amtrak provides a connecting bus to Foxwoods.
Now that’s the $64,000 question. Of course protests involving people on RR ROW’s is trespassing, and they should be removed. But there was another First Nations protest at Ipperwash, ON in 1995 that blew up big time. What started as Police removing protesters turned into a siege/hostage situation with big time collateral damage and massive policing costs to restore order. There was a huge inquiry after that and the Police received a lot of the blame.
Since then Police have been reluctant to deal with protesters without court orders specific to each situation. And local Mayors are reluctant to tell their Police Departments to enforce the court orders because the local governments end up paying for a lot of extra costs not covered by insurance. That was why I mentioned the Mayor of Sarnia in one of my earlier posts and and the statement by the Judge in one of my more recent posts.
Enforcing the law is a fine thing until it starts to cost money. I’m not sure of the best way to get out of that mindset either.
Bruce