The Globe and Mail - 22.02.2020

A14 OTHEGLOBEANDMAIL | SATURDAY,FEBRUARY22,

Justin Trudeau adopted a sharp
shift in tone Friday, calling for an
immediate end to rail blockades
and expressing frustration that
Indigenous protesters have re-
fused to meet with hisgovern-
ment to resolve the crisis as it
heads into a third week.
The Prime Minister said the
patience of Canadians is wearing
thin and the continuing rail dis-
ruptions are damaging the Cana-
dian economy.
Mr. Trudeau held a news con-
ference Friday afternoon in Otta-
wa after a meeting of hisgovern-
ment’s incident-response group.
The meeting focused on the cur-
rent blockades, as well as last
month’s downing of a passenger
plane in Iran and the coronavirus
situation.
The government noted that re-
peated offers to meet with Wet-
’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have
been ignored.
“Here’s the reality: Every at-
tempt at dialogue has been made.
The discussions have not been
productive. We can’t have dia-
logue when only one party is
coming to the table. For this rea-
son, we have no choice but to
stop making the same overtures.
Of course, we will never close the
door on dialogue, and our hand
remains extended should some-
one want to reach for it,“ he said.
“But the fact remains, the bar-
ricades must now come down.
The injunctions must be obeyed
and the law must be upheld.”
Mr. Trudeau said the path to
reconciliation with First Nations
is at stake, adding he fears that
non-Indigenous Canadians could
“close their heart” to efforts to
forge a new relationship if the cri-
sis drags on.
Mr. Trudeau did not rule out
the possibility of a police inter-
vention to bring down the barri-
cades, but did insist he will not
call in the Canadian Armed

Forces. “We do not use the army

against Canadian civilians,” he

said.

Shortly after Mr. Trudeau

spoke, British Columbia’s Wet’su-

wet’en hereditary chiefs held a

news conference in Tyendinaga,

Ont., where they were visiting

their Mohawk supporters who

have blocked the key Canadian

National Railway line linking

Montreal and Toronto for more

than two weeks.

The protest near Belleville has

been the most economically dis-

ruptive of several related rail

blockades across the country.

The travelling hereditary

chiefs oppose the passage of

Coastal GasLink’s (CGL’s) $6.6-

billion natural gas pipeline

through their traditional territo-

ry in northern British Columbia,

though others in the community,

including elected band members,

support the project.

Wet’suwet’en hereditary Chief

Woos, who also goes by Frank

Alec, said the protests and block-

ades will continue until the RCMP

and Coastal GasLink workers

leave their traditional territory.

“Wet’suwet’en hereditary

chiefs have put a path of peace

forward in order that nation-to-

nation discussions with Canada

and B.C. may occur freely and

without duress,” he said at a news

conference. “We demand the re-

mote detachment community-

industry service office establish-

ed by the RCMP on Wet’suwet’en

territory without our consent be

immediately removed and that

the RCMP are completely re-

moved from our territory and

cease patrols from our lands. Out

means out.

“We demand that all CGL activ-

ities cease within Wet’suwet’en

territory while nation-to-nation

talks are ongoing [according] to

the eviction notice that was deliv-

ered to them on Jan. 4, 2020. We

commit to entering into a nation-

to-nation discussion, with Cana-

da and B.C. once the two above

demands are met and we insist

that these discussions occur, that

they will be held, on Wet’suwe-

t’en territory to ensure inclusivi-

ty.”

The chiefs were asked what

would happen if the Ontario Pro-

vincial Police attempted to re-

move the rail blockade.

“I think that’s a matter of na-

tional security,” said Seth Lefort,

who sat next to Chief Woos at the

news conference and is one of the

Mohawks protesting in solidarity

with the hereditary chiefs.

Andrew Brant, who is from the

nearby Tyendinaga Mohawk Ter-

ritory, said morale at the Tyendi-

naga rail blockade is high follow-

ing the news conferences.

“We are standing strong and

peaceful,” he said. “The Prime

Minister has declared war on In-

digenous peoples.“

Ontario Premier Doug Ford

called for a co-ordinated end to

all blockades.

“The Prime Minister needs to

step up and take responsibility.

Enough is enough. The illegal

blockades must come down,“ he

said in a statement. “This is a na-

tional emergency and innocent

people from coast to coast are be-

ing hurt. The federal government

must co-ordinate action to take

down these illegal blockades

across the country.”

The federalgovernment has

repeatedly pointed out that polic-

ing decisions related to protests

in B.C., Ontario and Quebec are

the responsibility of provincial

police forces.

B.C. Premier John Horgan said

Friday that it has been complicat-

ed trying to negotiate with the

Wet’suwet’en with no one reac-

hing out from their end for talks.

“It’s a challenge,” Mr. Horgan

told the media following a speech

to the Greater Vancouver Board

of Trade. “We continue to be

ready to go. We have always been

ready to go,” he said. “The way

forward is not to abandon co-op-

eration, consensus and harmony.

The way forward is to redouble

your efforts to get that.”

He noted that more voices, be-

yond the hereditary leaders, are

speaking up about the need to

figure out how to go forward.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallis-

ter said the protests risk harming

the cause of reconciliation in the

eyes of the broader public.

In an interview with The Globe

and Mail Friday, Mr. Pallister said

the conversation should move to-

ward practical measures to im-

prove the lives of First Nations

while also being clear that no in-

dividual or group has an absolute

veto on natural-resources pro-

jects.

“Public opinion matters on

these things,” he said. “This fed-

eral Liberal government has said

that reconciliation is a priority.

But if you want real reconcilia-

tion, then you have to do the real

work of achieving it. And you

have to establish some parame-

ters. You have to put a fence

around the discussion to some

degree. And you don’t do that if

you don’t make it clear that ev-

eryone does not have a veto.”

Quebec Premier François Le-

gault softened his tone slightly on

Friday, saying it’s up to police to

decide the best way to dismantle

barricades.

On Thursday, he said police

would intervene immediately af-

ter a court granted an injunction

against the newest barricade in

Saint-Lambert, Que., that day.

“I expect the dismantling to

happen soon, but it’s up to the

police. It’s not for me to say how

and when they should inter-

vene,” he told reporters in Mon-

treal, adding that the cost of the

protest is “hundreds of millions

of dollars in losses every day.”

The B.C. RCMP issued an up-

date Friday, stating that planning

is under way to move a tempora-

ry outpost – known as the com-

munity-industry safety office – to

the nearby town of Houston, B.C.

The outpost has been a source

of tension in the community and

some hereditary chiefs have said

protests will continue until the

RCMP leave Wet’suwet’en tradi-

tional territory.

WithreportsfromIanBailey,

LesPerreaux,DanielLeblanc

andLauraStone

Railbarricadesmustcomedown,PMsays

Dialogueeffortswere

ignored,Trudeausays,

whileChiefassertsthat

blockadeswillstayuntil

RCMPandCGLworkers

leaveWet’suwet’enland

BILLCURRYOTTAWA
KATEMCCULLOUGH
TYENDINAGAMOHAWKTERRITORY

JustinTrudeautellsreportersonFridayinOttawathatit’stimeforanimmediateendtorailblockades.

Hesaid,‘Wecan’thavedialoguewhenonlyonepartyiscomingtothetable.’PATRICKDOYLE/REUTERS

Fears of a looming propane crisis

caused by rail blockades have

been partly alleviated by U.S.

supplies, unseasonably warm

weather and selective deliveries,

says the head of Superior Pro-

pane.

But unless freight-train service

resumes in Eastern Canada, ra-

tioning and shortages of the

home-heating fuel are likely, said

Greg McCamus, president of Su-

perior Propane, whose main On-

tario depot in Sarnia is supplied

by trains and a pipeline.

Superior has brought in trucks

from Western Canada and is us-

ing U.S. trains to supply Atlantic

Canada, Mr. McCamus said. Cus-

tomers that operate barbecue re-

filling stations are getting limited

deliveries, in order to allow Su-

perior to prioritize residents,

hospitals and nursing homes.

“We’ve also been a bit fortu-

nate that the weather in Ontario

has been a bit warmer than nor-

mal for this time of year. So

that’s all helping us to keep the

supply moving.”

Mr. McCamus said the mea-

sures have helped ensure Superi-

or can maintain a supply that

would last about a week to 10

days. Normally, there is about

two weeks’ supply. He said it is

hard to pin down a date by

which the supplies will run out,

given the new steps the compa-

ny has taken, and the variables

of weather and demand.

“We hope that if the rail lines

start running again, we can move

through it without that kind of a

crisis happening. But there is no

question it’s an issue for the in-

dustry. And if we don’t get a res-

olution, it’s going to get

[worse],” he said by phone.

The blockades are in support

of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary

chiefs, who oppose the Coastal

GasLink natural gas pipeline on

their traditional territory in

northern British Columbia. The

$6-billion project by Calgary-

based TC Energy Corp. would

pipe natural gas from northeast-

ern B.C. to Kitimat on the coast

for export.

The protests have raised con-

cerns about shortages of critical

supplies of everything from pro-

pane to water-treatment chem-

icals, and put pressure on the

federalgovernment to find a so-

lution to limit economic dam-

age.

Canadian National Railway

Co., whose line east of Toronto

has been blocked for two weeks,

has halted freight service on its

eastern Canadian network. Pas-

senger rail company Via Rail,

which leases track space from

CN, has suspended most of its

trains.

The blockades have also stop-

ped or slowed rail service at Can-

ada’s four main ports, Vancouv-

er, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal

and Halifax, forcing ships to idle

at anchor or divert to U.S. desti-

nations.

In Halifax and Montreal, off-

loaded containers of consumer

goods and industrial compo-

nents are stacked on the docks,

with no CN trains to take them

away to markets outside the

province. “The CN network

blockade greatly complicates the

logistics of transporting goods or

completely blocks the move-

ment of goods for CN users,” said

Mélanie Nadeau, a spokeswo-

man for the Port of Montreal.

An executive with German

container ship owner Hapag-

Lloyd AG said the company is

considering skipping calls at Ha-

lifax, but has been less affected

at Vancouver and Montreal,

where it uses Canadian Pacific

Railway trains.

In an open letter to Mr. Tru-

deau, CP chief executive officer

Keith Creel called on the Prime

Minister to hold talks with the

Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs.

Mr. Creel said the railway is “se-

verely impacted” by the disputes,

including a Thursday protest on

a CP line near Chase, B.C., that

stopped trains headed to the

Port of Vancouver and a 12-day

blockade south of Montreal that

has cut off U.S. access.

Superiortakesmeasuresto

movepropaneamidblockades

ERICATKINS

TRANSPORTATIONREPORTER

T

here was more than one message in Jus-
tin Trudeau’s call for the barricades to
come down. One wasthat thegovern-
ment was losing patience, and that
there soon would be action. The other was that
Indigenous leaders now had a last chance to in-
tervene to persuade protesters to end the block-
ades, and that public support for reconciliation
was on the line.
That second message was Mr. Trudeau’s last
faint hope at having Indigenous communities
end the blockades before police step in. The
government has always been concerned that
that could make things worse, sparking vio-
lence or more blockades, the Prime Minister ac-
knowledged. Now, he was making a direct ap-
peal to Indigenous leaders to not
let that happen.
A Prime Minister who had al-
ways declared Canada’s relation-
ship with Indigenous peoples to be
its most important was putting the
onus on Indigenous leaders to save
it. That could just as easily backfire
as succeed.
At Friday’s news conference, Mr.
Trudeau went out of his way to dis-
tinguish between Indigenous and
non-Indigenous protesters, be-
tween those, he said, who had a le-
gitimate, historic grievance for be-
ing marginalized, and those who
have a current disagreement. He
indicated that sentiment about the
blockade is mixed in First Nations
such as Tyendinaga and Kahna-
wake.
That was a way of saying to In-
digenous communities across the country that
their political agenda was being taken over and
steered in ways they don’t really want. It
amounted to arguing that it is up to chiefs to de-
fuse the protests.
It isn’t at all clear that anything like that will
happen. On Tuesday, Grand Chief Serge Otsi Si-
mon of the Kanesetake Mohawk Grand Council
pleaded with protesters to pause the blockades
as a sign of good faith, warning that it could set
back relations between Ottawa and First Na-
tions, and delay Canada’s adoption of the Unit-
ed Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indige-
nous Peoples. On Wednesday, after complaints
from within his community, Mr. Simon retract-
ed his call for the blockades to come down.

And Mr. Trudeau’s suggestion on Friday that

the onus is on Indigenous leaders to save recon-

ciliation could spark a backlash.

Politically, the Prime Minister clearly decided

that his reconciliation agenda was at risk. Liber-

al MPs had been saying that their constituents

were talking about nothing but the blockades,

and demanding to know why thegovernment

wasn’t doing something to end it. Some of those

MPs figured that voters would forget about it if it

ended soon, but not if it dragged on and on.

Complaints that the rail blockades are caus-

ing real harm are growing, too. A thousand rail

workers were laid off. Shipments were blocked.

Busy commuter trains from Montreal suburbs

have been cancelled. There are fears that suppli-

es of propane, used to heat large numbers of

homes in rural areas of Ontario and Quebec,

would run out within weeks.

So Mr. Trudeau signalled that his patience

had run out – and that blockades must come

down.

On Friday, Mr. Trudeau argued

that he had done all he could to

find a peaceful resolution – of-

fered dialogue, dispatched min-

isters. And while he insisted that

he had nothing to do with getting

the RCMP to pull out of the Wet-

’suwet’en territory in British Co-

lumbia – politicians don’t tell po-

lice what to do, he said – he noted

that the retreat fulfilled a key

condition set by Wet’suwet’en

hereditary chiefs. And still, he

said, there was no reply. “We can’t

have a dialogue when only one

party is coming to the table,” he

said.

Whatever the debates about

whether he has done the right

thing, there isn’t much doubt

about the political message Mr.

Trudeau received: that he

couldn’t wait much longer.

Mr. Trudeau was right, in his speech on Tues-

day when he adopted a much more conciliatory

tone, when he said that this is a critical moment.

His statement Friday that talks are going no-

where sets the clock ticking toward police inter-

vention that could lead to violence or broader

protests. He argued that continuing blockades

will undermine public support for reconcilia-

tion, in effect warning that the impact will be

long-lasting.

Mr. Trudeau clearly decided that he not only

had no choice but to take that risk, and gamble a

big chunk of the Trudeau brand, he also expli-

citly laid relations with Indigenous people on

the line.

Trudeau’scalltoIndigenousleaders

tointerveneinprotestscouldbackfire

CAMPBELL
CLARK

OPINION

Politically,thePrime

Ministerclearly

decidedthathis

reconciliationagenda

wasatrisk.Liberal

MPshadbeensaying

thattheir

constituentswere

talkingabout

nothingbutthe

blockades,and

demandingtoknow

whythegovernment

wasn’tdoing

somethingtoendit.

FOLIO