Meetings underway in Quebec to discuss fate of remaining rail barricades
Meetings are currently underway in Quebec to discuss whether to maintain or dismantle the two remaining rail barricades that were set up last month in support of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs in British Columbia.
In Kahnawake, a Mohawk community south of Montreal, residents are gathering by a sacred fire that was lit at the site of the blockade, which crosses a Canadian Pacific Railway line used by both freight and commuter trains.
There was a first public meeting about the blockade last night in Kahnawake, though no decision was made.
«There’s no definite deadline. But people do feel that a decision needs to be made soon as to what’s going to happen,» said Kanen’tó:kon Hemlock, a traditional chief of the Bear Clan in Kahnawake.
«Whether the decision is going to be to stay on the tracks or to do something else — that’s going to be up to them.»
A meeting is also taking place tonight in Listuguj, Que., where Mi’kmaq activists have blocked a rail line that connects the Gaspé Peninsula with New Brunswick.
Both barricades went up in early February, amid the nationwide protests that followed the arrest of pipeline opponents in Wet’suwet’en territory.
Other barricades in the country — including one in Tyendinaga, near Belleville, Ont., that halted rail traffic in large parts of Eastern Canada — have since been taken down.
Proposed agreement reached over the weekend
The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have been leading a long-running battle against a natural-gas pipeline that is under construction in northern B.C. and slated to cross their ancestral lands.
Over the weekend, Wet’suwet’en chiefs and representatives of the federal and B.C. governments announced they had reached a draft agreement concerning some of the issues involved in the pipeline dispute.
The traditional, or longhouse, leaders in Kahnawake have said they wanted to discuss with their Wet’suwet’en counterparts before deciding what to do with their own barricade.
Court orders have been issued against both barricades. The injunctions are valid until Thursday.
