Protests by Native Groups in Canada Close Road and Rail Links (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Protests by Native Groups in Canada Close Road and Rail Links

By IAN AUSTEN
Published: June 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/30/world/americas/30canada.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

OTTAWA, June 29 — Canadian travelers faced road closings and rail shutdowns
on Friday as they set out for the Canada Day holiday weekend during
nationwide protests by native groups against the Conservative government
over several recent disputes about land claims and financing.

While most native groups heeded a call from the national leadership to stage
only nondisruptive protests, members of a Mohawk tribe in Ontario shut down
passenger and freight train service along Canada’s busiest rail corridor
and caused a section of Canada’s busiest highway to be closed for about 11
hours.

Via Rail Canada, the passenger rail system, canceled service between
Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa for the rest of the day, leaving thousands
stranded. Canadian National said that about 25 freight trains were also
affected.

Most demonstrations on Friday, however, mirrored a peaceful march of about
1,000 people past the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa that was led by Phil
Fontaine, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, the main
native group.

Speaking on an Ottawa River island that is claimed by an Algonquin tribe,
Mr. Fontaine said the protest day “is certainly not about political power —
it’s about hope and giving our children a reason to live.”

He told marchers that his 13-year-old niece had recently committed suicide,
a disproportionately high cause of death for many young people on native
reserves.

Topping the list of grievances is a decision taken by the Conservatives
shortly after they took power last year. It canceled an agreement between
the federal government, the provinces and the territories that would have
provided $5 billion Canadian ($4.7 billion) for education, employment
training and health care improvements for native people.

The government also eliminated financing for native language training
programs and reversed Canada’s longstanding support for the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Late last month, the government announced a new system for settling native
land claims that met with a favorable reaction from Mr. Fontaine. But that
did not change his overall view of the Conservatives and Prime Minister
Stephen Harper.

“We will not be bought off, never, ever, by any government,” Mr. Fontaine
said Friday.

The Mohawk tribe that blocked roads and rail lines on Friday had shut down
the Canadian National tracks in April. Shawn Brant, a spokesman for the
men’s council at the Mohawk Tyendinaga reserve, who is the subject of an
arrest warrant from that episode, suggested that it might block Highway 401
again.

As a safety measure, the Ontario Provincial Police shut 18 miles of Highway
401, the main link between Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, as members of the
reserve were about to move onto it shortly after midnight.

In Montreal, a vast traffic jam developed after Mohawks blocked a major
bridge over the St. Lawrence for about 90 minutes. The Ontario police said
a road in Muskoka, a popular resort north of Toronto, was also barricaded
by protesters, as was another road in a rural area southwest of Ottawa.

The Mohawk protesters agreed to allow the reopening of Highway 401 late in
the morning, but they planned to maintain their blockade of a smaller
highway and the main line of the Canadian National Railway until midnight
Friday.