page_title: 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests
section_title: Rail disruptions
hierarchical_section_title: 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests / Solidarity protests / Rail disruptions
context_page_description: The 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests were a series of civil disobedience protests held in Canada. The main issue behind the protests was the construction of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline through 190 kilometres of Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation territory in British Columbia, land that is unceded. Other concerns of the protesters were indigenous land rights, the actions of police, land conservation, and the environmental impact of energy projects.
  Starting in 2010, the Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs and their supporters made their opposition to the project known and set up a camp directly in the path of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines, a path similar to that which would later be proposed for the Coastal GasLink Pipeline. Northern Gateway was officially rejected in 2016, but the CGL project moved through planning, indigenous consultations, environmental reviews and governmental reviews before being approved in 2015. However, the approval of all the Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs was never granted. In 2018, the backers of the pipeline project gave the go-ahead to the CA$6.6 billion project and it began construction.
context_section_description: Other First Nations, activists and other supporters of the Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs targeted railway lines for their demonstrations of solidarity. Near Belleville, Ontario, members of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation began a blockade of the Canadian National Railway rail line just north of Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory on February 6, 2020, causing Via Rail to cancel trains on their Toronto–Montreal and Toronto-Ottawa routes. The line is critical to the CNR network in Eastern Canada as CNR has no other east–west rail lines through Eastern Ontario. However, in order to mitigate major economic disruption, CNR brokered a "workaround" agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to share tracks in order to avoid the Mohawk protesters.
  Other protests blocking rail lines halted service on Via Rail's Prince Rupert and Prince George lines, running on CNR tracks. Protests on the CNR line west of Winnipeg additionally blocked the Canadian, the passenger rail route operated by VIA Rail from Vancouver to Toronto. Protests disrupted multiple GO Transit rail services in Toronto and Exo's Candiac line in Montreal. CPR rail lines were also disrupted in downtown Toronto and south of Montreal. The Société du Chemin de fer de la Gaspésie (SCFG) freight railway between Gaspé and Matapedia was blockaded on February 10 by members of the Listuguj Miꞌgmaq First Nation.
  Starting on February 6, Via Rail announced passenger train cancellations on a day-to-day basis. Trains on the Toronto-Ottawa and Toronto-Montreal routes were cancelled first. Prince George-Prince Rupert service was suspended on February 11. Canadian National Railway (CNR) rail freight traffic was also halted along these lines. Other Canadian routes were intermittently disrupted as well.
  On February 13, CNR shut down its rail lines east of Toronto. On the same day Via Rail, which rents these lines for its passenger service, announced it would be shutting down its entire network, with the exception of the Sudbury–White River train line and the Winnipeg–Churchill train between Churchill and The Pas, until further notice.
  Amtrak international service from New York City to Toronto and Montreal was not affected. Amtrak rail service between Seattle and Vancouver on BNSF Railway Company lines was intermittently blocked; Amtrak's bus operation over the same route was not affected.
  CNR issued multiple injunctions against the protestors, including several separate injunctions against the Mohawk protesters near Belleville. The Ontario Provincial Police decided not to act immediately on the injunctions.
  The rail blockade of Prince Rupert was lifted on February 14. On February 18, VIA announced partial restoration of passenger service starting February 20, between Ottawa and Quebec City. Via later announced it would resume some south-western Ontario routes. Trans-Canada passenger service was not restored.
  On February 19, a group of about 20 protesters from a group called "Cuzzins for Wetʼsuwetʼen" erected a blockade on a CN rail line in west Edmonton, Alberta. CN obtained a court injunction, and less than twelve hours after the blockade began, it was dismantled by counter-protesters after a CN legal representative arrived to serve the injunction.
  On February 19, activists set up a blockade on the Mont-Saint-Hilaire rail line in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, promising to stay until the RCMP leaves the disputed zone in Wetʼsuwetʼen territory. The blockade caused Via Rail to postpone resuming service between Montreal and Quebec City. The Mont-Saint-Hilaire rail line was cleared on February 21, 2019 after Quebec Police arrived to enforce a CNR injunction.
  On February 20, another blockade of CPR tracks sprang up between Kamloops and Chase in British Columbia. The protesters left voluntarily on February 21, after the RCMP offered to leave the Wetʼsuwetʼen land. The group vowed to return in four days if a dialogue was not started between the prime minister and the hereditary chiefs. This was followed by CPR writing an open letter to Prime Minister Trudeau, asking him to speak directly with 
caption: Map of the Canadian National Railway system. Much of the network east of Toronto was temporarily shut down on February 13 due to protests and blockades in eastern Canada.
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