The looming threat of a widespread CN Rail shut down due to demonstrations in support of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs has many branches of Canada’s supply chain holding its breath.
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For about a week, supporters have set up blockades at rail lines and highways across the country in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs who are opposed to the construction of a $6-billion, 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink pipeline that crosses their traditional territory in northwestern B.C.
Solidarity protests sprang up on rail lines in Ontario,Montreal and B.C. after RCMP moved into the Wet’suwet’en camps to enforce a court-ordered injunction, removing and arresting protesters to allow workers to resume construction.
The demonstrations have choked service on Via Rail’s lines between Montreal and Toronto and Ottawa and Toronto, and near New Hazelton, B.C.
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CN Rail could be next. The company has already halted more than 150 freight trains and says if blockades aren’t cleared soon, it will be forced to closed a “significant” part of its Canadian network.
Many of Canada’s industry groups are bracing for impact — if they aren’t already feeling it.
Nathalie St-Pierre, the CEO of the Canadian Propane Association, said a suspension on the rail network would put the propane industry over the edge.
1:45 Wet’suwet’en Nation divided on Coastal GasLink pipeline
Wet’suwet’en Nation divided on Coastal GasLink pipeline
The week-long blockades have already squeezed propane supply, she said, leaving some regions with concerningly low reserves. Coupled with a recent government order to reduce speed limits for trains carrying dangerous goods, St-Pierre said a network suspension would be “a bit of a nightmare.”
“We obviously have no control over any of this,” she told Global News in a phone interview. “We’re hoping that there will be an understanding that it’s impacting the lives of a lot of people, including Indigenous people who rely on propane for a variety of reasons.”
Producers of wood, pulp and paper products have already lost millions of dollars since the blockades began a week ago, according to the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC).
The Montreal to Toronto corridor and the access to the Port of Prince Rupert in B.C. — both impacted by blockades — are “vital” to the foresty products industry, said FPAC CEO Derek Nighbor.
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He said a suspension across the network would create “absolute chaos.”
“It’s not like you can just flip a contingency switch and everything is fine,” he said. “That rail line is a vital artery for us. If there’s any disruption there, we can’t get raw materials in, we can’t get empty cars in to load the product, and we can’t get our stuff to customers — that’s an immediate hit.”
“Our footprint is significant and we’re really worried about where this heads.”
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For Canadian farmers, the consequences could be “huge,” as the industry is still recovering from a strike by unionized CN Rail workers, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) said. The week-long November strike brought rail service in key regions to a halt, hampering grain crops and exports and affecting all players along the supply chain.
2:08 Pipeline protest near CN rail tracks in Tyendinaga enters 7th day
Pipeline protest near CN rail tracks in Tyendinaga enters 7th day
“Farmers don’t get paid until their products reach the market,” spokesperson Matt Houston told Global News in a statement.
“Interruptions in rail service amplifies the stress that farmers and rural communities are under, creating a huge amount of uncertainty in their day-to-day lives. While the CFA respects the rights of Canadians to protest, we feel these protests should not endanger the health and livelihoods of other Canadians.”
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce appealed on Thursday to all levels of government “and law enforcement” to restore rail service by removing the blockades.
“The rail system affects the entire Canadian economy and Canadians everywhere, including people trying to get to and from work,” the business advocacy organization said in a statement. “They must be allowed to continue to serve the thousands of businesses that depend on them.”
But the demonstrators at the heart of the debacle are standing their ground. They say blocking the tracks and disrupting rail service is their only way to be heard.
“For us here in the community, that’s really the only option that we have. We don’t have a voice,” Jaylee Thompson, a Mohawk supporter who was at the blockade near Belleville, Ont., on Wednesday.
“When we talk and we speak and we try to make ourselves heard to corporate Canada, the Canadian government, however you want to put it, they just don’t listen.”
Police have served injunctions at some of the sites, but few have been enforced. Protesters were cleared of the Port of Vancouver on Monday, ending in the arrest of 43 people.
Thompson said, at this point, there has been no indication that police are going to move in and forcibly remove demonstrators at the camp in Tyendinaga Township, near Belleville.
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1:03 Trudeau says pipeline protests across Canada ‘an issue that is of concern’
Trudeau says pipeline protests across Canada ‘an issue that is of concern’
If they did, he said they would be impeding on a peaceful protest.
“That’s going to start a whole new issue. It won’t be over the pipelines anymore. It’ll be: ‘What are you doing? Is this is still genocide? Why are you not letting us have our day, have our voice, have our freedom?’”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that while he respects the rights to peaceful protest, the rule of law must also be respected. He said he would be working with federal ministers on “next steps.”
“I’m encouraging all parties to dialogue to resolve this as quickly as possible,” he said.
— with files from The Canadian Press and Global News’ Alexandra Mazur
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
