OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet are rejecting demands from conservatives on Parliament Hill and in provincial legislatures to break up blockades of rail lines by Indigenous protesters and their supporters.
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said the Liberals won’t issue an ultimatum to remove the blockades, raised in sympathy with a B.C. First Nation’s hereditary chiefs and in opposition to a natural-gas pipeline. But there’s no sign of the peaceable talks the government says are the only way to reach a lasting resolution to the dispute.
“I’m reluctant to put a deadline to something because I find that’s not a very effective means of negotiation,” Blair said.
Blair said his government has a clear understanding of the urgent impact these disruptions are having on the lives and livelihoods of many Canadians.
“We’re highly motivated to resolve this as quickly and urgently as possible, and at the same time we’re absolutely committed to doing it in a way which is consistent with the reconciliation agenda with Indigenous communities and to ensure that we do it safely for all Canadians.”
Quebec Premier Francois Legault said Wednesday he believes a federal deadline should be imposed and, if it’s not respected, co-ordinated police action could be necessary to restore transportation links and end blockades that have disrupted rail and road traffic across the country.
He will attempt to rally counterparts in other provinces to his position this afternoon during a conference call among Canada’s premiers convened by Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe.
Moe says the premiers’ meeting is needed because blockades have been up for almost two weeks and Trudeau has offered no action to protect the country’s economic interests.
The demonstrations are in support of Wet’suwet’en First Nation hereditary chiefs who oppose a natural gas pipeline through their traditional territory in northern British Columbia.
The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have been calling for the RCMP to leave their territory and Wednesday, one of the chiefs, Na’moks, who also goes by John Ridsdale, said they won’t meet with the federal government until both the RCMP and the company building the Coastal GasLink project leave their territory.
Risdale said they have communicated these terms to Carolyn Bennett, the federal minister responsible for Crown-Indigenous relations.
Blair said Wednesday the RCMP in B.C. are under the jurisdiction of B.C. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth, and while they have been in discussions, Blair has not made a request that the RCMP retreat from the area where they’ve had an outpost for a year.
The police have enforced court injunctions against protesters who had kept Coastal GasLink workers from getting to construction sites.
One blockade has cut a key rail link in Ontario, stilling CN Rail’s freight operations in eastern Canada and shutting nearly all Via Rail passenger service for several days. Up-and-down blockades have interrupted traffic on highways and bridges.
A fresh blockade went up on a CN Rail line in Edmonton Wednesday morning: A group called Cuzzins for Wet’suwet’en said on Twitter that it’s staging the protest “in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en.”
Trudeau told reporters his government is trying to find a resolution, but also acknowledged the economic impact that the rail blockades are having across the country.
“We know that people are facing shortages, they’re facing disruptions, they’re facing layoffs. That’s unacceptable. That’s why we’re going to continue working extremely hard with everyone involved to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.”
Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said he has been in “constant contact” with officials and leaders from Kahnawake and from the Mohawk nation in Tyendinaga, whose members are among those blocking rail lines in Quebec and Ontario.
Miller would not disclose the content of these conversations, saying this would be “unproductive,” but did say the issue is being worked on hour-by-hour, with conversations happening at the highest levels of government.
“Canadians are hurting, Canada is hurting, the economy is hurting, and what they expect from us, what they expect from a nation, is government at the highest level to be engaged with the people that have requests, that have a set of demands that go back hundreds of years and haven’t been followed.”
Miller said the Indigenous groups who have been camped out at the rail blockades have expressed fear of being at the sites, where they have spent 13 days outside in frigid temperatures under constant surveillance.
“It is a very complex situation, very volatile, a lot of vulnerability, but at the same time there is a real danger in being on those rail lines.”
The situation has presented the Trudeau government with a complicated test of its oft-stated commitment to reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples while also facing mounting pressure from provincial and business leaders to see more concrete action taken to get rail traffic back up and running.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, a former federal Conservative cabinet minister, said he expects police to enforce court orders.
“What is happening here is anarchy, extended illegal protests, contrary to the orders of the courts that are shutting down large parts of the Canadian economy and ultimately will imperil public safety and health,” he said in Calgary.
“If Canada means anything, then we need to be able to work together constructively. Reconciliation doesn’t mean allowing a couple of people to shut down the national economy. Reconciliation means listening with respect, ensuring that Indigenous people get a chance to benefit from responsible development.”
A number of other high-profile Conservative politicians have painted the protesters as activists who are unconnected to the Wet’suwet’en First Nations.
Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre called them a “small group of anti-development activists who are using this as an opportunity to shut down the Canadian economy.”
Peter MacKay, who is running for leadership of the Conservative party, published a tweet Tuesday saying Canada needs a prime minister who will “stand up for the rule of law” and “not allow our economy to be hijacked by a small gang of professional protesters and thugs.”
Meanwhile, the Conservatives have put a motion of no-confidence in the government on the House of Commons order paper.
The motion would require the support of all the opposition parties to bring down the Liberal minority government and force an election, though, and two of the leaders of those parties all but dismissed the idea.
Yves-Francois Blanchet of the Bloc Quebecois called it an “idle threat,” considering the Conservatives are without a permanent leader themselves.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called the motion “ridiculous,” and said an election would plunge Canada into further crisis.
The no-confidence motion is only one of six the Conservatives have given themselves the option to put up for debate on Thursday.
Singh also renewed his call for the RCMP to leave the site of the conflict in British Columbia to facilitate peaceful talks between the first nation and the government.
“It’s important to de-escalate, it’s important to move forward,” Singh said. “This is serious, and these are serious solutions.”