Canadian travelers faced road closings and rail shutdowns Friday as they set out for the Canada Day holiday weekend amid nationwide protests by Native Canadian groups to demonstrate their displeasure with the Conservative government over several recent disputes about land claims and funding.
While most of the Native groups heeded a call from their national leadership to stage non-disruptive 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 country's passenger rail system, canceled service between Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa for the duration of the day, leaving thousands stranded. Canadian National said that about 25 freight trains were also affected.
PHOTO: AP
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, Canada's main Native group.
Speaking on an Ottawa River island that is claimed by an Algonquin tribe, Fontaine said the protest "is certainly not about political power. It's about hope and giving our children a reason to live."
Fontaine told marchers that his 13-year-old niece recently committed suicide, a disproportionately high cause of death for many young people on Native American reserves.
Topping the list of Native grievances is the decision taken by the Conservatives shortly after they took power last year. An agreement was canceled between the federal government and the provinces and territories that would have provided C$5 billion (US$4.7 billion) for education, employment training and health care improvements for Native peoples.
The government also cut funding for Native-language training programs and reversed Canada's longstanding support for the UN 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 Fontaine. But he has not changed his overall view of the Conservatives and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
"We will not be bought off, never, ever, by any government," Fontaine said on Friday.
As a safety measure, the Ontario provincial police shut 29km of Highway 401, the main link between Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, as members of the Mohawk tribe were about to move onto it shortly after midnight. The resulting detours and congestion added two or more hours to motorists' travels.
In Montreal, a massive traffic jam developed after Mohawks blocked a major bridge over the St. Lawrence River for 90 minutes.
The protesters agreed to the reopening of Highway 401 late in the morning though the blockade of a smaller highway and the main Canadian National Railway line would stand until midnight Friday.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS