A blockade near Toronto along a major commuter train line by far-left Anifa extremists has forced the transit company to cancel trains from Hamilton to Toronto.
The blockade, which was called for and organized by the far-left Antifa group “Wet’suwet’en Strong: Hamilton Solidarity,” was set up on Monday night at the Bayview Junction with protesters bragging about burning a court injunction handed to them, the Globe and Mail reports.
According to the Antifa website “Northshore Counter Info,” the blockade was set up in response to the removal of Mohawk First Nations blockaders yesterday outside of the city of Belleville in Tyendinaga by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) who made at least ten arrests while removing the blockaders.
The far-left extremists say they are looking to stay “indefinitely” and block the junction, which is a major hub for train traffic from both the Niagara region and from the U.S. city of Chicago.
“Come for a couple hours or stay for the night, and bring your friends! If you plan on coming out, dress warmly, bring blankets and sleeping bags, and snacks are always welcome. If you can’t make it out, please help spread the word and share this with your networks,” they wrote.
The same Antifa website has previously called for supporters and activists to commit illegal acts of sabotage along the Canadian rail system and has also taken credit for several incidents in and around the province of Ontario.
Several incidents of rail system tampering were also later confirmed by Canadian transport minister Marc Garneau.
The sabotage and the blockades are alleged to be in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en First Nation’s hereditary chiefs who oppose the $6.6 billion Coastal Gaslink natural gas pipeline project in northern British Columbia.
The elected council of the Wet’suwet’en, along with 20 other First Nations elected councils, all support the project, however.
Other blockades across Canada have led to a near-total shut down of the Canadian rail system, with VIA Rail, Canada’s largest passenger railway company, laying off over a thousand workers as a result of the blockades, and shortages have been reported in some areas due to lack of rail traffic.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called for an end to the blockades but has called for dialogue, ruling out the use of police or the armed forces to end the crisis. “Police have a job to do, but how they do that, when they do that, no politician gets to say,” Trudeau said.
Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer, meanwhile, has slammed the inaction of the Trudeau government and blamed radical activists saying, “The problem is that there is now a clear playbook for radical activists to follow, and they know that the prime minister will do literally nothing as the economy is brought to its knees.”