UPDATE 2-Canada hit by new rail, road barricades following arrests of indigenous protesters

Protesters in Canada blocked train lines, Vancouver's port entrance, and at least one highway on Tuesday in response to the arrest of 10 indigenous protesters when police dismantled a rail barricade in southern Ontario a day earlier. On Monday, police arrested some of the Tyendinaga Mohawk campaigners who had shut down the line in solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en from British Columbia, who seek to stop construction of a gas pipeline over their land.

The new rail blockade at a junction of three busy Canadian National Railway lines interrupts commuter service, with the closure of four stations on Metrolinx's GO Transit passenger line to Toronto from Hamilton. "The impact of these blockades is unacceptable and cannot be sustained," Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said.

The new protest group calls itself "Wet'suwet'en Strong: Hamilton in Solidarity." Police served them with an injunction, which they burned, late on Monday, the group said on Facebook. A CN spokesman said the company was monitoring the situation, without providing any details about how many or what type of trains were affected.

"As long as that blockade is up, nothing is going to move," a rail union source said. The standoff between authorities and the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs, who have been battling the gas line for a decade, has grown increasingly tense as aboriginal bands and climate activists across Canada have taken up their cause.

The protests are testing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's pledge to reconcile Canada with its indigenous groups, who face higher levels of poverty and violence and shorter life expectancies than the national average. But many Canadians are growing frustrated, and that is giving a boost to Trudeau's Conservative rivals, whose support is at 36% compared with 33% for the Liberals, according to a Nanos poll completed on Feb. 21 and published on Tuesday.

British Columbia police said they arrested 14 people overnight who were blocking a rail line west of New Hazelton, and a separate group has barricaded a major intersection near the Port of Vancouver's main entrance. Kanesatake Mohawk stopped traffic on Highway 344 in Quebec, and Kahnawake Mohawk blocked a Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd rail line south of Montreal.

That barricade "has severed vital rail connections and severely impacted CP's operations, customers and the broader economy," the company said in a statement.