UPDATE 4-Canadian police clear indigenous rail blockade, make arrests

Police on Monday made multiple arrests and cleared a rail blockade by an indigenous group in eastern Canada that had been stopping freight and passenger traffic for 19 days on one of the country's busiest lines. Police secured the area near Belleville, Ontario, Canadian National Railway Co (CN) said, and its technicians were inspecting the tracks and signals.

"CN is pleased that the illegal blockade in Tyendinaga has come to an end," the company said in a statement without saying when rail service would resume. Tyendinaga Mohawk campaigners barricaded the line in solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en from British Columbia, who are seeking to stop construction of a gas pipeline over their land.

Dozens of Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) descended on the site of the blockade a little after 8 a.m. ET and made several arrests, though they have not yet said how many. Media were kept at a distance. But a group called Real People's Media, which is affiliated with an indigenous clan, posted a video on Twitter showing police wrestle two men to the ground after they refused to back away from the tracks.

"Unfortunately, all avenues to successfully negotiate a peaceful resolution have been exhausted and a valid court injunction remains in effect," the OPP said in a statement. CN obtained an injunction on Feb. 7 against those preventing rail traffic from running along its trunk line near Belleville, but provincial police had been slow to act.

In Ottawa, hundreds of protesters met in front of parliament and marched through downtown in support of the Wet'suwet'en. "We worked extremely hard to obtain a peaceful solution to this situation, but we couldn't allow these barricades to continue," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in parliament.

On Friday, Trudeau had demanded aboriginal groups lift the rail blockades amid railroad layoffs and shortages of goods like propane. Trudeau has said it is his government's priority to reconcile with indigenous peoples, who face higher levels of poverty and violence than and shorter life expectancies than the national average.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said that the government is still seeking dialogue with the Wet'suwet'en and is "even more committed to a peaceful solution". The Wet'suwet'en band in British Columbia has been fighting the construction of TC Energy Corp's planned Coastal GasLink pipeline for a decade, but savvy social media use and years of outreach brought the group allies from across Canada.

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