MONTREAL -- A barricade that was set up Wednesday afternoon by demonstrators on a Canadian National (CN) railway crossing in Saint-Lambert, on the South Shore of Montreal, is still in place Thursday morning.
The act of solidarity with the Indigenous people of Wet'suwet'en, in British Columbia, has forced commuter train agency Exo to indefinitely suspend service on the Exo3 line connecting Mont-Saint-Hilaire to downtown Montreal. In addition, VIA Rail has postponed train service between Montreal and Quebec City until late Friday; it had been scheduled to resume Thursday.
Jessica Robert, one of the protesters' spokespeople, said in a statement Wednesday that the barricade will be maintained until the Royal Canadian Mounted Police withdraws its officers from the Wet'suwet'en territories.
Due to the shortage of buses and drivers in the metropolitan area, Exo will not be able to make up for all of the trips normally provided by its Exo3 Mont-Saint-Hilaire train service, which has seven stations. The agency is encouraging customers to consider other alternatives such as carpooling or the metro.
Exo has already been affected for 10 days by an interruption of the commuter train service on the Exo4 line between Candiac and downtown Montreal because Indigenous demonstrators erected a barricade in the Mohawk territory of Kahnawake. Thirty buses have been deployed daily from the Candiac, Delson, Saint-Constant and Sainte-Catherine stations to transport customers to the Mansfield terminal in downtown Montreal.
The trains on the Exo3 line run between the South Shore and downtown Montreal, crossing the St. Lawrence River on the Victoria Bridge. Those on the Exo4 line use the railway bridge located just upstream from the Honoré-Mercier bridge.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20.
