(The Canadian Press circulated the following story on june 23.)
WINNIPEG — A hearing to determine whether CN Rail gets an injunction to stop aboriginals from blocking tracks in Manitoba next week has been postponed.
A lawyer for CN Rail told Justice Daniel Kennedy of Court of Queen’s Bench on Friday the company needed an immediate injunction in case native groups tried to press their point before a 24-hour protest planned for Thursday and Friday.
But Kennedy said he’s taking aboriginal leaders at their word there’ll be no action before the well-publicized blockade.
“It’s a chance I’m going to take because you put your good faith on the line,” Kennedy told Chief Terry Nelson of the Roseau River First Nation, as well as lawyers representing other aboriginal groups.
The full hearing on CN’s injunction request will now be heard Wednesday.
Nelson is spearheading the blockade of two railway lines to protest what aboriginals call decades of foot-dragging by the federal government regarding land claims. At least three other southern Manitoba bands support the blockade, as well as the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.
Nelson refused to repeat assertions he made Thursday that the blockade would proceed regardless of the court’s ruling next Wednesday.
“We’ll see,” Nelson said outside court. “The indigenous people have not been hiding this. This is not a criminal matter; it’s a matter of who owns the property that CN is claiming.”
CN spokesman Jim Feeny said the company ships about $27 million worth of goods across its Manitoba lines every day.
The company and its customers would have to absorb millions of dollars in costs related to the blockade, he said.
“We felt this was the move we had to take to protect our ability to move our — and our customers’ — traffic,” said Feeny.
The blockade could pose a danger to CN employees as well as members of the public, he added.
Nelson said it’s frustrating that big companies like CN can get time in court with only a day’s notice, while his band has been tied up in legal tussles with the federal government for years trying to get its 1903 land claim honoured.
He said Roseau River is owed at least $60 million.
Jim Edmonds, a lawyer representing CN Rail, told Kennedy that CN is an “innocent third party” that has no power to resolve the land claim.
Kennedy warned Nelson that he would grant CN an immediate injunction — without notice — if he heard of any plans for a protest before Thursday.