APTN National News
Rail traffic has been halted between Montreal and Toronto after a protest near Tyendinaga triggered a shut down of CN Rail’s main line tracks beginning Tuesday evening to pressure the federal government to call a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women.
The protest started around 9:30 p.m. when about 20 people, led by women from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, shut down the tracks by lighting fires on either side.
“We were called to this. We choose to do our part,” a female protester told APTN National News by text Tuesday night.
She didn’t identify herself, but said they began Tuesday in preparation of what they were calling a “day of action” Wednesday to force an inquiry into the hundreds of documented missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
The government has refused to call one.
By about 11 a.m. Wednesday more women were showing up to the protest and the tracks were still shutdown.
Pictures from the scene show women singing and drumming around a fire.
It was just a couple weeks ago when the several Mohawk men were arrested when they blocked the same tracks.
The OPP arrested them shortly after the protest began. Rail traffic was halted for several hours.
Three were later charged, including Mohawk activist Shawn Brant with two counts of mischief.
The women at the protest have said Brant isn’t involved this time.
i see brave women on a mission …
get off the street kids