Report on Shutdown of Canada’s Second-Largest Rail Yard

On Saturday February 15 about 400 people showed up in Vaughn, ON to blockade the tracks in and out of MacMillan Yard – Canada’s second-largest rail yard – for 7 hours. This action was just one amongst a wave of solidarity actions in response to Canada’s invasion and violence towards the Wet’suwet’en people on behalf of private industry.

Around 10am 50 trusted folks converged in a parking lot nearby. As the first wave of people to blockade the tracks, they made a phone call to CN rail and had crews 1.5kms east and west to put red flagging on the tracks. Red flags are a univeral indicator for rail crews to stop. After calls and flags were confirmed, folks cut through fencing and threw down large woodens boards so people could easily cross deep ditches filled with icy water and made their way past a (previously) stored train onto the rails. This first wave of people effectively shut down traffic on CN lines headed west out of Macmillan to Kitchener, London, Hamilton, New York and Michigan. Read More …