CN Rail has launched a lawsuit against aboriginal protesters after two blockades halted rail service in eastern Ontario.
CN is seeking unspecified damages following blockades on CN's main line in Deseronto on April 20 and for a similar blockade last year in nearby Marysville.
"CN has commenced action against parties engaged in an illegal blockade of CN's main line in late April," Mark Hallman, communications director for CN Rail, told CTV.ca on Wednesday.
"As a consequence we're seeking recovery of damages which the company incurred as a result of this blockade."
This year's protest began before dawn on April 20 near Deseronto, Ont., some 30 kilometres west of Kingston.
Several dozen Mohawks from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory lit bonfires on either side of the track and parked a school bus on the rail line to block traffic.
The blockade was orchestrated to protest plans for a 140-home subdivision on land the natives claim belong to them.
The protesters were served an injunction obtained by CN Rail that day ordering their immediate withdrawal from the site or face arrest.
The blockade shut down passenger and freight rail service in the busy Toronto-Montreal corridor.
Tyendinaga Mohawks are currently in negotiations with the federal government over plans for the land.
Hallman would not specify how much the damages were, saying the full amount will be disclosed before court proceedings begin.
"CN will provide full particulars of the damages prior to the trial, this action is not only for this blockade but for damages the company incurred after a blockade by many of the same parties a year earlier," he said, referring to a blockade in Marysville, east of Belleville, Ont., in April 2006.
In that protest, about 50 Mohawks from the Tyendinaga reserve used old school buses and bonfires to block a small road near the main CN track as a show of support for Six Nations protesters occupying a disputed tract of land in the southwestern Ontario town of Caledonia.
Along with damages, Hallman said the rail company is seeking an injunction that would prevent future blockades on the line.
Hallman says three members of the Mohawks of Bay of Quinte First Nation, including protest organizer Shawn Brant, are named in the suit filed May 3 with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
At the time of the protest, Brant warned that more demonstrations were planned, with the actions of the protestors likely to become more aggressive as time progresses.
Brant faces a number of other charges relating to the protest including mischief.
He turned himself in to police on May 3, but has since been released on bail.
