Premier Scott Moe speaks to reporters at the Saskatchewan Party Saskatoon cabinet office on Feb. 21, 2020. (Keenan Sorokan/650 CKOM)

By Keenan Sorokan

Moe agrees with Trudeau’s call to end railway blockades

Feb 22, 2020 | 11:50 AM

Premier Scott Moe is in full agreement with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s call to end rail blockades across the country immediately.

Moe spoke to reporters in Saskatoon on Friday, minutes after Trudeau demanded an end to the blockades that have put railways across the country at a standstill and put roughly 1,500 people out of work.

Protests in support of the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s opposition to a natural gas pipeline have been ongoing for more than two weeks.

In his latest comments, Trudeau said attempts at dialogue with Indigenous leaders have been rejected.

“We are waiting for Indigenous leadership to show that it understands,” Trudeau said during an Ottawa news conference. “The onus is on them.

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“Canadians have been patient, our government has been patient, but it has been two weeks and the barricades need to come down now.”

Moe commended Trudeau after he organized a conference call with provincial leaders Thursday night and voiced those concerns.

“Canadians have been patient and that patience is not unlimited,” Moe said. “At some point and time, the injunctions that have been deemed by the courts in province after province will need to be enforced.”

Moe said roughly $2 billion of Saskatchewan exports are transported by rail monthly. Even though none of the blockades are happening in Saskatchewan, the province has been affected by the barricades placed in other provinces.

“Virtually all businesses have some degree of effect indirectly or directly by this interruption,” he said.

Moe said he has not and will not direct any police organizations to begin enforcing court injunctions and making arrests. That decision is up to them.

“The discretion of law enforcement agencies as to how they act, that’s entirely their choice, but the expectation of governments is that the law will be enforced,” Moe said.

“We have the right to protest, we do not have the right to break the law,” he added in reference to rights in Canada.

Sean Finn, executive vice-president of Canadian National Railway, voiced his concerns earlier Friday on Gormley.

“We find it extremely frustrating,” Finn said. “We know they have a job to do but in the meantime we have our railway plus our customers and the Canadian economy being impacted and in the case of the Belleville blockade we have industry in Western Canada but also employees of the industry being laid off.”

Moe said the offer to protesters to engage in discussions with the federal government is still on the table.

“I commend the prime minister for providing the offer,” Moe said, “and it very much reflects the conversation that we had as premiers or with the prime minister (Thursday) evening.”

— With files from the Canadian Press