As midnight deadline expires, Tyendinaga Mohawks don't budge from blockade

CTV National News: Staying put as deadline expires Protesters remained at a rail blockade outside Belleville as the midnight deadline to leave the railway and avoid possible charges expired.

TORONTO — Supporters of the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs remained at a rail blockade in Tyendinaga, Ont., outside Belleville, as the midnight deadline to leave the railway and avoid possible charges expired.

The Ontario Provincial Police reportedly told Mohawk First Nations demonstrating at the railway that they could face police investigation and charges after the deadline.

In a video posted to Real Peoples Media on Sunday, an OPP officer tells Mohawk demonstrators that “CN has made us aware that, as the complainant, they’re willing to not have the OPP investigate any criminal charges as long as everything from the site is cleared out by the end of today.”

The Mohawks of Tyendinaga have been demonstrating since Feb 6. in support of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs to stop construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline in B.C. Protests began across Canada in wake of the B.C. RCMP enforcing an injunction in unceded Wet’suwet’en territory to allow workers to start construction on the natural gas pipeline.

Hereditary chiefs say they have not consented to the project.

Camps have been set up in Tyendinaga, near Belleville, Ont., that have blocked CN Rail passenger and freight trains.

In the video the OPP officer clarified that “everything” included , “structures, vehicles, equipment, items, people,” and that they needed to be “cleared from the site by 11:59.”

Tyendinaga Mohawk Kanenhariyo, whose English name is Seth LeFort, said in a press conference on Friday that they would not be letting trains pass through their territory until the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have confirmed that B.C. RCMP have left their lands.