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Eco-warriors like Rising Tide Toronto are calling on its activists to fight actors in that city that “benefit from mega-extraction and colonialism”.

The mob is winning. CN has temporarily closed down part of its network and warned of threats to the transportation of food, grain, de-icing fluid for airports and propane for Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

In the face of this declaration of disorder, our politicians have been supine. Justin Trudeau is overseas, campaigning for a UN Security Council seat but encouraged all parties to use dialogue to resolve the problem.

Photo by Mike Hensen/The London Free Press/Postmedia Network

The beleaguered Transport Minister Marc Garneau noted that it is illegal to blockade a rail line under the Railway Safety Act but said it is up to the provinces, not the federal government, to sort it out.

It’s true that Ottawa cannot direct provincial police forces. No one wants a repeat of the Oka Crisis. All sides need to show restraint to avoid a bloodbath.

But somebody in Ottawa, other than Conservative leadership candidate Erin O’Toole, should be pointing out that along with the right to protest there are certain responsibilities to allow other people to go about their business.

The prime minister should be pointing out that the protestors’ case is built on judicial sand.

The RCMP on Wet’suwet’en territory are not “invading sovereign Indigenous territory” as protestors occupying the federal Justice building in Ottawa contend.

The Mounties are enforcing an injunction granted by the B.C. Supreme Court, which gives them the right to arrest people and remove camps designed to block pipeline construction.