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“Such conduct had nothing to do with the process involved in sorting out land or usage claims…” the judge said.

“…it was straight-forward political protest, pure and simple. Just as 15 persons from some other group would have no right to stand in the middle of the Main Line tracks blocking rail traffic in order to espouse a political cause close to their hearts, neither do 15 persons from a First Nation.”

The judge expressed “astonishment” that Sarnia Police failed to enforce court orders for almost two weeks, and then that protesters again blocked the Main Line for five hours, just a week after another demonstration in the same area.

He already had concerns, he said, stemming out of what occurred in Sarnia, about the willingness of police forces to enforce injunctions involving native protesters, but issued the order Saturday night because CN lawyers showed how serious were the effects of the blockade of the main line.

Furthermore, Judge Brown said, police already have sufficient tools under the Criminal Code to remove illegal protests. “In light of those powers of arrest enjoyed by police officers,” he wondered, “why does the operator of a critical railway have to run off to court to secure an injunction when a small group of protesters park themselves on the rail line bringing operations to a grinding halt?

“I do not get it,” he said.

As a member of one part of the law-and-order equation, Judge Brown said, “I remain puzzled why another part – our police agencies and their civilian overseers – does not make use of the tools given to it by our laws to ‘ensure the safety and security of all persons and property in Ontario’,” which he said is the first principle governing police services.

He warned “we seem to be drifting into dangerous waters in the life of the public affairs of this province when the courts cannot predict, with any practical degree of certainty, whether police agencies” will assist in enforcing court orders.