Demonstrators in Kingston gathered against the natural gas Coastal GasLink pipeline in British Columbia by standing on the CN train tracks and blocking John Counter Boulevard Sunday afternoon.

“We’re out here to support our brothers and sisters on the West Coast, the Wet’suwet’en. We’re acting in solidarity for the recent invasion of their land by the RCMP, the government, and Coastal GasLink who want to put a pipeline through their unsurrendered territory,” Natasha Stirrett, one of the organizers of the demonstration, said at the tracks.

The 670-kilometre pipeline crosses Wet’suwet’en territory in western B.C. RCMP there have been arresting Indigenous people and supporters for breaching a court injunction related to opposition to the pipeline project. The Canadian Press reported that 11 people were arrested on Saturday.

VIA Rail had already cancelled 18 of its trains on Sunday because of blockades in nearby Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. The Canadian Press reported that CN said it has been granted an injunction order to remove protesters from the site.

In Kingston, demonstrators stayed on the tracks for a little over an hour.

Stirrett said Kingston residents should care about the negative aspects of the pipeline being built and what it means for the environment.

“Kingstonians also have a stake in this conversation because they also live on Turtle Island, they also have to live here,” Stirrett said. “Just because this is something that is happening out West doesn’t mean that this is not an issue that is going to come to their back door, when they can’t drink the water. Then they will care, but then it will be too late.

“We don’t want to wait till it gets to that point.”

The demonstration first started in McBurney Park, where participants gathered to say a few words before clambering onto school buses and being dropped off at the VIA Rail station.

Lynn Exner, also known as Lynn Nellis, a chief operating officer of Canada Action, an organization that promotes developing Canada’s natural resources, met the demonstrators at the park and attempted to have her say as well. Exner is from Saskatoon but was in town to speak at Queen’s University’s Oil and Gas Speaker Series conference.

“Most of my job is working in Indigenous advocacy, so I work with Indigenous people all across Western Canada who want natural resource projects so they can move out of poverty and into prosperity,” Exner said.

She said she went to the rally at the last minute to see if anyone would want to learn what she knows from working with Indigenous people in Western Canada. Exner’s voice was drowned out by anti-pipeline chants, and the hand-held speaker she was using to amplify her voice was taken away from her by one of the opposing demonstrators and placed on a garbage can.

“It’s not easy (to stand up against a crowd), but it’s important,” Exner said.

Stirrett said she was encouraged by the anti-pipeline turn out and called it “amazing.”

“It means people are becoming aware that, hey, we need to protect our drinking water, the land, our collective, future,” Stirrett said. “This is not just an Indigenous issue, this is also a non-Indigenous issue.

“Anyone who lives here, on this part of Turtle Island, needs to take environmental concerns seriously. We need to be moving towards alternative energy sources to ensure that humanity, plants and animals can exist and have a future.”

scrosier@postmedia.com

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— With files from The Canadian Press