The takedown of a Tyendinaga Mohawk blockade on CN Railway tracks at a level crossing east Belleville on Monday hasn’t ended disruptions in the area for rail officials trying to reopen the Toronto-Montreal corridor after nearly three weeks of hundreds of freight train cancellations.

A second protest group of local Mohawks camped not far down the tracks near the original protest site continue to hamper CN officials and Ontario Provincial Police working to get freight and passenger train traffic moving again.

A Canadian National Railway engine collided Wednesday with wooden pallets strewn across the tracks near the second encampment of Tyendinaga Mohawk demonstrators along the tracks at a Highway 49 CN overpass.

Demonstrators were witnessed dragging debris Wednesday morning toward a patch of scorched earth on the railway tracks where a burning tire was thrown Monday evening.

Ontario Provincial Police were on scene to counter protester efforts to block further rail traffic.

As of press time, it’s not known if any of the demonstrators at the second camp were taken into custody by uniformed officers.

Ten protesters arrested Monday, meanwhile, at the first location, have been charged by Lennox and Addington OPP with various offences including disobeying a court order, resisting arrest and mischief of more than $5,000.

One protester was charged with obstruction of a police officer.

Those charged have been ordered to appear in court March 24.

The arrests have upset members of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Council who chided federal officials for the police operation Monday to remove protesters after Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller had met earlier with the Wyman Road protesters and pledged further dialogue.

Amnesty International Canada, meanwhile, issued an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and posted the letter on its website Tuesday.

The organization said it visited the Tyendinaga Mohawk protesters in the hours after Monday’s arrests.

Alex Neve, secretary general, wrote in the letter his organization “visited Tyendinaga today, in the aftermath of the Ontario Provincial Police’s enforcement action which has reportedly resulted in the arrest of 10 protesters. It was notable to us that all community members we spoke with described a feeling of betrayal and broken trust, particularly given the dialogue that had begun with Minister Miller on February 15th, reiterated in his assurance to Tyendinaga leadership the following day, in his letter of February 16th, that he ‘welcome[s] the invitation to talk again in the near future to continue our open and respectful dialogue.’”

Neve informed Trudeau “we appreciated the restraint that your government demonstrated in the initial phases of the blockades” noting the “call for patience is particularly inappropriate with respect to the Wet’suwet’en people, who have waited for 23 years for their land rights to be recognized following the groundbreaking 1997 Supreme Court of Canada Delgamuukw decision; and for the Tyendinga Mohawks who have waited for over 170 years for the return of their lands taken as part of the Culbertson Tract.”

“While your government did initially show remarkable restraint, you have of course in the end given a nod to enforcement action, which is now being pursued by national, provincial and municipal police forces across the country. That enforcement will not bring resolution to the deep concerns that underly these rights struggles and protests.”

Amnesty called upon the prime minister to “ensure that land defenders are not criminalized and that people who have been arrested for defending the land and who have not engaged in acts of criminal violence are released unconditionally.”

Among other recommendations, Neve urged Trudeau “engage directly and personally in discussions with Indigenous chiefs, elected and hereditary, so as to demonstrate that you recognize that these are not simply matters of barricades and law enforcement, but are the very essence of a respectful and rights regarding nation-to-nation relationship.”