The Tories have told the government they will not be bringing in a motion of non-confidence over their handling of the rail blockade crisis.

The Conservatives have informed the Liberals they’ll be looking to table a motion about the rail blockades, rather than a motion of non-confidence during their opposition day Thursday, CTV is reporting.

The Tory move came after the NDP and Bloc said they wouldn’t support it.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh called the proposed vote “ridiculous.”

He said with an ongoing national crisis a non-confidence vote “is not the right way to go.

“”If you’ve got a national crisis, why plunge the country into an election?”

Instead he called for the RCMP to get off Indigenous lands, a special mediator be appointed and Trudeau convene a meeting of national chiefs.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh (source: Wiki Commons)

Bloc leader Yves-Frtancois Blanchet called the move a Tory bluff.

“It’s an idle threat. I don’t believe that they are suicidal enough to want to go into an election with a leader that they have recently rejected. So that’s a huge and not very tasty bluff,” Blanchet said.

Meanwhile, Quebec premier Francois Legault said the police may have to be called in to clear the tracks.

“Yes we have to respect and listen to Indigenous nations, but we also have to listen to Quebecers and Canadians who are suffering right now – there are jobs at stake. This blockade, which is illegal, really must be ended,” the premier told reporters in Quebec City.

Legault said the blockades must come down in “days not weeks.”

He said Trudeau should “to set a deadline and tell the protesters, if it is not taken down by this time, we will have to act, and we will act in all provinces.”

In other developments:

• A new Ipsos Reid poll shows 61 per cent of Canadians oppose the railway blockaders with 53 per cent saying the police should remove them and 75 per cent supporting government action to help Indigenous people

• Via Rail laid off close to 1,000 workers due to the rail blockade.

• A group of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs are to meet with the Mohawk group blocking rail lines in Ontario.

— more to come

Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard

dnaylor@westernstadardonline.com

Twitter: Nobby7694