NIAGARA FALLS—Blockades and demonstrations that have brought traffic to a standstill on rail lines and ports across Canada in support of opposition to a pipeline in British Columbia spilled over into Niagara on Sunday, closing the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls.

Traffic on the Canadian side of the normally busy international crossing ground to a halt for more than an hour in the afternoon, after protesters marched from Highway 420 to gather at the bridge on the Canadian side at about 3 p.m.

It was the latest in a string of blockades that have taken place in Canada as the dispute over the pipeline by Coastal GasLink through the Wet’suwet’en nation’s traditional territory.

In addition to supporting the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs’ opposition, Sunday’s peaceful protest at the Rainbow Bridge was also held to voice opposition to actions by the RCMP to arrest supporters from the territory of the First Nation.

Other injustices inflicted on Indigenous peoples, from the blight of residential schools to what speakers said are broken promises by government on treaty rights and inaction on the issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women, were also brought up by speakers at the event.

The nationwide protests and blockades have brought freight rail shipping to a halt in areas, and led to Via Rail stopping passenger trains, all with an economic impact of millions of dollars.

At the Rainbow Bridge, speaker Philip Davis thanked the hundreds of people who gathered to send a message to government.

“You’re standing up for future generations,” he said. “You’re letting the powers that be know we will no longer stand for this s--.”

Rally organizer Deane McGean, a Brock University student, said the things happening in B.C. call into question the federal government’s efforts on reconciliation.

“The RCMP is occupying unceded territory,” she said. “That is not Canada: you are not allowed there, you are not welcome.

“These demonstrations are going to keep happening until the RCMP leaves Wet’suwet’en land,” she said to wild cheers from the crowd.

The rally created miles-long lineups of cars on approaches to the bridge. Two men and two women from Pennsylvania sitting in an SUV said they’d been cooling their heels for almost an hour.

“We’re not too happy,” said the male driver, who refused to provide his name. “I don’t think they have the right to block a bridge.”

But Sean Vanderklis, who co-hosts a local radio show on St. Catharines radio station CKTB on Indigenous issues with Karl Dockstader, said they had every right to. While the weather warmed up to just above freezing for the protest, “if it had been -20 C we would have come out here today to do our work.”

“This is it,” Vanderklis said of the growing national movement. “It’s the last straw. Reconciliation is dead if it ever existed.”

People carried signs with slogans such as “Honour our treaty rights,” “Native rights start today” and “Kill the pipeline: save the land.”

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In a news release, rally organizers said the Canadian government has “fundamentally failed to live up to their obligations to meaningful nation-to-nation relationships.

“The recent arrest and invasion of the Wet’suwet’en Nation has brought to the public’s attention Canada’s false commitment to reconciliation.”

Speakers lashed out at both federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer for his comments calling for pipeline protesters standing in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs to “check their privilege” and stand down, and at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s call for protesters to respect the rule of law.

“Residential schools were the rule of law,” said Vanderklis. “Child apprehension … was the rule of law. The theft of our land was the rule of law.”

Dockstader said at a time when young Indigenous people are giving up on reconciliation, Trudeau “is the one killing the hope.”

Wendy Sturgeon, an Indigenous Anishinabe woman, said a pipeline that could poison water can’t be allowed.

“If you destroy the water, we destroy ourselves,” she said. “When you rape Mother Earth, you are raping us.”

Alexis Isaacs, a young Indigenous girl from Fort Erie, urged people to help fight to protect the planet.

“Some day I hope to be able to say to my grandchildren that I made a difference,” she said.

Linda Lannigan drove from Hamilton to show support for the Indigenous community in Niagara and B.C.

“I may not look the same as you … but I am you and you are me,” she said. “We are all one.”

On Saturday, Wet’suwet’en supporters blocked all trains coming in and out of MacMillan Yard in Vaughan. The protesters left around 5 p.m. after being served with an injunction ordering them off the CN Rail line.

The protests were spurred earlier this month after an injunction in B.C. was carried out by the RCMP to give Coastal GasLink access to a work site for a pipeline.

The pipeline is part of a $40-billion LNG Canada export project in Kitimat, B.C.

Coastal GasLink has signed agreements with all 20 elected band councils along the pipeline route. However, Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs assert title to a vast 22,000-square-kilometre area and say band councils only have authority over reserve lands.