An aboriginal blockade that disrupted passenger and freight trains in the busy Toronto-Montreal corridor ended Saturday morning, just over 24 hours after it started.
Early Friday, protesters from the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte pulled an old school bus across the tracks near the eastern Ontario town of Deseronto.
They said it would be 48-hour disruption to protest against what they said is the slow pace of settling a land dispute involving a quarry. The protesters said it's operating on ancestral Mohawk land. A developer plans to build condominiums using material from the quarry.
The protest halted dozens of freight trains and service for thousands of Via Rail passengers. The company had to charter buses to move passengers already holding tickets for destinations including Toronto, Montreal, Kingston and Ottawa.
Canadian National Railway has not been able to say when the track will reopen. Crews were dispatched to the scene to clear obstructions, including debris from at least one fire.
Fire crews arrived at the scene on Friday after plumes of smoke could be seen rising out of a wooded area down the rail line.
A judge in Toronto on Friday afternoon granted CN Rail a court injunction ordering the protesters off the tracks, but it was ignored.
Through the night, the protesters sang, played drums and lit bonfires before Ontario Provincial Police announced the blockade had been taken down around 6:30 a.m. ET.
Shawn Brant, a spokesman for the protesters, said they were able to negotiate a compromise with the police to avoid any violence.