Ontario judge extends ban on rail blockades

A court order that ended an aboriginal blockade of a major Ontario rail line in April has been extended, temporarily banning further rail blockades in eastern Ontario.

On Thursday, an Ontario Superior Court judge granted a request from CN Rail to extend the order used to end a Mohawk landdispute protest that started in the early hours of April 20 and disrupted freight and passenger traffic on the Toronto-Ottawa and Toronto-Montreal rail corridors for 30 hours.

Peter Rosenthal, a lawyer for protesters' main spokesman Shawn Brant, said the defence was not prepared to properly respond to details of CN's application for a longer injunction.

Both sides are to return to court in coming months to discuss the extension of the order.

Chief, band council removed from lawsuit

CN Railis also suingBrant and a number of others to try and recover money it says it lost during the blockade byprotestersfrom the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory.

However, CN said this week that the band's chief and the band council are no longer named in the lawsuit, as the company has received sworn evidence that they neither authorized nor approved the blockade.

Brant and other demonstrators set up the blockade as part of an ongoing protest over privately owned land near Deseronto that the Tyendinaga Mohawks claim is theirs.

The band council is in talks with a federally appointed negotiator regarding the land claim, but the protesters say those are proceeding too slowly.