Palestinian supporters block trains on CN Rail line from moving goods in Israeli company’s shipping containers

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This article was published 20/11/2023 (697 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A small group of pro-Palestinian protesters blocked a major transportation route across the country for five hours Monday, claiming freight from an Israel-based company is being shipped on it.

The local action staged by about a dozen people organized by Queers for Palestine-Winnipeg began just after 2 p.m., when they stood on the tracks of the CN Rail line just north of the Via Rail station on Main Street, preventing at least two freight trains from passing.

In a social media post Monday evening, organizers said: “We held the CN Rail blockade for five hours, costing CN millions of dollars and disrupting the Canadian economy. We’re done for the night but the movement is only growing. We won’t stop until the siege on Gaza is ended and Palestine is free.”

Earlier Monday, Dasha Plett, one of the organizers, said protesters spent a few days monitoring the number of ZIM freight containers moving on the rails before beginning their blockade.

“Because of the way the Canadian economy functions, rails are the economic arteries, and right now they are red with the blood of the Palestinian people,” Plett said.

Zim Integrated Shipping Services is a publicly traded company based in Israel. It began in the late 1940s, transporting Holocaust survivors from Europe to the newly created State of Israel and was the only shipping company serving the nation during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Plett said CN is the only Canadian rail company moving ZIM-owned containers and the group would not say if it is planning any other protests to block businesses or transportation companies.

Winnipeg police spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon said the WPS is aware of the protest and “are there to support CN while they put safety services in place.”

In a statement, CN Rail said it was aware of the situation and was monitoring.

Meanwhile, the Jewish Heritage Centre and the recently formed Jewish Community on Campus are hosting a virtual event a day before another organized by a group of University of Winnipeg professors that has received criticism in the local Jewish community.

“Antisemitism in the wake of 7/10: Critical perspectives from Jewish scholars, community leaders and activists” is taking place online Thursday at 7 p.m.

Belle Jarniewski, the centre’s executive director, said there is concern an event organized by U of W professors, entitled “Palestine and Genocide: Reflections on Imperialism, Settler-colonization and Decolonization,” doesn’t offer the Jewish perspective.

“We wanted Jewish scholars to provide that perspective,” Jarniewski said. “This is not a rebuttal for each of their speakers, but we felt it was important to have a Jewish perspective provided.”

The speakers for Thursday’s event include professors from the universities of Winnipeg and Manitoba, Carleton and Simon Fraser, as well as representatives from B’nai Brith Canada and JSpace Canada.

Jarniewski said she is particularly concerned with the participation of one of the speakers at the U of W event who has been public with her belief that more than 200 Israelis slain at a music festival in southern Israel by Hamas militants Oct. 7 were killed by Israelis.

“I think that event could be very fraught with misinformation and, coming from a university, it is all the more concerning to me,” she said.

The U of W and the organizers of the Friday event have said it is not an official university-sanctioned seminar.

The university said in a statement released Nov. 17 it “condemns all antisemitism, Islamophobia, and racism of any kind.”

“In these difficult times of socio-political tensions, upholding our University of Winnipeg values of inclusivity, respect for one another, and in-depth critical inquiry is more important than ever.”

The statement, signed by university president Todd Mondor and provost and vice-president academic Pavlina Radia, said they would not stop faculty from expressing their views because of academic freedom, but the professors will have to ensure their conduct falls within “university policy and other lawful limits on free expression.”

“This debate must be civil, informed, and evidence-based,” the statement said.

“It is our duty to ensure that all perspectives, so long as they are lawful and inclusive, can be heard, and that those who disagree can safely engage in respectful debate.”

Robyn Flisfeder, an instructor at the University of Winnipeg, and the founder of Jewish Community on Campus, an advocacy group for Jewish students and academic staff at the U of W and U of M, said Thursday’s event with the Jewish Heritage Centre was not organized in response to Friday’s.

“The reason is because of the outpouring of grief in our community following the horrific events on Oct. 7,” Flisfeder said. “It really is a response to Oct. 7.”

Flisfeder, unlike others in the local Jewish community, said she is not calling for Friday’s event to be cancelled.

“I really don’t believe in boycotts,” she said.

“I do believe in academic freedom and the pursuit of knowledge… it is their prerogative to do what they want.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca