“A lot of the markets right now are extremely erratic because of the coronavirus. I think it’s being blown out of proportion, but it is what it is,” he said.

The half-point cut made Wednesday by the Bank of Canada to its key interest rate won’t have a direct effect on canola, he said.

“Maybe it will trickle into the Canadian dollar being a little bit weaker,” Derwin said, adding the loonie would have to remain under 75 U.S. cents to support canola.

“Canola has got its own world of issues to deal with.”

The rail blockades by pipeline protestors will have an effect on canola prices as well, Derwin said. Specifically, the delayed shipments of canola will further weaken basis levels that have been dropping since the beginning of 2020.

Canadian National Railway (CN) said Tuesday the blockades held up about one million tonnes of grains and oilseeds, the equivalent of 10,000 rail carloads.

As CN is calling back the 450 employees it laid off during the blockades, estimates are it will take the railway several weeks to undo its backlog.

As the COVID-19 coronavirus and the blockades were dominating headlines, little attention has been paid toward spring planting. However, Derwin said, that’s not necessarily too much of a bad thing.

“There’s a certain rotation [farmers] must have in place,” he said, noting Prairie farmers have a limited selection of crops they can grow.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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Activists disrupted passenger and freight traffic last month to show solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en people, who are seeking to stop TC Energy Corp.’s Coastal GasLink pipeline from being built across their land.

“In the case of CN we lost the equivalent of 10,000 carloads, or roughly one million tonnes,” Ruest said in an interview. “Of all the supply chains the one that will take the longest (to recover) is the grain export.”

The lost capacity represents roughly one per cent of Canada’s total harvest during the 2019-20 marketing year, which runs from Aug. 1, 2019, through July 31, 2020.

Canada relies on CN, the country’s largest railroad, and smaller rival Canadian Pacific Railway to move crops, oil, potash, coal and manufactured goods to ports and the United States.

The blockades, which shut some lines for weeks, hit “every commodity,” creating backlogs of products sitting on CN railcars, along with product that “has yet to enter our network,” he said.

Ruest said CN did not move as much crude by rail as expected in February because of the blockades. He said he believes crude shipments will remain a driver of growth this year for CN, although weaker prices could impact output.

Global crude price benchmarks have tumbled this year by more than one-fifth, due to fears that the coronavirus outbreak could sap global demand.

Earlier Tuesday, CN said over 1,400 trains, including passenger trains, were delayed or canceled because of the blockades, causing shutdowns of parts of the company’s network as freight is parked across the network, ready to be moved.

CN also confirmed a Reuters report from Friday that the company was calling back many of the 450 employees based in Eastern Canada who had been temporarily laid off because of the blockades.

Ruest said he hopes protesters will not target rail amid tensions over other pipeline projects. Along with Coastal GasLink, twinning is under way with the Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain oil pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific coast near Vancouver, which also faces fierce opposition from environmental and some indigenous groups.

“It is a very costly way to resolve issues,” Ruest said. “I surely hope this is not the way of the future.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Allison Lampert in Montreal; additional reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Kelsey Johnson and Steve Scherer in Ottawa.

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Earlier this week, police made 10 arrests and cleared a blockade in eastern Ontario that had been stopping freight and passenger traffic for almost three weeks on one of Canada’s busiest lines.

The blockades were held in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en people in British Columbia, who are seeking to stop TC Energy from building a gas pipeline over their land.

“In the absence of illegal blockades on our network over the last 24 hours, and while we are keeping a close watch for any further disruptions, we have started calling back many of the temporarily laid off employees based in Eastern Canada,” CN CEO Jean-Jacques Ruest said in the email seen by Reuters.

The email did not specify how many of the 450 workers were being called back.

After 21 days of disruptions, “there is a significant backlog of trains parked on our tracks and in our yards that will be processed,” the email said.

“The complete network recovery process will take several weeks.”

Montreal-based CN said the company was on its way to recovering in Western Canada, and said products such as export grain, imported containerized goods, coal, potash and other commodities are moving to market.

Canada relies on CN and rival Canadian Pacific Railway to move crops, oil, potash, coal and manufactured goods to ports and the United States. About half of Canada’s exports move by rail, according to industry data.

— Reporting for Reuters by Allison Lampert in Montreal.

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The May canola contract, which had started 2020 trading in the $490 area, touched a low of $455 per tonne on Tuesday and settled Wednesday at $456.50.

World vegetable oil markets have found themselves in a steady downtrend over the past two months, after closing out 2019 at multi-year highs.

In addition, uncertainty over the “black swan” COVID-19 coronavirus “has created a real risk-off attitude across commodities in general, and canola is caught up in that,” said analyst Mike Jubinville of MarketsFarm Pro.

While more downside is possible, Jubinville expected the lows may be in for now, barring fresh bearish developments on the virus-front.

While global transportation flows may be affected, “the demand for food is still the same,” he said.

That said, a rally is also unlikely, according to Jubinville, who pointed to a lack of developments on Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans as a bearish influence.

Blockades disrupting rail traffic across Canada have also thrown more uncertainty into the mix.

“It’s a sideways-trending marketplace,” he said.

Seasonal price flows could help bring prices back to the upper end of the range over the next few months, he said, but added that a more sustained rally was unlikely in the current environment.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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Ontario Provincial Police on Monday arrested some of the Tyendinaga Mohawk campaigners who had shut down the line in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en from British Columbia, who seek to stop construction of a gas pipeline over their land.

Demonstrators mounted a new rail blockade late on Monday night at a junction of three busy Canadian National Railway (CN) lines near Hamilton, southwest of Toronto, but left by about 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, police said.

Hamilton police spokeswoman Jackie Penman said officers were inspecting the area, adding it was up to rail firms to decide when services would resume. The blockade closed four stations on Metrolinx’s GO Transit passenger line to Toronto from Hamilton.

Earlier in the day, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said the impact of the blockades was unacceptable.

The standoff between authorities and the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, who have been battling the gas line for a decade, has grown increasingly tense as aboriginal bands and climate activists across Canada take up their cause.

The protests are testing Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pledge to reconcile Canada with its indigenous groups, who face higher levels of poverty and violence and shorter life expectancies than the national average.

Many Canadians are growing frustrated, and that is giving a boost to Trudeau’s Conservative rivals, whose support is at 36 per cent compared with 33 per cent for the Liberals, according to a Nanos poll completed on Feb. 21 and published on Tuesday.

British Columbia police said they arrested 14 people overnight who were blocking a rail line west of New Hazelton, and a separate group has barricaded a major intersection near the Port of Vancouver’s main entrance.

Kanesatake Mohawk stopped traffic on Highway 344 in Quebec, and Kahnawake Mohawk blocked a Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) rail line south of Montreal.

That barricade “has severed vital rail connections and severely impacted CP’s operations, customers and the broader economy,” the company said in a statement.

— Reporting for Reuters by Denise Paglinawan in Toronto and Steve Scherer in Ottawa; additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa.

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OPP secured the area just east of Belleville, Ont., Canadian National Railway Co (CN) said, and CN technicians were inspecting the tracks and signals.

“CN is pleased that the illegal blockade in Tyendinaga has come to an end,” the company said in a statement without saying when rail service would resume.

Tyendinaga Mohawk campaigners barricaded the line in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en from British Columbia, who are seeking to stop construction of a gas pipeline over their land.

Dozens of OPP members descended on the site of the blockade a little after 8 a.m. ET.

Media were kept at a distance. But a group called Real People’s Media, which is affiliated with an indigenous clan, posted a video on Twitter showing police wrestle two men to the ground after they refused to back away from the tracks.

“All demonstrators were given the option of leaving the site or being arrested. Ten people were arrested and face multiple charges. All have been released on conditions,” OPP said in a statement posted on Twitter.

CN obtained an injunction on Feb. 7 against those preventing rail traffic from running along its trunk line near Belleville, but provincial police took their time to enforce it in a bid to ease tensions.

In Ottawa, hundreds of protesters met in front of Parliament and marched through downtown in support of the Wet’suwet’en.

“We worked extremely hard to obtain a peaceful solution to this situation, but we couldn’t allow these barricades to continue,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Parliament.

On Friday, Trudeau demanded aboriginal groups lift the rail blockades amid railroad layoffs and shortages of goods such as propane.

Trudeau has said it is his government’s priority to reconcile with indigenous peoples, who face higher levels of poverty and violence and shorter life expectancies than the national average.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said the government was still seeking dialogue with the Wet’suwet’en and is “even more committed to a peaceful solution.”

The Wet’suwet’en band in British Columbia has been fighting the construction of TC Energy Corp’s planned Coastal GasLink pipeline for a decade, but savvy social media use and years of outreach won the group allies from across Canada.

— Reporting for Reuters by Chris Helgren at Tyendinaga, Ont.; additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Allison Lampert in Montreal; writing by Steve Scherer.

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Trudeau also told a news conference that the Liberal government’s talks with various indigenous leaders over the last two weeks had not been productive and would be broken off.

“The situation as it currently stands is unacceptable and untenable… the barricades need to come down now,” he said in remarks that represented a notable hardening in his tone.

“Canadians who are feeling the very real impact of these blockades are running out of patience.”

Protesters have blocked lines in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta in solidarity with members of a British Columbia aboriginal band seeking to stop the construction of a gas pipeline over its land.

Most of the economic damage stems from a blockade of a crucial Canadian National Railway (CN) line near Belleville, Ont.

CN obtained a court injunction against the protesters on Feb. 7 but the Ontario Provincial Police have so far declined to act, citing the complexity of the situation.

“The injunctions must be obeyed and the barriers must come down,” said Trudeau. “The intervention in the case of the (Belleville) blockade is the responsibility of the Ontario Provincial Police.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Steve Scherer and Kelsey Johnson; additional reporting by David Ljunggren.

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“I don’t think there’s a lot of potential to push this thing much higher, and I don’t think the bottom will fall out either. What you see is what you get,” Matt Froehlich, a trader with JGL Commodities in Moose Jaw, said of the current feed barley market.

End users are relatively full for the time being and may be looking to lower their bids, but Froehlich noted declining truck freight rates would limit price movement from the farmer’s standpoint.

“Truck freight rates should be loosening up, as fertilizer backhauls start up again,” he said.

Values also usually stay stable through the road ban season, as end-users need to pay up to keep product showing up at their door.

Blockades slowing rail movement across Canada may not have a direct influence on domestic feed grains, but Froehlich noted some grain intended for export may be backing up in the countryside and could move to domestic feed channels instead.

The larger-than-normal amount of grain left to overwinter across the Prairies this year will also be harvested soon.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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For the past two weeks, campaigners blocked rail lines in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta in solidarity with a British Columbia aboriginal band that had stopped construction of a gas pipeline over its land.

The cautious approach follows raids and arrests against the Wet’suwet’en band earlier this month that triggered the ongoing protest. The continued presence of federal police on Wet’suwet’en land had been holding up talks between politicians and chiefs aimed at ending the standoff.

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said Thursday that RCMP had agreed to retreat from Wet’suwet’en land to a nearby town. The move “should bring us to a point now where the matter can be resolved,” he said.

But Molly Wickham, a spokeswoman for the Wet’suwet’en Gidimt’en clan, said RCMP had not yet left their land and added that the announcement “feels a lot like a media strategy” to diffuse the protests.

The Wet’suwet’en have been fighting the pipeline for a decade, but tensions built up since police made arrests and cleared protesters in January 2019. A December ruling by a British Columbia court led to this month’s arrests.

Though Canadian National Railway obtained an injunction against those preventing rail traffic from moving along its trunk line near Belleville, Ont. on Feb. 7, provincial police have been in no hurry to act.

“We don’t have a role in the underlying issues of the event and we’re not in a position to resolve them. Protests and demonstrations are often complex in nature… our goal is to preserve the peace and maintain a safe environment,” said Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) spokeswoman Lori Lobinowich.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government and police insiders say deadly clashes over aboriginal groups’ claims to land at Oka, Que. in 1990 and Ipperwash, Ont. in 1995, as well as other violent confrontations, have changed their way of operating.

“Let’s look at the history and not repeat what’s gone on in the past. Everyone knows what happened during the Oka crisis, everyone knows what happened during Ipperwash,” said Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller.

At Oka, a Quebec police officer was shot dead during repeated clashes with Mohawks during a confrontation that lasted almost three months. The RCMP failed to restore order and the fighting ended only after troops were sent in.

At Ipperwash, the OPP shot dead an indigenous man after the provincial government ordered a park to be cleared of protesters. As a result, regulations were issued forbidding Ontario politicians from telling the police what to do.

“There are a number of things you have to take into account before you decide to take enforcement action and I think it’s very much because of our historical experiences,” said Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Association.

Trudeau will hold a conference call with provincial leaders later on Thursday to discuss the blockades, his spokesman said.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; additional reporting by Moira Warburton in Toronto.

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It’s amazing how much can change in just a few days.

Canada’s Agriculture Day on Feb. 11 brought together a wide variety of people involved in the sector during the early stages of what has now grown into an apparent national crisis.

As producers, advocates and others working in agriculture gathered in Ottawa for the main event there was without doubt a general recognition of the blockade’s existence, most notably when CN’s executive vice-president Sean Finn made mention of the protests during his brief remarks at the celebratory conference.

Absent from the room was any panic or major concern over the protests that had begun just five days prior.

Perhaps nobody predicted where the country would be a few weeks later, with politicians overreachingly stating the country is (again?) in a state of crisis, while farm groups decry the economic impact of the rail stoppages.

There’s no denying the very real effects on farmers. The ships currently waiting in port put 2020 on track to match the disastrous winter of 2013-14 for grain shipments. Farmers and other small businesses are caught in the middle on this one, just as they are when unions and employers can’t reach agreement.

However, suggesting trains being stopped for a few weeks is a “national crisis,” as Conservative leader Andrew Scheer and others have, overstates the issue and perhaps undermines instances of true crisis where imminent danger is threatening or present.

It can also encourage inflammatory, knee-jerk reactions from those involved. It is difficult to imagine anything less helpful when it comes to finding a solution for the country’s current predicament with the rail blockades.

Driving a vehicle through a group of people blocking your path because you disagree with them will only harden their resolve. Vigilantes who take the law into their own hands by attempting to remove a blockade will only embolden the protestors to make their next barricade stronger.

Both actions are also illegal, discrediting the popular and fair “rule of law” argument that the protests should end because they, too, are illegal. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

At the heart of the protests are hereditary Wet’suwet’en chiefs in B.C. who oppose the Coastal GasLink project travelling through their traditional territory.

Of course, wanting urgent action to get trains moving is a reasonable request, given that a majority five of the six band councils making up the Wet’suwet’en Nation support the pipeline’s construction, alongside 20 other First Nations’ band councils.

But there needs to be a recognition from all involved that a deep breath with a side of good thinking is needed, in spite of the still-untold number of economic losses arising from weeks of grain trains being cancelled and passengers unable to travel.

Perhaps some of that good thinking can consider how a relatively small group of people can threaten the country’s economy in such a direct way, and how to prevent it from happening again.

In short, the goal of protesting is to inconvenience people to gain attention for a particular cause.

According to the Office of the Wet’suwet’en, the official organization representing the hereditary chiefs, there are seven chiefs listed.

While there are varying reports on the number of hereditary chiefs (some reporting suggests as many as 13), a small group of people is demonstrating how easy it is to mobilize supporters and significantly demobilize the day-to-day lives of thousands of Canadians, including farmers nervously wondering how their grain will get shipped.

Having RCMP officers crash-and-bang away at the protestors will only bolster further support of the protestors’ actions and threatens to look Oka-esque when the historians take over.

Canadians have an opportunity to instead turn this so-called national crisis into a national epiphany by recognizing how necessary reconciliation is with First Nations’ communities.

Perhaps the First Nations fuelling the protest can in turn recognize the need for democratic decision-making and rule of law within Canada.

Genuinely listening to concerns and taking steps to address them is needed.

Also needed is acknowledgement of the cost to those who have done nothing to cause the standoff, but find themselves caught in the crossfire.

Should farmers be mad at the protestors or should their anger be focused at the governments behind the systemic injustices that give rise to these sorts of protests?

Unfortunately for farmers, they are left to suffer from the actions of both.

— D.C. Fraser writes for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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