The last bit on "protest" is quite interesting. Canada is (still) a democracy where people have the right to protest. But, there are many ways to do it...e.g. a peaceful protest at Parliament Hill would attract the attention of the politicians and national TV and radio coverage as "breaking news".

Protests such as blocking busy roads, highways and rail corridors would cost the country (fragile) economy a bundle and create unnecessay hardship to innocent by-standers. The fallout from this kind of activities may not help the cause of the protest, since it would "get lost" in the negative consequences from the affected companies (e.g. Via Rail...it will impact their bottom line, dearly...cancelling many trains, providing buses to get the passengers around the blockage, paying for accomodations if required, and refunding the cost of the tickets,...) and sentiments toward the protesters (not positive, usually) from ordinary innocent by-standers whose planned activities are disrupted (sometimes, in a major way). The affected by-standers would only remember the hardship they have been through (e.g. missing their travel connections, or appointments with a specialist doctors in a big city, such as Toronto), rather than the cause of the protest.

Hope that Mr. Rae could articulate this with the people involved.

goldhunter