Pro-Palestinian protesters stand on rail line in Regina to pressure federal government

Pro-Palestinian protesters set up on a rail line in Regina Wednesday in an attempt to pressure the Canadian government to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Around eight protesters went onto the tracks at the intersection of Albert Street and Saskatchewan Drive beginning just after 10 a.m. CST Wednesday.

Group spokesperson Emily Eaton said that one train went right through without slowing down shortly after the protest began, but no others came through the area until police officers made some arrests in the afternoon.

"Protestors report at least one train that they could see visually was held at bay for the length of the protest," Eaton said in an email.

The Regina Police Service said CP Rail Police made some arrests during the protest. Tickets and charges were laid under the Railway Safety Act, but no one was taken into Regina police custody, they said.

A spokesperson for the group says at least one train was held on the tracks until CP Rail police made some arrests in the afternoon. (Vashisth Trivedi/CBC News)

The protest group said it is attempting to stop the movement of goods in Canada while the Canadian government "remains complicit in Israeli war crimes."

A temporary ceasefire is in place in the Israel-Hamas conflict, but the group says it is far from enough. Eaton said the group will continue to rally until stronger efforts by the Canadian government to call for a permanent ceasefire are made.

"The international community won't stand by while thousands more people will be killed,"  said Eaton.

Eaton said the group has been staging weekly protests for a month, but still sees a lack of urgency from the federal government.

"There have been over 15,000 people killed," she said. "We have been using all of our power to make the message clear, and we haven't seen the kind of action from our government that we need to put pressure on the state of Israel to stop its bombing."