Passenger trains cancelled after freight train derailment
STRATHROY, Ont. — Via Rail says train service between Toronto and the city of Sarnia, Ont., near the U.S. border, has been cancelled for two days due to a freight train derailment early Wednesday morning.
Thirteen cars from a CN freight train derailed in the centre of the community of Strathroy, Ont., — about 230 kilometres west of Toronto — just before 4:30 a.m., said Joanne Vanderheyden, mayor of Strathroy-Caradoc.
No one was injured in the incident, she said.
The cars that derailed were not carrying any dangerous material when they went off the tracks, said Vanderheyden, who explained that an east-west railway line used by CN and Via Rail effectively divides the town.
“Most of the cars were either empty, or had paper in them, or soybeans,” she said.
“So, nothing to be too worried about.”
One of the cars had residual traces of petroleum, Vanderheyden said, but it wasn’t carrying a load of it when the derailment happened.
“That was not a concern, either,” she said.
Via Rail said the derailment had led to the cancellation of daily trains between Sarnia and Toronto on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as an early morning train from Sarnia to London, Ont., on Friday. It said trains would still be operating between Toronto and London, Ont.
The Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team of investigators to the site of the derailment.
“The TSB will gather information and assess the occurrence,” it said in a statement.
Some Strathroy residents said the derailment was the talk of the town on Wednesday.
Stu Solomon, a local business owner, said the crash happened near the community’s downtown core.
“There’s a lot of walking traffic going by to look,” he said. “That’s what most of the commotion is.”
James Poag, a jewelry shop owner in the town’s core said the emergency response to the derailment was “impressive for the size of the town.”
“The emergency response to keep everyone informed as to which crossings were opened was so well put together this morning,’ said Poag, who said that none of his employees had trouble getting to work this morning.
“It’s really caused less of an angry response than they might have gotten.”
MORGAN LOWRIE
THE CANADIAN PRESS
QUEBEC — A package containing a defaced Qur’an and a note expressing hate toward a Muslim cemetery project has stoked renewed fears at a Quebec mosque where six men were killed in January, the mosque’s secretary general said Wednesday.
Mahedine Djamai said when the package arrived Friday he expected it to contain more of the sympathy cards that have poured in from across Canada since the shooting.
Instead, he said, it contained a Qur’an that had been slashed and a note suggesting the Quebec City mosque should use a pig farm as a cemetery.
“I was shocked,” Djamai said in a phone interview.
“I thought, once again we’re getting this kind of message we didn’t expect at all.”
The package arrived two days before a referendum on a proposed Muslim cemetery was held Sunday in nearby SaintApollinaire.
Djamai said the mosque informed police about the package but decided not to go public until after the referendum
The parcel we received, it reminds us that there’s always a fear that a terrible event like what happened on Jan. 29 could happen again.”
Mahedine Djamai to avoid influencing the vote. A zoning change that would have allowed the burial ground project to move forward was rejected by 19 votes to 16.
Quebec City police spokesman David Poitras said security has been increased around the Centre culturel islamique de Quebec and that authorities are taking the matter seriously.
He added it’s too soon to know whether any charges will be laid.
Djamai says the community has been shaken by the incident, which brings back memories of the deadly shooting.
“We’ve received an enormous number of packages, of letters of sympathy (since the shooting),” he said. “On the other hand, the parcel we received, it reminds us that there’s always a fear that a terrible event like what happened on Jan. 29 could happen again.”
Six men between the ages of 39 and 60 were killed when a gunman burst into the mosque and opened fire during evening prayer.
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard condemned the latest incident, which he described as “unacceptable and repulsive.”
“We should all condemn these acts, they’re not unique to Quebec, we see this around the world where communities co-exist,” he said in Edmonton as he attended a premiers’ meeting.
This is not the first time a hateful gesture has been directed toward the mosque. Last June, a pig’s head was left at the entrance of the mosque during Ramadan. The pig’s head was wrapped in paper and was accompanied by a note that read “Bonne (sic) appetit.”
The mosque has said it has also received hateful letters since the attack.