Two Canadian National freight trains derailed last week leading to massive environmental damage in waterways in Alberta and BC.

On Wednesday August 3, a CN train derailment poured more than 700,000 litres of bunker fuel oil into Lake Wabamunin, a popular recreational lake west of Edmonton. Three days later, a CN train derailed near Squamish spilling highly toxic sodium hydroxide into the Cheakamus River.

In both instances, dozens of fish, birds and mammals were killed or weakened by the spills.

And in both instances the company acted extremely slowly to mitigate the damage and altering local people to the hazard. In Wabamunin, the company seemed more interested in repairing the track to keep its distribution lines open than in containing the fuel oil spill. Local residents were so disgusted with CN's slow response that over 100 mobilized to block a Canadian National railway crossing.

Residents near the Cheakamus River spill also complained that there was no immediate warning regarding possible health risks.

Additionally, both the Alberta and BC governments, notorious for their neoliberal, deregulatory ideology, were slow to respond.