The move comes after Health Canada this week relaxed rules on the sale of hand sanitizers, disinfectants and protective equipment on a temporary basis to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Despite the potential for high profits, companies including Guelph-based Dixon’s Distilled Spirits have decided to donate hand sanitizers and disinfectants made at the facility to front-line healthcare workers.

“I work in a hospital part-time. I see the demand and I realize that if front-line workers don’t have it, the general public is probably screwed,” Vicky Dixon, co-owner of Dixon’s, told Reuters.

Dixon’s prioritizes donating the sanitizers to healthcare workers but plans to sell smaller bottles to the public to cover the costs of donation. The distiller has donated about 500 litres so far, said Dixon.

Dillon’s Distillers at Beamsville, Ont. is also distributing the hand sanitizers it makes to local police, health workers and long-term care homes for free, according to the company’s social media accounts.

As of Wednesday, it said it had given out 3,000 bottles of sanitizer and nearly all its disinfectant.

In Toronto, Spirit of York Distillery started selling sanitizers on Thursday and said it plans to donate all proceeds to the local food bank.

Gerry Guitor, founder of Spirit of York, said he was “appalled” by news of an individual re-selling sanitizers at a premium. “So we said, ‘Let’s go the other way.'”

U.S. media have reported on a Tennessee man who purchased 18,000 bottles of sanitizer and tried to sell them online for US$70 a bottle. Last week, a Vancouver couple claimed to have made more than $100,000 reselling hoarded Lysol wipes, the Toronto Star reported.

Spirit of York sells hand sanitizers at $3 each per small bottle or free for seniors over 65 or those who can’t afford it.

“The small business community is stepping up. I would love to see some of these large organizations step up, maybe forgo profits for a while,” Guitor told Reuters.

The Hiram Walker and Sons Distillery, which makes J.P. Wiser’s whisky among other spirits at Windsor, Ont., also announced Thursday it will add hand sanitizer to its output.

The distillery, owned by Toronto-based Corby Spirit and Wine, said its sanitizers would be “donated where needed” in Windsor, and to Toronto public transit operator TTC for use at its garages and collector booths.

“In times like this, it is important that everyone, especially companies with strong Canadian roots, like ours, prioritize good corporate citizenship and step up in the name of the greater good,” Corby CEO Patrick O’Driscoll said in a release.

The Windsor plant typically produces 180,000 litres of whisky, vodka and rum per day, Corby said.

— Denise Paglinawan reports for Reuters from Toronto. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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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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The protests of recent weeks are seen as a flashpoint for indigenous rights and reconciliation and demonstrators on Tuesday also blocked the entrance to the B.C. provincial legislature.

Anti-pipeline protesters near tracks in Ontario have disrupted passenger trains and goods transportation for the fifth straight day. Hundreds of trains were affected as was the movement of perishables, propane, grain, feedstocks and coal, the railway said. The ports of Prince Rupert, Montreal and Halifax were also disrupted.

The blockade near a CN line connecting Toronto to Ottawa and Montreal began on Thursday as indigenous rights people protest in support of Wet’suwet’en First Nations opposition to the proposed Coastal GasLink pipeline in B.C.

“Factories and mines will be soon faced with very difficult decisions,” said CN CEO JJ Ruest.

Ruest said the blockades will have a “trickle down effect” on consumer goods in the next few weeks. The railway transports more than $250 billion worth of goods annually, according to the company. The impact is being felt beyond Canada’s borders, CN said.

The $6.6 billion pipeline, to be operated by TC Energy, is set to move natural gas from northeastern B.C. to the Pacific Coast, where the Royal Dutch Shell-led LNG Canada export facility is under construction. In December, private equity firm KKR and Co. and Alberta Investment Management Corp. agreed to buy a 65 per cent stake in Coastal GasLink Pipeline.

Coastal GasLink said on Tuesday that construction of the pipeline in northern B.C. is expected to resume this week. Members of the Wet’suwet’en community would be “heavily involved” in construction programs as the project progresses, Coastal GasLink said.

The protests have disrupted 157 trains and at least 24,500 passengers since they started, operator VIA Rail said.

“We hope this will get resolved because it has an important impact to the economy of the country,” federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau told reporters on Tuesday.

CN has obtained court injunctions for its Ontario and B.C. locations and is working with police to enforce them, said Ruest.

Service along a Montreal public transport system was also interrupted by protesters in Kahnawake territory blocking the commuter railway, which is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), affecting about 18 trains and 6,000 passengers.

CP did not comment on whether any transportation of goods was disrupted.

— Reporting for Reuters by Denise Paglinawan and Ankit Ajmera; writing by Denny Thomas.

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