Robert Bellefleur says he was drinking his second cup of coffee in his home in Lac-Megantic, Que. on the morning of July 21 when he received a visit from two armed Canadian Pacific Kansas City police officers.

They parked, “put on the bulletproof vests, put on the baton, put on the handcuffs, the gun and then came over,” he said. The officers, he said, told him he was under investigation for illegally trespassing on railway property.

Bellefleur, a rail safety advocate, says he was later fined nearly $700 by the Quebec Crown prosecutor’s office. The rail company’s investigation came after he reported a safety concern with the train tracks running through the community the previous month, he said.

While the CPKC says the police visit and fine were issued to deter trespassing — which it de

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