"Passenger-rail advocate Paul Langan, who heads a group called High Speed Rail Canada, criticized “high-frequency” rail as a term invented by Via to describe slow trains that will run more often."

"“They’re going to have the same train speed that they had in 1976 after this is done. How can this be progressive?” he said in an interview. “It’s pathetic.”"
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No. Not so much.
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The cost of building and operating a train system varies a the cube of the highest design speed.
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Running reliable service even at 120 km/h every half hour, all day long, is far more useful to the public than trying to run 285 km/h twice a day where there is no demand to pay for it.
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For practical purposes, frequency and predictability matter far more than top speed.
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Furthermore, if the lines run at 120 - 160 km/h, the cost of electrification can be shared with the freight for intermodal containers - the express trains of our times.  Passengers are 2% of car loadings. Freight is 98%.
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Excellent idea.