'The plan needs to be urgent': Windsor council wants feds to act on emergency commission recommendations
It’s been a little more than a year since the week-long protests that blocked the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont.
What followed was a public order emergency commission into the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act, and the resulting 2,000 page report with dozens of recommendations.
A special report was presented to council Monday night by Jennifer King, the lawyer who represented the city at the commission.
“The commissioner took the time to comprehensively analyze a huge volume of evidence and testimony of a number of witnesses to make findings of fact about what happened last year during the protests,” said King, whose most recent task was to look at those recommendations and give council some takeaways.
The big ones, she said is the recommendation for improved inter-jurisdictional communication, as well as clearer guidelines with respect to requests for policing resources.
She said Windsor was heralded at the commission for their communication with the public during the blockade, coordinating responses between the city and police to ensure policing operations were not compromised.
“Windsor was seen as an example of a response that went well, and so was used in the report to show how to communicate during an emergency,” King said.
She also points out some short-comings in the public order report, such as the absence of municipalities in federal-provincial emergency management coordination and the downloading of policing and emergency response costs to municipalities.
“You have to have everybody at the table, all levels of government at the table to make sure that there's a coordinated response,” she told council.
It’s been more than a month now since the report was published and according to the city, there has been no correspondence from the federal government on next steps.
As King articulated to council Windsor’s border crossing is somewhat unique in that a provincial road and an international, federally regulated bridge are connected by local roads that served as the epicentre of the week-long blockade.
Council agreed it would like to hear from the federal government to develop a clear framework to be prepared for any potential future crisis.
”As I understand it, there hasn't been any clear indication of what steps the other levels of government are taking to ensure that that everybody sits down at the table, and certainly not in the last month,” she said.
She added, “There needs to be a plan and the plan needs to be urgent.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
Green deputy leader sentenced to jail for Fairy Creek old growth protests
The Green Party is decrying a 60-day sentence handed to its deputy leader today for her role in old growth logging protests on Vancouver Island.