Windsor Police had 'three days to plan' before bridge blockade occurred: POEC report

The Public Order Emergency Commission has released its final report on the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act in February 2022 to clear the Freedom Convoy demonstrations.

The 2,000 page report is broken into six different categories, including two volumes for the Freedom Convoy and the political and policing response to it.

After providing an overview of how the protests started in Windsor, Rouleau later reflects on how Windsor Police, City Hall and the OPP responded to it.

Stopping the blockade:

Justice Rouleau says the blockade was “reasonably foreseeable” to WPS because of intelligence gathering, social media posts and their contact with local protest organizers.

“Thus, the police had at least three days to plan for a potential blockade of the Ambassador Bridge,” Rouleau writes.

He notes however preventing a blockade is challenged by jurisdictional issues.

“The Canada Border Service Agency’s (CBSA) jurisdiction extends only to the physical port of entry, and given its limited jurisdiction, the CBSA advised the WPS that it did not have a plan to deal with the blockade,” the report reads.

“The federal government had authority over the bridge itself, but not the municipal roads feeding into it.”

Rouleau also notes policing resources were “stretched thinly elsewhere.”

The RCMP was balancing “competing demands for resources” and a request from WPS to OPP was not escalated beyond the “local detachment level.”

Rouleau says WPS learned from what was happening in Ottawa and tried to “prevent a blockade” by controlling the street closest to it.

“However, protesters responded by blocking other intersections farther from the bridge,” he writes.

Dealing with the blockade:

Rouleau notes WPS and OPP did try, separately, to stop the blockade from happening because they had a “good relationship” with local protestors.

“However, by February 7, there were other groups of protesters with no such relationship. There was no single group of protesters with a shared vision and clear leadership,” the report reads.

Rouleau says this affected WPS ability to obtain concessions during the protest.

The blockade did not immediately shut down bridge traffic, according to Rouleau, but he says CBSA data shows only eight commercial trucks entered Canada on the bridge between Feb. 8 and 13, 2022.

Rouleau says the Windsor protest was similar to Ottawa in that it “represented a cross-section of Canadians who were present for a variety of reasons,” including dozens of children at times and many personal vehicles alongside commercial vehicles.

Unlike Ottawa however Rouleau says there wasn’t a “surge” of protestors on weekends although WPS did report a “party-like” atmosphere in the evenings at the bridge blockade.

Rouleau was very complimentary to WPS and OPP for their ability to work together to police the protest itself and to develop a plan for would be in charge to see it come to a peaceful resolution.

“The speed with which the WPS and the OPP did so was the result of pre-existing relationships and trust between senior WPS and OPP officers, as well as the WPS’s acknowledgment of the need to let the OPP’s subject-matter experts control both the planning and the conduct of POU-led action,” Rouleau writes.

He says within 48 hours of deciding the OPP would take the lead on a plan, it was in place and ready to be executed by Feb. 11.

“Planning proceeded quickly in part because the OPP command had assured OPP Superintendent Dana Earley that Windsor was a priority and that she would have whatever resources were necessary,” the report reads.

Rouleau noted there was a “unified approach” for messaging between City Hall and the Windsor Police Services Board (WPSD) because Mayor Drew Dilkens is also the WPSB Chair.

“Unlike in Ottawa, where the mayor and the chair of the OPSB were at odds,” Rouleau opines. “This meant that information flowed freely between the WPSB and City Council, and that it fostered coordination, which allowed the WPS to control public messaging.”

Clearing the blockade:

Rouleau provided four reasons for why the OPP prioritized clearing the bridge blockade:

• the economic impact of the blockade
• the smaller and less entrenched nature of the Windsor protest compared to Ottawa
• the rapidity and seamlessness of the integration between the WPS and the OPP
• the plan in Ottawa was not yet ready.

Rouleau notes the Ambassador Bridge blockade was cleared before the Emergencies Act was invoked.

“While the blockade never again took hold, there were continued threats of further disruptions to the bridge and other critical infrastructure in and around Windsor,” Rouleau writes while noting local streets didn’t fully reopen until March 28, 2022.

“Police established these checkpoints without relying on the Emergency Measures Regulations and continued to use them following the revocation of the Public Order Emergency,” Rouleau writes.