Windsor police officer penalized for Freedom Convoy donation launching a new appeal

Day 10 of the Freedom Convoy demonstration in downtown Ottawa in February 2022. (Josh Pringle/CTV News Ottawa)

Const. Michael Brisco has now asked the Ontario Divisional Court to review his penalty for giving $50 to the Ottawa protest in February 2022.

“We are hopeful that the Divisional Court will see that the entire conviction was unreasonable,” said lawyer Darren Leung in a news release from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF). “The evidence used to convict Const. Brisco amounted to nothing more than opinions from people who did not like the message.”

Brisco was convicted in March 2023 of a single count of discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act.

The Hearing Adjudicator found Brisco knew or ought to have known that donating to a protest which his peers were actively working to contain, would harm the reputation of the Windsor Police Service.

Brisco however has maintained that his donation, made from a private account, while he was on unpaid leave from the service was a personal, political expression of support.

He also testified he did not support the Ambassador Bridge blockade which was happening at the same time as the protest in Ottawa.

Brisco’s donation in his mind, was going to support Ottawa, not Windsor.

The officer was however ordered to forfeit 80 hours of work as a penalty for the single conviction — essentially Brisco had to work for 80 hours and not get paid.

After the conviction, the JCCF picked up Brisco’s case and represented him in an appeal to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC).

The appeal was dismissed in February 2024.

Now, the JCCF has asked the court “for a judicial review – a process by which courts make sure that the decisions of administrative bodies (e.g., the Windsor Police Service) are fair, reasonable, and lawful,” the news release stated.

The JCCF also takes issue with how the donation was discovered.

Brisco’s donation was only discovered after the online crowd-funding site was hacked and posted online.

The Ontario Provincial Police learned of the information and passed it along to the Professional Standards Branch of the Windsor Police Service.

CTV News has reached out to the Ministry of the Attorney General to learn if the request has been accepted.