Windsor police say post-blockade law is a ‘big help,’ though they haven’t used it to arrest anyone yet | CBC News

A law enacted after the Ambassador Bridge blockade nearly three years ago hasn’t yet been used by Windsor police to charge anyone, but police say they frequently use to it inform protesters of potential consequences in advance of protests.

Bill 100, the Keeping Ontario Open for Business Act, was made into law in April 2022, just months after the Ambassador Bridge was blockaded for nearly a week. The law bans protests that block “protected transportation infrastructure” including border crossings.

The law gives police more ability to respond faster and without the need for a court injunction. They can also level heavier fines against participants and supporters.  

“[It] also has some pretty severe consequences like suspending driver’s licences, suspending operator’s licenses, things like that,” said Deputy Chief Jason Crowley. “There are arrest authorities as well.

“So when we are preparing for regular protests, as we are weekly it seems, often times we will just let the protesters know in advance, ‘This is some of the jeopardy you might face if you’re going near the bridge, near the tunnel,’ … then that way we seem to get a lot more co-operation with ‘yeah, no, we don’t want to cause any trouble’ … ‘we certainly just want to have a peaceful protest’ and typically that’s what we see.”

Crowley says the penalties under Bill 100 can impact people’s livelihoods — if you own a trucking company, for example, and lose your operators or driver’s licences. Because of that threat, he says its been effective at helping keep people away from critical infrastructure like the border. 

But, he added, they’ve never used the law to arrest or charge anyone to this point. Crowley also told council there have been no complaints or challenges to the legislation locally. 

Council heard about the law in a report from staff this week.

“This community, I think, has no tolerance for something like that at this point after what we went through two years ago,” Crowley said. “I think when we tell them we’re going to take it seriously, they’re listening.”

Lately, Crowley says police are responding to multiple protests a week of varying sizes, and those protests have been peaceful.

To help them respond, they’ve created a public order unit that can be activated and scaled as needed to respond to protests of all sizes. That unit pulls officers from a variety of different units, not just patrol officers. 

That’s different than the resources they had in place during the Ambassador Bridge protests, when they were calling in officers from all over and even on days off to respond,” Crowley said. 

“So resources is one, but the provincial government putting tools in our toolbox was a big help and, and this is what this legislation did for us,” he said. “But certainly we would be able to act a little quicker for sure.”