WARNING: This article contains strong language.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau he felt Ottawa police and the mayor mishandled the Freedom Convoy protest and reopening of the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont. , was the priority, according to a readout of a call the two politicians shared in February.
As part of evidence given at the Emergency Act inquiry on Tuesday, the reading shows Ford said “the police are a bit shy” and “if I could run the police I would”, as he put it to Trudeau that the Ontario government was looking for ways. to give agents more tools to clear the bridge blockage.
The reading of three pages of the call dates from February 9. The Public Order Emergency Commission is in its 19th day of gathering evidence on the federal government’s decision to invoke the act on February 14, a day after the Ambassador Bridge was cleared. protesters
The readout shows that after Trudeau asked how Ford was doing, the prime minister responded, “…we’re all in favor of peaceful protests, but I’m going to start with Ottawa vs. Toronto. I’m going to say that the police chief and mayor of Ottawa it was totally mishandled by the Toronto PD [police department] and the mayor of toronto did a great job. They’ve entrenched themselves in Ottawa.”
The bridge blockade began on February 7 as the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa entered its second week, clogging up the city’s core.
Windsor was among the Canadian cities affected by the demonstrations against the pandemic mandates. The Ambassador Bridge international crossing is at Canada’s busiest land border and is responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in trade with the United States, something Ford mentioned during the call.
The police must do their job: Trudeau
“It costs $500 [million] to $600 million in trade, and tomorrow we’ll hit $3.1 billion,” Ford said.
Trudeau responded that a quick response was needed to what he believed to be an illegal protest.
“You shouldn’t need more tools, legal tools, that are barricading Ontario’s economy and doing millions a day in damage and hurting people’s lives,” the premier said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford shared a phone call on February 10 to discuss the Freedom Convoy protests. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
He said the International Bridges and Tunnels Act means they are the responsibility of the federal government, but the road the protesters were blocking was under the municipal jurisdiction of Windsor.
“The jurisdictional police have to do their job,” Trudeau said. “If they say they can’t do it because they don’t have enough officers or equipment, we need to get that excuse out of the way as soon as possible so they can do their jobs and keep Ontario from becoming a laughing stock.”
Ford replied that if he could lead the police, he would.
“I can’t direct them. I can’t call them and say, ‘Put their ass in and kick their ass.’ It’s up to the OPP,” Ford said, according to the readout.
The reading was presented at the inquiry a day after a Federal Court judge ruled that Ford, as well as Deputy First Minister Sylvia Jones, will not have to testify before the commission, after the two contested a subpoena arguing that parliamentary privilege protect from declaring.
OPP made Ambassador Bridge a priority
Earlier Tuesday, the alternate of the OPP. Dana Earley, responsible for developing and executing a plan to clear the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge, was told by senior OPP commissioners that reopening the bridge was an urgent priority.
“It was a priority for the province,” she said she was told, testifying that her conversations with the WPS helped inform her why the bridge blockade was disruptive.
“The increased size, the economic impacts, the risk to public safety and officials, that was from my awareness of the conference calls that I had participated in and the discussions with [Windsor’s] Deputy Chief Crowley,” he stated.
During the call between Ford and Trudeau, which happened the same day Earley was told the bridge was a priority, Ford told Trudeau that tow trucks would not be moving vehicles on the bridge.
“If you need tow trucks, we will ask the United States to help and it will be embarrassing for us, but if the US offers us, we have to take it,” Trudeau said.
Before the hearing, the commission was told that the tow truck offer was made by Michigan’s governor. However, emails from the Windsor police chief at the time indicate the offer was to connect with private companies that could help, which she believed was a waste of time.
Trudeau asked Ford what additional help was needed and if the OPP understood that they “can’t talk about it for three weeks, they have to act immediately.”
Ford responded by saying they will have a plan “unlike Ottawa, where they had no plan.”
“This is critical. I hear you,” Ford said.
“I’m going to wire brush their asses.”
A reading of a call between Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was played during the commission Tuesday. (Commission for Public Order Emergencies)
Ford and Trudeau ended the call by talking about Ottawa.
“The city of Ottawa has been fighting, but as soon as the OPP bends a little more, we’ll have more clarity on things,” Trudeau said, adding that the federal government has no jurisdiction over Wellington Street where trucks were parked.
“If I can be frank, I’ve talked to senior police officers … police officers are sick every day. They’ve lost command,” Ford responded.
At the time, the protest in Ottawa was in its second week, and the police chief at the time, Peter Sloly, told city council that an additional 2,000 officers would be needed to clear transport trucks parked in the city’s core.
The OPP took over as the lead agency responding to the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge on February 9, after the Windsor Police Service (WPS) called for support from nearby provincial, federal and municipal police agencies.
The Emergency Act was invoked after Ambassador Bridge was cleared on February 13 following a court order that led to the clearing of protesters in Windsor.
On Monday, Windsor Deputy Police Chief Jason Crowley said they did not use the act in the southwestern Ontario city. Mayor Drew Dilkens said the legislation was very helpful in preventing a future lockout.
The OPP thought the police could end the blockade
Earley is a 28-year veteran of the OPP who was strategic commander of 14 detachments in western Ontario as part of her post in London before being named critical incident commander at the bridge protest.
Before taking up his role in Windsor, Earley oversaw the OPP’s response to slow movements in January and February in the western part of the province, including reviewing intelligence reports warning of possible blockages at international crossings.
On Feb. 6, Earley oversaw the OPP’s response to a blockade on the Bluewater Bridge in Lambton County that connects Sarnia, Ontario, to Port Huron, Michigan.
“It was two or three hours at the most,” Early said of how long it took to clear the blockage.
The next day, protesters blocked the Ambassador Bridge.
Police arrest a person as he walked the line to remove all truckers and supporters near the Ambassador Bridge on Sunday. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
On day 2 of the protest, the WPS asked the OPP for additional resources.
Earley arrived in Windsor on February 10, having arranged for several deployments of OPP officers tasked with planning to arrive in the border town to help create a plan to clear the bridge.
He stated that there was a police option that would end the blockade, in contrast to Sloly, who said the week before that “I am increasingly concerned that there is no police solution to this”.
“I still believed and was hopeful that negotiations could happen,” Early said.
“One unified command”
While driving to Windsor from London on February 10, Earley testified that he shared a phone call with OPP Deputy Commissioners Chris Harkins and Rose DiMarco.
Ontario Provincial Police Superintendent Dana Earley answers a question Tuesday while appearing before the Public Order Emergency Commission in Ottawa looking into the federal government’s use of the Emergency Act. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
Earley said the WPS was “very welcoming” when he arrived on site.
“They also welcomed the experience our organization has with large, extended events,” Earley said.
“From the beginning, it was a unified command.”
He said that while Windsor police acknowledged they had the final say on the plans, all decisions were handled by the WPS leader, which allowed for “a remarkable team effort.”
Online threats to ‘reclaim the bridge’
Earley said he did not experience any interference as a critical incident commander from the OPP or Windsor police.
On a call after the plan was created, Earley said he reconsidered moving forward with it out of fear it would stir up protesters in Ottawa.
Part of that plan was to provide a letter signed by Ontario’s attorney general saying they would meet with protesters if they called off the blockade and left the bridge.
Protesters demanded the letter but did not leave when they received it on Feb. 11, Earley testified.
Early decided to move forward with his execution plan, which began on February 12.
Protesters against the mandate hold a blockade of the Ambassador Bridge border crossing in Windsor, Ontario on February 11. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
That plan used public order units (POUs) and provincial liaison teams (PLTs), which Earley said should be created in municipal forces like Windsor. A team from the POU aims to monitor large disruptive crowds; the PLT is used to build relationships with disruptive groups.
When the bridge was cleared on Feb. 13, Earley said, the OPP continued to monitor online threats to “reclaim the bridge.”
“Certainly there was a fear that they would think that members were being deployed in Ottawa and would try to take advantage of that.”
Police intercepted a group of people driving transport trucks on the highway…