The ability of Windsor police to remove or resolve another blockade of the Ambassador Bridge would be much quicker in the future thanks to provincial legislation.
A report to Monday's city council meeting detailed how Bill 100, the Keeping Ontario Open for Business Act, or KOOBA, prohibits impeding access to "protected transportation infrastructure," which is defined as any land or water border crossing point between Ontario and the United States, airports with international flights, and other significant trade routes.
On Feb. 7, 2022, a group of protestors stopped along Huron Church Road in Windsor heading to the Ambassador Bridge, protesting COVID-19 restrictions and mandates.
Traffic leading to the border crossing would be halted until police officers moved them off the route on Feb. 13., 2022.
Bill 100 now empowers law enforcement agencies to take immediate action against blockades of protected transportation infrastructure without the need for a court injunction and allows for enforcement measures such as the suspension of driver’s licenses and vehicle permits of individuals involved in illegal blockades along with significant fines.
Windsor Police Deputy Chief Jason Crowley says they lacked resources and were outnumbered right from the get-go during the Ambassador Bridge blockade, but the legislation may have sped up the process by a few days if it had been in place at that time.
"There are all kinds of tools that we, as law enforcement, have that we can use in those aspects, but the KOOBA legislation was really very helpful in everyday...and to be honest, we've never arrested anybody under it at this point. But the awareness of it is probably just enough at times," he says.
"Because of that, people are much more receptive to what might happen and the potential consequences," he says. "There are public liaison teams that are the ones reaching out to these organizers. Typically they have some really good rapport, and because of this we have not seen this in the last little while, so it's been very effective."
The province passed Bill 100 in April 2022 in response to what occured during the blockade.
Crowley says with this legislation, the consequences are difficult to accept for those who break that law, like those who are commercial vehicle operators.
"You can lose your regular driver's license; you can lose that operator's license for the trucking company as well, so that's going to affect someone's livelihood, and we don't want that. We want to have that good rapport with protesters; we don't want to affect someone's livelihood, but it does give us something to use if we have to," he says.
Since the blockade, the Windsor Police Service has established a Public Order Unit, pulling officers from various parts of the organization to address, respond to, or communicate with anyone involved in a planned protest.