Windsor Mayor Says Ambassador Bridge Blockade Was a ‘National Security Issue’

Police arrest protesters near the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Canada on Feb. 13, 2022. Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images

The mayor of the city of Windsor told the Emergencies Act inquiry on Monday that the several day’s blockade of the Ambassador Bridge last winter represented a “national security issue.”

“This was in my mind, and will remain until I’m long gone, a national economic emergency,” said Mayor Drew Dilkens.

“There is a direct correlation to a national economic emergency, and I would submit to a national security issue, and this is exactly what this was.”

The Freedom Convoy trucker-led protest demanding the lifting of COVID-19 mandates started in January and many actions sprung up across the country in solidarity and echoing similar grievances.

Protesters started blocking the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor on Feb. 7, hence shutting down part of the most important cross-border trade corridor between Canada and the U.S.

Dilkens said the bridge handles between $300 and $450 million in trade between the countries daily.

Windsor police, with support from other forces such as the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the RCMP, cleared the protesters on the night of Feb. 13.

The Liberal government went on to invoke the Emergencies Act hours later on Feb. 14.

Before the act was invoked, Dilkens sent a text message to federal Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino asking if his government was considering using that measure.

“To the extent you can be supportive of any additional authorities that gets Windsor the resources you need to keep the bridge open, people safe, that would be great,” replied Mendicino.

Dilkens was asked by the commission counsel what he understood this meant.

“I think he’s saying ... if you could express what was happening on the ground that would help justify this, that would be helpful to us,” said Dilkens.

Windsor police interim deputy chief Jason Crowley, who also testified on Nov. 7, said no powers from the Emergencies Act were used for the enforcement in Windsor.

He said there had been concerns that protesters would return and that the act served as a deterrent.

Legal Background

Dilkens’ stance that the blockade constituted a national security situation was challenged by Freedom Corp counsel Brendan Miller, who represents some of the Freedom Convoy organizers.

Dilkens is a lawyer and Miller asked him whether he had ever worked on national security law or if he has a background on what constitutes a national security emergency.

“I would say that I’ve never practiced national security law, but there are some things on the face of it that present themselves and I think would be obvious to everyone could be related to national security,” said Dilkens.

Dilkens was asked if he’s familiar with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and what they do.

Miller has read section 2 of the CSIS act with several previous witnesses to try to determine whether the events of last winter met the definition of threats to national security under that act.

Dilkens saw it coming and said if Miller brought the act up “we could go through it.”

Miller didn’t go there and instead presented a CSIS document saying that the organization on Feb. 3 “assessed there were no indicators that known IMVE [Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism] actors were planning to engage in violence” in relation to the protests.

Superintendent Pat Morris, head of the OPP’s Provincial Operations Intelligence Bureau (POIB), testified on Oct. 19 that CSIS and the RCMP didn’t view the protests as a national security threat.

The POIB itself had assessed on Feb. 7 that the events had the potential to become a “national security threat,” which Morris said he was uncomfortable with given the CSIS and RCMP stance.