Clear geographic boundaries in a statutory injunction gave police much-needed energy to implement bylaws throughout 2022’s Freedom Convey protests in Ontario, a lawyer instructed the current RIMS Canada Convention in Vancouver.
“Whether or not or not the police have the authority to create an exclusion zone or geographic limits round protest is one thing that’s nonetheless in debate within the legislation,” mentioned Jennifer King, a associate at Gowling WLG.
“Proof from the police was that it was helpful within the injunction to have very clear geographic boundaries in order that they don’t need to query whether or not or not they’ll implement a bylaw in a specific approach.”
King was responding to a query from moderator Robin McCleave, BFL Canada’s nationwide follow chief for the general public sector, about what authorized instruments can be found to municipalities in response to a disruptive protest. She was particularly requested concerning the Metropolis of Windsor’s use of a statutory injunction throughout protests in 2022 on the Ambassador Bridge that connects Windsor and Detroit.
King acted as lead counsel for the Metropolis of Windsor on the injunction associated to Ambassador Bridge blockades in February 2022. Protestors obstructed the bridge starting Feb. 7, 2022 and by Feb. 9, King mentioned, attorneys reached out for a court docket date.
“We had been in court docket lower than 24 hours after we had been retained,” King mentioned in the course of the panel, Making use of Latest Courtroom Rulings Whereas Responding to Demonstrative Social Activism. “It was very quick, and it was the chief justice in Ontario…”
Attorneys utilized for and acquired the statutory injunction beneath Ontario’s Municipal Act, King reported.
“For a municipality that desires to deliver these injunctions, it’s important to present [a] bylaw’s being breached after which, basically, it’s distinctive for a court docket to not grant that injunction,” she mentioned, including that it stays in place as a everlasting statutory injunction.
Associated: Are Freedom Convoy truckers covered?
Authorized instruments to answer disruptive protests will probably contain police, King famous.
Provincial visitors statutes are additionally out there, and provinces are more and more passing legal guidelines just like the Retaining Ontario Open for Enterprise Act. This legislation was handed following the convoy protests to guard vital infrastructure and might present the “means to create geographic limits round a protest,” King mentioned.
“What was necessary concerning the [Ambassador] bridge is that loads of the municipalities which have border crossings noticed what was taking place in Ottawa, and so they noticed that the Freedom Convoy of Ottawa bought entrenched shortly.”
Across the similar time because the Ambassador Bridge protests, there have been demonstrations on the Peace Bridge border crossing in Fort Erie, Ont., mentioned one other panellist, Donna Pasto, threat administration program supervisor for the Regional Municipality of Niagara.
Police forces on either side of the border collaborated and regarded among the classes from different demonstrations, Pasto mentioned.
“Steps had been taken to redirect visitors in order that the automobiles and the vans that had been on their approach…didn’t get to the Peace Bridge,” she mentioned. “They had been nonetheless allowed to return into the Fort Erie space, however they had been redirected to an space.
“And what really ended up taking place [was] they’d park their automobiles after which come on foot onto the bridge, which was manageable by police presence.”
That additionally maintained the visitors circulate of important automobiles with out halting the motion of products out and in of Canada.
“So, what might have been a vital scenario, we had been in a position to divert it,” Pasto mentioned. “Doesn’t imply it’ll at all times occur that approach, however we bought fortunate this time, simply because we had that chance to plan upfront.”
Characteristic picture: Police stroll the road to take away truckers and supporters after a court docket injunction gave police the facility to implement the legislation after protesters blocked the entry main from the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022. The federal authorities is giving Windsor as much as $6.9 million in compensation for coping with “Freedom Convoy” protests that blocked the Ambassador Bridge within the southwest Ontario metropolis earlier this yr. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
