Anti-government, anti-authority sentiment a growing challenge for Winnipeg police: report

Anti-government and anti-authority sentiment poses a growing challenge for police, according to a new report about the background conditions facing the Winnipeg Police Service.

The Environment for Policing report, published Monday by the Winnipeg Police Board, says police are contending with the result of reduced trust in institutions.

This has manifested itself in disparate ways, such as calls to reduce funding for police to demonstrations against COVID-19 restrictions, which took over downtown Winnipeg for three weeks earlier this year.

"Increasingly there is public expression of anti-government and anti-authority feelings," states the report.

It singles out the COVID-19 pandemic as a factor in undermining public trust in a variety of institutions.

"Some of the lingering effects are around trust in public institutions, not restricted to policing, but in all major institutions. Distrust in legacy media and previously trusted sources of public discourse (academics and experts) has never been higher," states the report.

The report says that came to a head with the demonstrations north of the Manitoba legislative grounds, which lasted three weeks. The report characterizes the police response to those demonstrations as satisfactory.

"Police were determined to work together with the protesters gathered in Winnipeg to ensure a peaceful protest and outcome to the demonstration," the report states.

"Many people were unhappy with the approach taken by police; however the protest was resolved without violence or major incident."

Zilla Jones, a criminal defence lawyer in Winnipeg, questioned that conclusion, noting police appeared to be sympathetic to the demonstrators.

"The perception certainly was that they were not being as proactive about dealing with the convoy as they could have been," Jones said Monday in an interview. 

"It was then impacting people's quality of life that had to live near convoy activities." 

Jones has been critical of the manner in which police resources are allocated. The City of Winnipeg budgeted $320 million for policing in 2022, which works out to 27 per cent of its $1.2-billion operating budget.

The police board report acknowledges there continue to be "a number of proponents" for defunding or abolishing police, based on concerns about the service's cost and effectiveness.