Ontario official says police lacked the resources to handle both Ottawa and Windsor protests

A senior Ontario bureaucrat says law enforcement in the province didn't have the resources to address both convoy protests that were happening simultaneously in Ottawa and Windsor.

The comments were made in September during an exchange between Mario Di Tommaso, provincial deputy solicitor general, and lawyers for the Emergencies Act inquiry. A summary of that interview was entered into evidence before the Public Order Emergency Commission Wednesday.

Di Tommaso, whose portfolio includes oversight of the Ontario Provincial Police, said that around Feb. 10 the OPP shifted its focus from the protesters occupying Ottawa to the standoff at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor – a decision he agreed with.

"Law enforcement had finite resources and could not effectively address situations in both Ottawa and Windsor at the same time," according to his interview summary.

Di Tommaso said that while the Ottawa demonstration, which gridlocked parts of the city for nearly three weeks, posed a significant inconvenience, it wasn't an overriding public safety risk.

Meanwhile, he told the commission, the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge was threatening the province's economic security.

"It resulted in plants shutting down and lost jobs, and it raised concerns from American trade partners," he said in the interview summary.

Premier Doug Ford agreed that Windsor should be the priority, according to a transcript of a call between Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made public Tuesday.

"The bigger one for us and the country is the Ambassador Bridge and the state [on the] ground there," Ford told the prime minister.

The OPP took over as the lead agency responding to the Ambassador Bridge blockade on Feb. 9, after the Windsor Police Service (WPS) requested support from provincial, federal and nearby municipal police agencies.

The Emergencies Act was invoked after the Ambassador Bridge was cleared on Feb. 13 following a court injunction that led to the clearing of protesters in Windsor.

In his interview, Di Tommaso said there was a disagreement during a Feb. 6 call over which level of government was responsible for the Ottawa protest.

He recalled that federal national security adviser Jody Thomas suggested that Ontario should be dealing with the occupation in Ottawa instead of the federal government.

Di Tommaso told the commission he responded by pointing out that the demonstrators were protesting a federal vaccine mandate on Parliament's doorstep.