OTTAWA –
The mayor of Windsor, Ont., will testify in the present day at a public inquiry into the federal authorities’s use of the Emergencies Act to clear ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters blockading streets round Parliament Hill and several other border crossings.
The scheduled testimony from Drew Dilkens comes as a chunk of proof exhibits he exchanged texts with Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, who sought the mayor’s help for “any further authorities” to maintain the Ambassador Bridge open, hours before the laws was introduced.
A abstract of the trade is contained in a timeline the City of Windsor submitted to the Public Order Emergency Commission before in the present day’s listening to, which offers a blow-by-blow account of its response to the blockade.
Protesters decrying COVID-19 mandates moved in on the Ambassador Bridge on the night of Feb. 7, setting off alarm bells on each side of the Windsor-Detroit hyperlink — the busiest border crossing between Canada and the U.S.
Hundreds of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of commerce are carried throughout the bridge day by day, significantly for the automotive business, which town says suffered below the short-term closure.
Police armed with a court docket injunction finally eliminated protesters who refused to go away, and the bridge reopened to visitors within the early hours of Feb. 14.