Drew Dilkens
Drew Dilkens spoke 504 times across 1 day of testimony.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Drew Dilkens, D-r-e-w; D-i- l-k-e-n-s.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Thank you.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Good morning. I’m well, thank you.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
You as well.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Just a slight correction as it relates to the statement regarding the CBSA and the offer for tow trucks.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
So the correction should be that CBSA did not offer tow trucks to the Windsor Police Service or the City. The CBSA offered to help clear the drivers and tow trucks that may be available from the United States. So it wasn’t that the CBSA had tow trucks themselves that was offered.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I would just make one correction as it relates to -- and this is probably not material but for the interest of being correct, there’s a mention int here that the City was formed in 1935, and it mentions an Amalgamation Act. Windsor actually received city status in 1892.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, I do.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I do not.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s right.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
The Community Control Group is, effectively, the members of our corporate leadership team, so the Commissioners, and the appropriate people needed to deal with certain events. And basically the idea is if we have a significant event, we give information once to the whole group and then provide a response where everyone is on the same page and understand what needs to be done before we adjourn a meeting.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes. It’s -- you know, it would be analogous in a corporate setting to the Vice President.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
So it’s the senior City leadership team; the city manager and all of the different department heads for each department.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
If required, yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Any sort of operational decision that is required from a city perspective, and it could be traffic control measures, it could be the acquisition of Public Works items, perhaps jersey barriers. It could be procuring any sort of legal resource that is needed. It really runs the gamut depending on what’s required in each situation.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, with respect to the blockade, everyone got together. It was very quickly determined that the right incident command for this event was a police response, and so on the back end we were providing operational support to police. And that was procurement of jersey barriers, traffic signal control, signage, you know, whole host of different inputs that would be required to manage what police needed to deal with the event.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s true. So from a transit perspective, we want to make sure that the transit routes that would have crossed the area in question, that they can continue to be maintained in some order that people could continue to move throughout the city, and so all of those people were around the table making sure that we were deploying the right response to support police in this endeavour.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, Chief Steve Laforet is our fire chief, and so he took control of the CCG and was sort of the -- I would say like the emergency coordinator, making sure that all of the people were around the table and that the facilities were available and he acted as the person in charge for that group.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, I mean, I received briefings from the Chief of Police at the time, from the Deputy Chief Bellaire, from the CAO, from city legal. I mean, there were a number of inputs coming in to me throughout the day, and certainly at CCG. It was during the CCG meetings, it was a chance for us to share information broadly so that everyone was on the same page and that we knew what was required and we were, you know, for lack of a better term, locked and loaded moving forward.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Almost none.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
A portion of it, yeah.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes. The part that’s marked 401 will be the portion that goes to the new Gordie Howe Bridge, and then the portion south of where it sees E.C. Row Expressway, is basically -- it’s called the Herb Gray Parkway, but it’s a direct connection. It effectively is the 401 and links the 401 to -- through the City of Windsor to the -- to the future Gordie Howe Bridge. And then, of course, traffic -- that bridge is not open yet, but traffic that is trying to access the Ambassador Bridge has to get off the 401 north of E.C. Row Expressway where they’re getting on a municipal road. So they move from a provincial highway to a municipal road.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Huron Church Road.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It might be somewhat less than that, you know, say between just around a little over three kilometres.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
So just to the -- to the left of where your cursor -- your pointer is, right there where that green dot is, traffic would proceed north and continue to follow the yellow line. Now you’re onto the -- basically the entrance -- you know, the approach to the bridge.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, the response is a municipal response, so if there was an accident, if there was some form of criminality or something that required police attention, Windsor Police would respond.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
But you are actually now getting on privately-owned property. The Ambassador Bridge is owned by a private corporation, and so that private corporation is required to follow the provisions of the International Briges and Tunnels Act, which is federal legislation in Canada, and the person -- the Minister responsible for administering that legislation is the Minister of Transportation.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah. So CBSA, you see the red -- looks like a Customs officer or police officer. That’s where CBSA has their staff.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It goes over Wyandotte Street.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Right.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
The bridge itself -- I mean, people would refer to the bridge as the portion of the structure between the two largest pillars. Everything else is the approach, and so the approach to -- you can see the large pillar coming out of the water there. Everything leading up to that pillar is the approach and you can see the rise in elevation as vehicles get on the bridge. And just north of where the pointer is now, that’s University of Windsor campus. It’s directly adjacent to the Ambassador Bridge and they have about 17,500 students that attend that campus.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
So where the pointer is now, you can see if you stayed to the left on that roadway, that would be into the plaza area past the duty free and then onto the bridge. And where that pointer was where the number 3 is, again, if you stayed to the left you’re going to the bridge. Stay to the right, that’s how people -- the majority of people, I would submit, get to the University of Windsor each and every day. So that is one way to get on the Ambassador Bridge. There is a second entrance to the Ambassador Bridge, and that is sort of the middle of the screen where the yellow dot is right there. There is an entrance point just down, you know, 20 metres or 30 metres. You can turn in and access the bridge that way as well.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s right.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes. So City of Windsor and the City of Detroit, we respectively own our own halves of the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel. We manage them together, but ownership rests with each municipality.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
The tunnel has -- the tunnel is predominately just vehicular traffic, passenger cars. Haulers, auto haulers, can go in the tunnel, but there are weight and height restrictions. The tunnel is 90 plus years old, so there are height and weight restrictions in the tunnel. So the vast majority of truck traffic uses the Ambassador Bridge. Passenger traffic uses the tunnel.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct. And the ferry is used for hazardous goods. They cannot cross through -- they cannot cross over the Ambassador Bridge if they’re carrying hazardous goods.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It’s exclusive to vehicles carrying hazardous goods.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
There is, yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I’m not sure, in terms of the volume of traffic, but it is not a double stacked tunnel, so it limits the type of traffic that can go through, train traffic that can go through.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That sounds about right.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, so the numbers vary, and it really -- you know, the estimate is between 300 and 450 million, depending on the day, depending on the season. But that -- you know, any way you cut it, it’s hundreds of millions of dollars a day. So between three and 450 is sort of the rule of thumb.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It does.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well I would say it’s -- there really are two kinds. And so living in Windsor, we have the benefit of being sort of that safe, small, city, community in Canada. And then people who live in Windsor in our area often cross for all of the amenities that you would find in a big city, whether that’s sports, or dining, or entertainment. All of that exists in Detroit just 10 minutes away. But we also have about 6,000 people who cross to go to work. So people who live in our community and cross to go to work in the greater Detroit area each and every day. And those are, you know, everything from engineers and a whole host of healthcare professionals that continue to cross even during the pandemic.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
If it’s on the Canadian side, yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Windsor Police, from my understanding, would be the ones that would receive the first call and provide the first response if there’s other criminal type of activity.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Not to my knowledge. I would say that the OPP is responsible. When we looked at the map, just a few minutes ago, where the 401 meets the E.C. Row Expressway, the OPP is responsible to patrol effectively the 401, which is in our area as well.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Exactly. Yeah.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Not to my knowledge. They have a presence in Windsor. There’s a detachment. But I’m not aware that they have any sort of operational dealings with the Ambassador Bridge per say.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I really wasn’t aware of them at the time. They really had no impact and the Chief of the day hadn’t mentioned that to me. And so I wasn’t aware at the time.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
And as I came to find out, they weren’t blocking traffic, so traffic to and from the Ambassador Bridge was still able to move.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I had no information myself, and nothing was passed to me at the end of January.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
February the 4th.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Carolyn Brown is a City employee who is responsible for managing the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel. Our half.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Not from the folks on this email, but I did receive a call from the Chief of Police shortly thereafter, who told me about the slow roll and that police are monitoring this slow roll through the City of Windsor.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No, what the Chief told me, Chief Mizuno had said that that’s when I found out that it was already happening in the days prior to February the 4th and that everyone had been peaceful, that there had been no blockage of traffic to and from the Ambassador Bridge, and so what the Chief told me was that they were monitoring the situation and she just wanted to let me know.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
On this particular time, I wouldn’t say, on February 4th, not right away. I mean, what I did when I found out, I sent a text to Minister Mendicino just to let him know that I had received this information so that he was aware, because we were watching, of course, what was happening in Ottawa and elsewhere around the country and I just passed that up to the Minister for his attention.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I don’t recall if we spoke on the weekend.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, I was.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, we were watching -- and the Chief had called me as well, but we were also watching social media and traditional media as well -- and saw that there was a thread and then a blockage at or around the Blue Water Bridge.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I don’t recall how long it lasted but my recollection is it was ended pretty quick.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, it did.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, I’ll say leading up to the 7th there was lots of activity over the weekend because you could feel the temperature rising, in terms of comments on social media, what was happening in around -- in and around Sarnia. We were watching what was happening in Ottawa and we know -- anyone who lives in Windsor knows and appreciates how important the Ambassador Bridge is, not just for our local and regional economies, but also provincially. And so over the weekend we started making preparations to acquire jersey barriers, at the request of police. I had made an effort to secure one of our Transit Windsor buses to put on the -- let’s say the other side of customs, on the duty-free side of the tunnel, just in case there was a blockage at the bridge and the tunnel, because there were -- there was the thought that you could have the closure of both pieces of infrastructure. And we knew that we had to provide a mechanism to move health -- move healthcare workers who lived in Windsor and worked in Detroit. We had to be able to get them through the tunnel, even if their cars could not get through the tunnel. And so we moved a transit bus to the other side, to the duty-free plaza in the tunnel, and then there was -- there was work being done to figure out how to move that bus through, because we were still in this COVID restriction period, and there were ArriveCAN and all sorts of restrictions crossing back and forth through the international border. So work was going on, on that front as well. So everyone was working very well together, dealing with whatever information we had and trying to provide and prepare for the eventual -- you know, the eventuality in the worst-case scenario, which would be the closure of Huron Church Road, leading to the Ambassador Bridge.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It wasn’t used but we made all preparations just in case because it was imperative that we had access for healthcare workers to get through to the United States.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, on the 7th we opened our Emergency Operations Centre, so that is at one of our firehalls. The Chief opened the EOC; there was a meeting, say 9 or 10 o’clock in the morning that day at the EOC -- or of the CCG, I should say. And everything was sort of laid out, “Here’s what we have”; police were on that call. Everyone was briefed on the information that was available at the time. And, you know, everyone was on the same page. So preparations were being made, if it got worse.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
There were some efforts by OPP, as I was made aware, up the 401, outside the boundaries of the City of Windsor, to try and divert truck traffic that may be on the way. But I think it’s fair to say that, if you know the City of Windsor, and anyone who lives in our city, because of the distance from, say, E.C. Row Expressway, the end of the 401 to the Ambassador Bridge -- and we’re talking three kilometers each way -- the number of businesses, the number of homes, the hotels that are built up that require direct access to Huron Church Road, it would be, for all intents and purposes, practically impossible to guarantee, with any certainty, that you could provide a route for trucks and -- without having huge disruption to the community. Not just the business community, but also the people who live on the west side of the city.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It bisects right through.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
And so you can imagine the Ambassador Bridge when it was built, you know, 90 years ago, that the road -- Huron Church Road was effectively a road with farms on either side back then. And over time -- there are still home whose driveways require access to Huron Church Road, but over time that’s changed. And so again, you have hotels, many, many hotels, and motels; you have lots of businesses, and you have a whole community. In fact, the western side of Huron Church Road is the oldest -- one of the oldest communities in Ontario, going back to the mid-1700s. It was called Sandwich Town at the time. And so there is a -- it’s a lot of history in that area and a lot of people live there. Not just students that go to the University of Windsor, but a whole host of folks. I mean there’s probably 25,000 people who live on the other side of Huron Church Road, the west side.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Everyone was just making plans; doing the best they could do to support police as they tried to mobilize everything that they required to provide us support. It was very obvious that if something happened here, it was a police response that would be required.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I don’t remember the exact time.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I don’t recall if that was passed on to me or not.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I mean, you know, I say that, and I’ll tell you, I was talking to the Chief of Police or the Deputy Chief probably five times a day.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
And direct connection with our City Manager and the department heads, so there was no lack of sharing of information in Windsor. We were all pretty much on the same page and aware of what was going on and trying to develop and devise a response, and especially try to help police as they needed.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
He is a Deputy Police Chief in the City of Windsor responsible for operations.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
At the time, yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
You know, my sentiment at the time was that they were doing everything they could to speak with the protesters to try and find some way to allow a slow roll to continue, if that’s what folks wanted to do, but to prevent a permanent shutdown of Huron Church Road.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I’m not sure exactly who did it but there was requests made, and so likely it would have been our Public Works Department sourcing whatever we had internally as a city, and then where we were deficient in the numbers required, reaching out to adjacent municipalities and trying to procure the jersey barriers that police had asked for.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Certainly at the end of this incident, we wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. We needed their help to secure three kilometres of jersey barriers in each direction, so a total of six kilometres of jersey barriers.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
We have a -- the police have a contract with a company, which is quite standard, and they provide towing services. And so they have -- they had capacity but there was, you know, -- also there were threats being made against the company and the owners of the company that if they participated and towed cars, there was all sorts of things going on to sort of attack the company and their reputation; online giving them negative reviews, and doing a number of things that happened, ultimately. So, yes, they were -- they are our contractor; they were cooperative, but if the expectation is that they could have helped move all of the vehicles that were there, including some of the heavy trucks, I don’t think they would have had -- it would have taken a long time, or they wouldn’t have had all of the resources required. We would have needed additional support if any attempt was made to go in and move everyone in any timely manner.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, I’m not aware that they refused to provide services.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I think police would be better positioned to answer, but the briefings that I received from the Chief at the time is that the ongoing negotiations they were trying to get a lane open for emergency purposes. And so they were at one time successful in doing that, and then that ended very, very quickly. And part of the issue that we experienced collectively in Windsor is that this was a leaderless movement. You know, there was no-one speaking for the group who could guarantee the behaviour of the other members. And so police will know better the timing, in terms of, you know, the ebb and flow of what they were able to achieve, but the briefings I received from Chief Mizuno was that at one time they did have a lane open but that that agreement dissolved very quickly.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, it’s information I received from police.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
In or around the 7th. It was the 7th or the 8th.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
She did. And so, obviously, the Solicitor-General had responsibility for the OPP at the time, and I wanted to make sure that she was informed of what was going on, on the ground. But my question to the Chief of Police was, “Chief, what do you need? How many officers do you need?” Because she told me she does not have enough human resources to end the situation that had developed in Windsor. So my response -- my question to her was, “What do you need? Tell me what you need, and I’ll help amplify whatever you need, you know, up the chain with the folks that I speak to.” And so she said, “I need 100 officers.” And so I amplified that with the Solicitor-General; I amplified that with the Premier; I amplified that with Minister Mendicino, and then there were conversations later in the evening on the 8th with my chief of staff and other chiefs of staff at the -- for sure, the federal level, and they asked for that request in writing. And so the Chief in her own right was already working through her channels, and so I asked her -- I told her that, “We’re getting the request to put this in writing. Can you please do that?” And she did that the next day. And so we received the letter on the 9th, and we sent that -- she sent that letter to -- asking for 100 officers, to the Commissioner of the OPP and the Commissioner of the RCMP and we forwarded those letters as well to the folks that we were talking to.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No. She never told me she needed it in writing. And so I spoke with the Solicitor-General just because I wanted her to be aware of what was happening on the ground, and make sure that she was informed of what was going on down here. And the same with Minister Mendicino, just, “Here’s the temperature and the tenor on the ground; here’s what we’re seeing,” just so they had a sort of situational awareness, I would call it. And so they didn’t ask for it in writing, it was through their staff, really, at the federal level -- through staff at the federal level who said, “Can you please put the request in writing?” And that was on the evening of the 8th, and then I sent a message to the Chief saying, “They’re asking for this in writing,” and she had one of her deputies or superintendents put that in writing and she sent it off in letter form to the Commissioner of the RCMP and the Commissioner of the OPP.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No. She was just -- she was obviously very concerned, very interested, very much wanting to help. And, you know, we agreed just to stay in touch and make sure that we were informing one another of important things related to the matter.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Exactly.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Sara Sabihuddin is our Board assistant. And so I had asked her to call a meeting of the Board. I think I did it -- if you went down even further, I think I asked around noon on the 8th.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
The Board took no role in that directly. The Board, and I think you see in the minutes, was do you, you know, “Chief, do you have the resources required to deal with the situation? What do you need from us? If you don’t have the resources, what do you need us to authorize in terms of budget,” or, you know, whatever was in our purview to assist with the Chief providing the response that was required.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
In my conversations with the Chief, the largest lesson learned was not to let this grow. Don’t let bouncy castles, and hot tubs, and sort of those types of amenities come to the streets on Huron Church Road and allow this to grow. So make sure that we’re dealing with this, you know, as quickly and swiftly and professionally in a way that, as she said, provides for public safety and de-escalates. But don’t -- you know, lessons from Ottawa, don’t allow this to grow. There may have been others that were on her mind, but that’s one that she mentioned to me.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Police did take action with respect to jersey barriers, and so they cordoned off certain streets. And they had control of certain areas that I think, you know, made their life a little easier and was able to prevent the situation from getting larger.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No idea. It was simply a request of the Chief, “What do you need?” Recognizing that they had already, on the weekend, say the 4th, 5th, 6th leading up to this, already put a request in for some public liaison officers from the OPP, and so they were -- she was already doing what was required to ask for resources that we may not have had that would have helped provide for what she’s saying here, de- escalation, public safety. It was only when it was finally cemented, the situation finally cemented itself and it became a permanent blockade, she had told me, “I don’t have everything I need. We won’t be able to resolve this with the human resources that we have inside of the Windsor Police Service. We’re going to need additional help.” To which my question was, “What do you need? How many officers do you need? You tell me and I will help amplify that, you know, at the political level so that they are aware of what our request is.” And of course, the expectation was that she was going to do what she needed to do through the OPP and the proper channels operationally on her side.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No, and I think that would be somewhat unusual for -- at least for our Board. We wouldn’t get into that level of detail. And there was -- none was presented and none was asked for.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I think it’s fair to say more than what was requested was actually provided. And so my understanding, you know, at the -- sort of in the final analysis is that we asked for 100. One may look at the fact that the Chief wrote one letter to the RCMP and one letter to the OPP and may say, “Well, in fact, you asked for 200.” Even if you look at 200 as, you know, if you look at it from that perspective and you say we asked for 200, it’s my understanding that we had at least 500 officers attend to deal with the situation.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
A desire and willingness to help. There were great lines of communication with Sylvia Jones, great lines of communication with the Premier, Minister Mendicino was excellent, and a great phone call with the Prime Minister that I had that, you know, he was very understanding. And of course, living through the situation here in Ottawa, had a perspective on what we were dealing with and wanted to help. So all lines of communication were open and it was back and forth. So it was very good.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No, the Board asked the Chief, “What do you need from us?” And her comment effectively was, “We have everything we need, or it’s being worked on at this point.” There was no direction required from the Board that wasn’t already being worked on.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
We didn’t have legal counsel in these meetings. And so you’ll see we had the entire -- in this particular meeting, we had the entire Board, we had the Chief, Deputy Chief Bellaire at the time was there, we had our provincial police liaison person from the Solicitor General’s Office there as well, Dave Tilley. And so it never got to a point where the Board felt like or asked a question that couldn’t be answered or was unsatisfied in some way. So the Board felt satisfied at the end of this meeting that they had asked the appropriate questions of our Chief and were supporting her in every way that she asked.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
The Chief did tell me that they continued, the police continued to talk to protestors. Again, I go back to, you know, opening one lane for a period of time. That was through a negotiation. And every day, the Chief told me that they continued to talk, they continued to have discussion and dialogue. It just, you know, ultimately didn’t change much.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
You know, I asked the question, because clearly police were gathering intelligence on license plates and, you know, scanning social media and doing the work that they needed to do. And I asked the question on whether or not these were, you know, generally local folks or were they folks coming, you know, from elsewhere. And there were a fair number of local folks, as I was told, that were part of the demonstrating group, but I was also told by the Chief that there were a fair number of folks who weren’t even from Essex County, that had come in from elsewhere to participate in this.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I do.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, there was a -- there was a TV report that was also reported on the front page of the Windsor Star where -- and this was very early on in the protest -- that one of the protestors had said outright that they were - - this is a cause that they were willing to die for. And there was a -- in the reports to me was that there was a very high temperature on the ground amongst the protestors. They were very aggressive in their language and in their posture, and it was that type of comment “willing to die for the cause” that caused police to take a more measured approach into the way that they dealt with the situation. No one need to -- no one needed to die on the streets of Windsor or elsewhere protesting vaccine mandates or whatever the protests ultimately was about, and so everyone took a pause. No one wanted to see a repeat, you know. That was one thing the Chief had told me, that there was a concern about what had happened in Toronto at the G20. And so you know, members of the public in Windsor were saying, “Why don’t you just go in there and end this?”. Like it didn’t seem like it wasn’t something -- that it was an issue that the police couldn’t resolve quickly to the average person. And so the public was feeling, you know, the energy that they wanted to see something happen and, at the same time, you know, police are saying this is not, you know, a typical protest that would see on a Sunday afternoon on the -- on the front lawn at City Hall. And so they were being very measured, they were being very cautious. They did not want to see a recreation of the events that happened in Toronto, and so they were taking a lot of precaution.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It seemed to ebb and flow, and so sometimes at night more would come out as I’m told the party atmosphere sort of ramped up. And it could be 200 at one point, you know, down to 75.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Protestors.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Protestors. Sorry. Was that your question?
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
And vehicles, I’ll leave it to Deputy Chief Crowley to answer that. I’m not exactly sure how many vehicles, ultimately, were there.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah. We would never -- with the temperature on the ground and the -- and the statements folks were making, we would never send our Bylaw Officers in to enforce municipal bylaws. In fact, you know, there was a report to me that we had a -- our parking enforcement is outsourced to the Commissionaires, and a Commissionaire did respond February 8th or 9th, went in to issue some tickets and was swarmed and put in a situation that was -- she felt was very dangerous or that they felt was very dangerous and actually had to be escorted to their car by police and leave, you know. And folks were spitting on the car as the Commissionaire left. And so the temperature was too hot to think that you were going to send municipal Bylaw Officers in there without police -- without police accompanying them. And so at the end of the day, the thought was that negotiation would be the best way forward and, again, no need to die or get hurt in this type of protest. Let’s find a sensible way through and get everyone to move on so we can get the bridge open and the economy moving again.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, related to the blockade ---
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
--- besides the one at my house?
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, one of the -- one of the folks involved threatened to, I think it was, to bomb my house or do something like that and so, you know, we woke up and all of a sudden there are two or three police cars around our house for several weeks because of the temperature on the ground and what people were posting on social media and the comments that were being made. It became a very direct threat to me and my family, and so that, in itself, was concerning. But it was just -- it was the nature and sort of the spirit of the protest. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and I’ve lived my whole life in the City of Windsor. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen during that time. And the posture and the language was -- you know, it was almost as if folks wanted some sort of brawl on the streets. You know, they were hoping police would engage in that way so they could have some sort of, you know, brawl on the streets, if I can describe it that way. And I know police weren’t interested in that. As the Mayor, I wasn’t interested in that. As Chair of the Police Board, I wasn’t interested in that. We were interested in finding a way through this that was sensible, that was practical but, ultimately, that, you know, opened the road leading to the Ambassador Bridge because it is such a vital economic -- piece of economic infrastructure, not just for Windsor Essex County, but for the entire province and, respectfully, for the nation. We had to get that roadway open.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I know Councillor Fabio Costante, who represents the west side of the city on both sides, frankly, of Huron Church Road, and there was a comment made that they would protest at his law office. He’s a lawyer and he has a law office in Sandwich Town. And so there was a comment made that they would be going there to protest at the law office.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Not that I’m aware of.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Those are the letters that I’m aware of. The Chief, I know, was having conversations with her colleagues that I wasn’t -- you know, that I wasn’t party to. But this is -- this is what we were asked for, to put it in writing, and that’s what she did. And she sent it off from her office to Minister Blair’s office and to Minister Jones’s office.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It was just an update, and so, you know, I was just trying to keep everyone updated.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Nothing -- nothing more than the 100 officers that we had asked for.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That's correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I did.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Obviously, he was receiving -- I shouldn't say obviously, but he was receiving phone calls from businesses as well who were concerned about the blockade at the Ambassador Bridge. I gave him sort of a situational briefing on what we had going on down here, and, you know, that we had asked for a hundred officers. So it was a -- I think a fairly quick phone call, just a couple of minutes, and, you know, he was stressing to me the importance of the Ambassador Bridge and that we have to find a way to get this open. And I certainly agreed with him and understood that as well.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No, I had told the Premier that we asked for a hundred officers and that OPP already had some resources on the ground, PLT Liaison Teams, that were already here.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
So I told him that and told him about the hundred officer request, and then he asked for Minister Mendocino's phone number, which I texted to him.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Never, no.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Never.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I'm sorry, can you ---
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I believe that to be true, yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, we had some resources, cars that you could see, OPP cars along the Huron Church Road. And the Chief told me that there were PLT Units that were already here negotiating, and then she did tell me that Public Order Units were also starting to arrive.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That's correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, OPP, RCMP.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I don't exactly, no.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I just was aware that that was an issue and I'm not sure the mechanics behind the scenes on, you know, how that was resolved.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, I was. And on February the 9th, you know, in the -- in sort of the mid to late afternoon, I'd had a conversation with our Commissioner of Legal Services, Shelby Askin Hager, you know, about the prospect of an injunction. And she wanted to think through it and make sure she understood the best way to move forward with that idea. And then on the 10th, in the morning, we had to move quickly if we were going to make that happen. And so I said, "We need to do this." And the reason for doing this was -- there were multiple reasons. What people need to appreciate is that not just the temperature on the ground of the protesters, but the temperature of the general public to this protest was amplifying as well, and I could not as mayor, I could not as Chair of the Windsor Police Services Board direct police operations and tell the Chief or the police administration how to move forward and when to move forward. I had no clear line of sight on how many resources were coming here. I knew there -- you know, I'm getting dribs and drabs of, you know, yes, some folks are en route. Well, are they en route from Alberta? Are they en route from Newfoundland? Are they coming from Orillia? I have no sense of the timing. And so the public temperature to this protest was also growing rapidly, to the point where you had Facebook groups being set up where people wanted to go out and undertake sort of vigilante type justice on the streets to remove these protesters themselves. And it was -- as it relates to, you know, the pandemic that we'd all lived through, in Windsor, we had lived through the same thing that many others have lived through, the stops and the starts of businesses, people not getting paid for a period of time, and going through that frustration and friction as we've all dealt with the pandemic collectively. And so just when we were at a point where there seemed to be, you know, light on the horizon, this was seen to be very, how do I say it, assaultive to many people in Windsor that this was a small group of people, a relatively small group of people who were now going to jeopardize their employment. And so you had, like I said, Facebook groups that were starting where people were suggesting, and union leadership suggesting they were going to -- they were prepared to help move the protesters themselves and take action themselves. And so part of the reason for applying for the injunction was to send a signal to the public that I'm doing everything -- that the City is doing everything, that City Council is doing everything we can from our side of the table to try and resolve this issue. It was really the only positive step I could think of taking that would be helpful in terms of a signal to the public. Before I did this, I did talk to the Chief and said, "Would this be helpful to you?" And she said, "Listen, it won't hurt." And so on the morning of the 10th, very early, we activated legal teams to start putting the materials together, trying to see if we could get a scheduled appointment in court to present the application. And I worked with our Commissioner of Legal Services and our City Manager and all of the right people on the City side to see that move forward very quickly. And so, you know, the conversation really was first thing in the morning, seven or eight o'clock in the morning, and by two o'clock, we were appearing in front of Justice Morawetz to have this discussion.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
And I would just say ---
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
--- so ---
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
--- the one part was the public, letting the public know we're doing everything we can. The other thing was putting, you know, another arrow in the quiver for police. It was another tool that they could use with respect to saying you are now in violation -- if we were successful in getting the injunction, that you are in violation of this injunction and it was another arrow in their quiver.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That's right.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That's right.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Wouldn't hurt.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That's correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I think through our discussions, before we proceeded, we talked about who was most impacted, you know, and how could we tell the story here about who was impacted, and it was clear. In the first 60 minutes of Huron Church Road being blocked, our phone rang at the mayor's office from our largest employer, Chrysler, or now Stellantis, to say, "What's going on at the Ambassador Bridge?" You know, there are 5,000 people directly who work in that facility making Chrysler Pacificas and minivans that rely on smooth and efficient border crossings because the whole industry, the whole auto industry works on a just in time basis. There's no parts being stored on site. They are brought in, and that bridge is moving, and the material's moving across that bridge every hour of every day. And so it's -- you know, for perspective, the average part that goes into a car that rolls off the assembly line at the end of the manufacturing process, those parts have crossed the border on average six to seven times, back and forth, Detroit back to Windsor, you know, as they continue to be, you know, upgraded and built. And so within the first 60 minutes, they called and said, "What's going on at the Ambassador Bridge?" And so we knew that the APMA, the Automotive Parts Manufacturer's Association, the CVMA, the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association were impacted dramatically by the activity at the bridge. And so they were certainly, you know, good parties to put forward the request. And then we were -- we took the role - - we played the role that we played, I think, appropriately.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I’m not sure.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Shelby Askin Hager, who is our Commissioner of Legal Services.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
She would be the one in the best position to answer your question.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well I think that once the injunction became effective, that it sent a signal to the public that this has now, from the public watching from the outside, that we have done all that we can do. And again, it gave another tool to police to go in, and they did. When the police went in and actually had to arrest people, those folks were charged with violating the terms of the injunction. And so it sent a signal. But I think, you know, I would like to think that from a protestor’s perspective, it also meant that the protestors had their day in court, had the opportunity to present their position to Justice Morawetz, Chief Justice Morawetz, and have a conversation in court through the established legal structures that we have in place. All parties had a chance to do that. And Chief Justice Morawetz ultimately made his decision that was favourable to grant the injunction, but everybody had an opportunity. In fact, our application on February 10th was delayed and heard on February 11th to ensure that all parties, including the protestors, were given notice so that they could participate. Police went out and plastered every telephone pole, the jersey barriers, with copies of the order. We had to set up a website. We promoted it on social media. Certainly it was amplified in every major media source and through every social media channel that I saw.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Sure.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Thank you. There were great efforts made to make sure that all parties who had an interest in this application had an opportunity to have their day in court.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Absolutely.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
You know, the reports -- I wasn’t on the ground, but the reports that came back to me said many of the protestors were looking at this as, you know, another court order, another law, another thing that just, you know, was dispensable. They could violate it. It was no big deal. It was just words on a paper. So I’m not that it had -- on the face of it, I’m not sure that it had the effect of having people say, “Oh, there’s a court order. I’m going to leave now. I think it just, you know, gave them, the protestors, another thing to rally behind, saying, “Nothing is going to make us leave.”
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well I think it’s fair to say, as we got to -- that was a Friday, the 11th, as we got to the Friday, all of the communication from the Chief to myself was that we had major resources that were here on the ground, the plans were devised and being, you know, sorted out with the help of the OPP Commander and our own incident commanders. Everyone was working through how to affect a resolution to this blockade.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Exactly.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I don’t recall the entire list, but I knew that there were significant financial penalties. And the Province, through their emergency action, also sent a very strong signal that if you continue to participate in these protests at these locations or border crossings, that you could lose, if you were a truck driver, your Commercial Vehicle Operating License, and you could also lose your driving license if you were, you know, not a truck driver. And so those are pretty significant penalties that I think sent a signal to any reasonable or sensible person to say, “We better think long and hard about wanting to continue to protest at this location, because the -- you know, the disincentive is huge.”
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I think that that Provincial Emergency, you know, when the police were ready to move, and they did the next day and ultimately cleared up two days after this meeting, that you had compliance. When jersey barriers were moved, when the police put their line in place and they started, you know, moving forward with their line, and they got to the point where there were vehicles there, the vast majority of people ultimately left.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
You know, the Premier, I think appropriately, was feeling the temperature across the province, was seeing these protests, probably in Ottawa, but certainly in Windsor, as, you know, an outlet for some who wanted some of the restrictions to be lifted. And, you know, Alberta and Saskatchewan had moved to start lifting some of the restrictions. And my sense from the Premier is that he wanted to find a pathway to get back to normal, you know, as soon as it made sense as well.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No, not necessarily. I think my sense from the conversation is that, again, he was -- he had his finger on the pulse of the people of Ontario and was watching, of course, what was happening across the country as well, and was feeling, you know, some of the frustration that we were all feeling with respect to the lockdowns, recognising that, you know, it was January of 2022, where we were in a lockdown as well ---
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
--- a provincial lockdown. So the Premier, sensibly, was echoing some of the sentiments and looking at this as, you know, a percentage of the population who was protesting because they felt most aggrieved by this.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, I should say Chief Mizuno and Deputy Chief at the time Bellaire.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That everything was in place, that the resources were in Windsor, that the plan had been devised, and in fact, on the 12th, the police started their operation. They put out the line with Public Order Units and all of the equipment behind them, and they started to move forward on the 12th to deal with the situation on the ground.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
So the picture above my words I think is a link or a screenshot from the pastor at the time, I'm not sure if he still is, but as the police started to move forward and, you know, make advances on the 12th, there was a call put out by the pastor of this church to ask for folks to come down and support the protesters. And very quickly, which might have been, you know, a hundred to two hundred people turned into six hundred people, including parents with kids and strollers, like it was almost unbelievable how fast that situation grew in terms of the number of people. But seeing the police action, I mean it was disheartening to see the police action and them making advances and then to see parents bringing their kids down to that situation, and that's exactly what happened. Which is largely why it wasn't resolved that particular day on Saturday. It took until Sunday for the situation to be resolved.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well -- and I think someone in the police structure, probably several people, said this would be -- you know, the most sensible thing here is to wait because at some point these kids are going to get cold, it's February, they're going to get cold, they're going to get tired, they're going to get hungry, and they're going, you know, they're going to leave. So we're not going to move forward with the policing posture they had in place when you had a lot of young kids there. They were being very wise in their approach in saying let's do this at a different time when it makes more sense.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
"Tecumseh and Huron Church."
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I had seen a report, and I don't know which media source, CTV or CBC, had -- or Globe & Mail had made some post that I saw that proposed that that may be in the works. And so it just caused me to send him the question.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I don't -- no, we did not.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, I think, you know, we all know that that Act has never been used before, and we all know that it's a serious Act and requires this type of thing to happen afterwards, which is extraordinary. And so if they were going to move forward with that, I think he's saying, you know, "if you could express" -- the way I took that is "if you could express what was happening on the ground that would help justify this, that would be helpful to us." And I think it's really, really important, you know, to reflect on that statement, but also use that statement based on what we were seeing on the ground in Windsor. And so there may have been some great relief, and there was great relief to a lot of people in Windsor on the 13th. Once the folks were moved, all of a sudden, you know, in lightening speed 1,100 jersey barriers were replaced, 6 kilometres of jersey barriers, creating a direct pipeline from the 401 to the Ambassador Bridge. But the piece that needs to be explained here is the heightened state of alert that was in place by police in the community and the city with respect to sort of some sort of recidivism that may happen as a result of this blockade being moved. And it's the type of behaviour that's happened throughout the pandemic, where you have members of the public in Windsor saying, you know, "There's a protest. We're all supposed to be masked metres apart from one another, and there's a protest and a hundred people down, you know, by our great Canadian flag at the waterfront. Why aren't police doing anything? Why is that behaviour being allowed to continue?" And it's hard to explain to people that if you move hundred people out and take action against these sort of lawbreakers or rulebreakers that you could have three thousand the next weekend. You know, you become the rallying cry for this. And so that was the thought in place here. From a police perspective, the conversations that we certainly had amongst many of the senior staff and myself and the City is, you know, "This action needs to be resolved. This action needs to be taken to resolve the situation on the ground, but what happens after they're gone?" And so the number of police that were sent to the City of Windsor to move the protesters out was one thing, but a significant number of police resources remained in order to make sure that this didn't flare up again. And so from an Emergencies Act perspective, you know, anything that would send a signal to people contemplating coming to Windsor to start this over again, I thought, from my chair, was extremely helpful to send a signal. You had the City declare an emergency, the Province declared an emergency, and then the Federal Government declared an emergency, and I think that sent -- ought to have sent a signal to a lot of people that this is serious matter and will not be allowed to happen again.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, thank you for asking that question. So what happened is we had had a Council meeting prior to me signing off on the declaration of Emergency on the 14th. One of the concerns that Council had generally was, there was a portion of the resolution in front of Council that provided wide latitude to the City Manager to do a number of things that Council didn’t feel comfortable giving sort of carte blanche to the City Manager at that particular time. And we’re talking about acquiring resources or moving transit routes; like, City operational type stuff. That I said, “Well, don’t worry. If you have a concern with that, let’s not get held up with that. I’ll declare the emergency, which then would wrap that authority up in me -- to me, and anything that’s required with respect to dealing with this direct pipeline that’s been created, I’ll have the ability to deal with. And so I signed it on the 14th and I, you know, ended it 10 days later.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
So that allowed us just -- and I don’t even think there was much that came out of that, in terms of, you know, needing to be dealt with operationally. Everyone just sort of figured it out, and we did what we had to do. I think we -- I think I may have given free transit to people who started on the west side of Huron Church to be able to get to the other side because the disruption was big. There were a few things like that but nothing material, I would say, was used -- was done by me with respect to that emergency power.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Do you mean why didn’t I sign the Declaration of Emergency prior to the 14th?
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, you know, I felt like that wasn’t going to provide anything new that I needed at the time. So we didn’t have -- like, police were telling me what they needed; I was trying to amplify their requests from a City perspective. And with respect to Public Works and jersey barriers and all the things that we had to mobilize, no-one came to me saying, “We can’t do this,” or, “They’re charging us 10 times the amount.” Nothing -- nothing would have benefited. I can’t see the situation becoming better because I signed it at that particular time. What happened on the 14th, though, when everyone woke up and they saw this tunnel from the 401 to the Ambassador Bridge in both directions, if you live in Windsor, you know that that was, like, a major, major thing. All cross traffic was blocked, bus routes were rerouted; there were going to be impacts on business, many businesses, over 200 businesses that were, you know, impacted as a result of that particular action. And, again, that wasn’t something that was my decision; that was a police decision to put these jersey barriers in place and create a safe pipeline to and from the bridge. So I anticipated that there would be some requirement to deal very, very quickly on the municipal side with stuff that we deal with operationally, but that tool would have given me the benefit of acting quickly. And so that’s why I did it on the 14th as opposed to do it earlier, because I didn’t see the need to do it earlier.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I just knew -- not necessarily. I knew that what had been done was a -- was going to have some form of material impact on a variety of different operations and businesses; a material impact on the way people lived their lives on either side of Huron Church Road, and what I wanted, it wasn’t so much at that time sending a signal to the public, it was just saying, “Okay, Council, if you feel uncomfortable giving the City Manager that authority, I’ll take that authority under the Emergencies Act and be able to deal with anything very, very quickly.” And, again, in 10 days, once the situation stabilized and normalized, I signed off and said, “There’s no longer a municipal emergency.”
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Weeks. Several weeks. I can’t remember the exact date when they were finally removed. There was an incremental -- for a couple of weeks they were there, and it was a direct pipeline and you had hundreds of police on duty making sure that if trucks stopped, that they were acting very quickly to have folks move on. But incrementally and over time, you saw certain jersey barriers removed at certain intersections so people could cross Huron Church Road, and then police maintained a -- you know, I’d say a heightened state of readiness at those locations, just in case there was a flareup.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
This is the important point; again, that there was the thought, and the Chief expressed this to me, and Deputy Chief Bellaire at the time expressed to me that they were quite concerned that something would happen; you know, that there would be behaviour where folks would come back, and they didn’t know when, they didn’t know how many, and there were resources -- police resources deployed along the 401 outside of the City of Windsor to sort of monitor this type of activity. There were resources allocated to scan social media and some of the likely sites to sort of gather intelligence on that front as well. But the thought was that they were coming back, and there were some attempts -- there were some attempts that police intercepted, as I’m aware of.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Again, just monitoring what was happening up in Ottawa, knowing that there was a high level of frustration amongst that protester group; that, you know, if they were looking to continue that type of protesting activity, it’s one thing to do it in Ottawa, at the seat of the federal government, it’s another thing to do it at the busiest border crossing between our two countries; that has a significant impact on the lives of tens of thousands of Canadians. Not just people in my community, people all across this province that rely on smooth and efficient border crossings for their livelihoods, who’ve been impacted, you know, over a couple of years with the pandemic. And so, you know, there was -- I think we all knew that if you wanted to have the biggest impact, the biggest impact economically would be in Windsor, leading up to the Ambassador Bridge.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, I would add even national, you know, economic security situation. You know, the amount of trade that crosses at the Ambassador Bridge is material; it’s material for our province; it’s material for our nation. And so every day that that bridge is closed, it has a huge impact on the lives of tens of thousands of Canadians who rely on smooth and efficient border crossings for their livelihoods. And so national security situation; we had the deployment of three kilometres of jersey barriers in each direction. I didn’t make that decision. That was a police decision using the intelligence that they had, all the tools and information they had at their disposal in order to find a way, the best way forward, to get access to the Ambassador Bridge from the 401 so that this bridge was open, that the economy was moving once again, and that they could maintain control of what I would argue is a piece of infrastructure that is in our national economic interest. It is a very material, critical piece of national infrastructure that just doesn’t happen to be -- that happens to be owned by a private interest.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I probably did. You know, there were check-ins. Minister Mendicino is very good at checking in, saying, how are things going today? He did that many days in a row. And to the extent I had information from police where there was something worth reporting, I sent that back to him, so that he had situational awareness of what we were dealing with on the ground. Minister Mendocino is someone who went -- he lived in Windsor. He went to law school at the University of Windsor, so he also knows the area. And once you have a perceptive of what it's like on the ground, it's easier to have a conversation. He knows the impact of what happened on Huron Church Road without me even having to discuss it with him. He just intuitively knows that because he's from -- he had experience in the area. And so, yeah, we went back and forth, and he was very good at checking in, just asking for an update and trying to gather information for his perspective.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That's correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I'm not aware.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Was this the letter asking to have a, you know, a sit down and try and figure out the path forward?
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, this is a -- the Ambassador Bridge and the City of Windsor is a unique circumstance. So you have, as I said, the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest commercial border crossing between the United States and Canada, which is privately owned, that sits at one end of the municipal roadway, and three kilometres on the other end is a provincial highway. And so, you know, the 401 is a roadway where there are no traffic lights. It's sort of barrier free. But as soon as you get off onto Huron Church Road, you're on that municipal road, which falls under the responsibility and authority of the City of Windsor and the Windsor Police Service. You have six or seven traffic lights, so trucks as they make their way from the 401 to the Ambassador Bridge have to go through those series of municipal traffic lights. And it is a unique situation that you have, you know, a provincial highway at one end, a municipal roadway linking what I would suggest is sort of important federal infrastructure. And so my request to them, to the other levels of government was we need to sit down and figure this out. We need to figure out in the event that something like this were to happen again, how do we respond and, you know, sort of pull the template off the shelf that the response is seamless, that it's not, you know, a day or two here trying to figure out how many folks we need, and who's going to do what, and who should take the lead, and then ultimately, who's paying for it. You know, so the City of Windsor has carried all of the water. We're paying all of the bills, $5.3 million for the, you know, execution of this particular police action, which was absolutely necessary, but I would submit is completely unfair that the City of Windsor is shouldering those costs. It was not a typical municipal policing matter. In fact, it was a national, economic emergency. And we responded appropriately. The Windsor Police did a great job. The OPP did a great job. The RCMP, they all worked very well together, but we need to figure this out moving forward because the Ambassador Bridge is not going away, our municipal road's not going away and the 401 is not going away. So what does this look like in the future, and that was my request to them is to sit down and try and figure out how we do this together in the future to eliminate any sort of delays that might be inherent in the way we moved in February.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, it was, you know, almost immediate. Again, within the first hour, our largest employer called saying, "What's going on?" The very next day, on February the 8th, they suspended some of their manufacturing operations and it was intermittent during the week of the blockade. We also had part suppliers that basically stopped producing parts because they had nowhere to send them, and they don't stockpile large quantity of parts. And, you know, there was a huge, huge impact in the auto sector. But don't forget, even on -- in Essex County, you know, City of Windsor is plus or minus 230,000 people. If we take the neighbouring county, and we're part of that county, just not part of their government, it's about 450,000 people total in that area. We have the largest greenhouse operation in North America, second in the world next to Holland. And so a full 80 percent of all greenhouses in Canada are in Essex County. And so the produce that is produced in those facilities that operate 24/7 365, the vast majority of it is exported to the United States through the Ambassador Bridge. And so the regional impact, which we cannot discount, was material. It was major. And, you know, having folks idle, having plants idle is not good just for our economy. It also had an impact on the U.S. side because of the integration of our supply chains. And so that's why we had folks from the United States, you know, senior leaders in the United States calling for an end to this as well and trying to push for a resolution because it was impacting their economy too.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
You know, I spoke with folks at Homeland Security but more from an operational perspective at the bridge, so the port director at the bridge, and I spoke with the Mayor of Detroit, you know, once during the blockade, just to sort of, you know, touch base because I was getting a lot of media questions about whether I'd spoken to the Mayor of Detroit, and I knew there really wasn't a whole lot that he could do, but I wanted to touch base with him. So, you know, we were trying to resolve this situation. There wasn't a lot that I think could be provided from the U.S. At one point, we did have an overture from the Governor of Michigan's office to provide tow trucks. I think she made a comment to the media and then folks brought that to our attention. And when we reached out and had a conversation with her Chief of Staff, it really wasn't that the State of Michigan had tow trucks, they just offered to facilitate an introduction to tow truck companies that may be able to provide the support.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, I think everyone is aware now, so I can contextualize this a little differently than I could at the time, everyone is aware now that the City of Windsor was successful in landing a $5 billion investment from LG -- a joint venture from LG and Stellantis. And so they're building the first Canadian electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility in the City of Windsor. All of that discussion, all of that work and the preplanning was well underway during the protest in February. It just hadn't been announced publicly. And so, in fact, the CEO of Stellantis Global went to Canada during this time to have a meeting with senior officials. And so this was me sending a signal, to the extent that any of those folks were watching, that we understand that this has to end, that we understand that you have a choice in terms of where you locate these facilities, and that we're doing all we can to try and move folks on. And that sort of plays into the whole injunction piece as well, that it's the public-facing part of it was that important, as was it important to make sure police had another tool that they could use. But I wanted to make sure that with respect to the folks, you know, early on here, we're in the very early part of sort of rolling out all of the pieces back in February for this major, major investment, I wanted to make sure that they knew very clearly that we were very -- taking this situation very seriously and applying all resources that we could from a municipal perspective to get this situation resolved, reflecting on the fact that, you know, did I think that the first Ford factory in Canada, 1904, I didn't think a 100-year or 120-year relationship was going to be eviscerated because of a 7-day event. But at this particular time, it was critical that I sent that signal and had them have me acknowledge that this is an important issue that needs to be resolved because it -- they were asking.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
One hundred percent because this investment that I’m talking about, we are fortunate and we worked very hard to get this investment, but there were options up the 401 in Ontario and there were lots of options across the border in the state of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. And so I was determined on behalf of the city to make sure that that landed here, and we were at a very fragile point in the process that this could have been derailed. You know, if they had looked at this and taken a perspective that we don’t want this hassle, it’s just easier to do business in the United States, this is the type of event that could have derailed this major investment for Canada, for Ontario and certainly for the City of Windsor.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, major. And so let me mention several. When this all started, EMS had to move an ambulance to the other side of Huron Church. They had to make sure that they could cover that part of the city. Our fire chief moved and deployed fire resources. There’s a fire station literally 100 metres from where the protestors were protesting, but it’s on the east side of Huron Church. They moved a truck to the west side to make sure that they could provide -- that they could get there and provide service to the west side of the city. The transit routes were disrupted. The natural flow of people back and forth and having Huron Church Road closed was significant because there are no grocery stores on one side of -- on the west side of Huron Church. They’re all on the east side. And a lot of folks have to take the bus. They don’t have their own car on the other side of -- the west side of Huron Church, and so they require the city system to be able to move around and live their daily lives. The University of Windsor. The University of Windsor is directly adjacent to Huron Church, directly adjacent to the Ambassador Bridge. The primary route that people in the City of Windsor would use to get to the University of Windsor is Huron Church Road. So 17,500 students that attend the University of Windsor. You have a high school that was actually in the protest zone, Assumption High School. It’s been there for probably 100 years. And so that school was directly impacted by the protest activity. And I mean, just -- those are just -- those are several, but the impact was material during the protest and then even after the protest because of the deployment of the jersey barriers along Huron Church Road had a direct impact to the hotels, the motels, the businesses, the small businesses, large businesses, grocery stores. You name it, they were impacted, including the high school, including the University of Windsor because everyone had to find another way around.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It really is a mix, and we certainly have welcomed any audit of those expenses. Some police services sent us a bill. Some police services didn’t. But we had to pay for the jersey barriers, we had to pay for overtime. There was a whole list of expenses that made up the $5.3 million that, you know, we are carrying that cost at this particular time.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct. And so Public Order Units, I know some were deployed from other parts of Ontario, but we contracted directly with the City of London. They have trained resources. They have a standard contract that they sent to us, I signed immediately. But that -- the provision of that service was $200,000, plus or minus. We had to feed people, you know. The Chief asked for 100 officers. I’m told that 500 showed up. Well, they may not have charged us -- some of the services may not have charged us for the salary and benefit costs, but we still had to put some of those folks up in hotels, we still had to feed them. We had to move them around. There were direct costs which we would welcome any other level of government to audit, but at the end of the day, it’s the residents and the City of Windsor who have -- who have carried the full share of those costs to date.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
On the 14th, so the 13th around midnight into the 14th, I think the bridge opened around midnight on the 14th. So the Emergencies Act came -- was invoked some time on the 14th, so yes. The answer to your question is yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, sir.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
December 2006.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I would say that as a Mayor, certainly you’re in touch with a lot of different people in the community; businesses, residents, and institutions as well.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct. We don’t direct police operations.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
We go through an annual budgeting exercise. So the Chief presents a budget to the Board, we go back and forth until we land on something that ultimately gets approved by the Board, which is then sent to City Council -- well, sorry; I’ll speak slower. A budget approved by the Windsor Police Services Board is then sent to Windsor City Council for approval. And the Chief would lay out, in the budget document, what is needed for each department. If something extraordinary happens, if there’s a -- an expenditure or a request outside of the normal budgeting process, the Chief would then make a request to the Windsor Police Services Board, and the Board would make whatever decision they felt appropriate.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Frequent, yes. Not daily, but there have been more -- there has been more contact during the pandemic between my office and the Health Unit than any other time that I can recall.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
They have very distinct roles as spelled out in legislation, and so there are often times -- because none of us have ever lived through a pandemic before, or at least most of us haven’t, there are times where during the pandemic we’ve tried to sort out a course of action with the Health Unit, to have a better understanding of where the Medical Officer of Health may land on a certain topic. But, ultimately, my experience with the Medical Officer of Health is they may give you an impression or some guidance, or some, you know, opinion, but ultimately, they left it to the City to make every decision.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, the Medical Officer of Health independently makes any orders that he makes; it’s not dependent on us in any way. And then, of course, City Council passes bylaws, resolution, and policy which is our normal governance role.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Community Control.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I don’t know if it was every day, but we met very frequently.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I’d have to look at the minutes themselves for each day. I attended several but there may have been a time where I didn’t attend. And if I didn’t tend -- attend, my Chief of Staff, Andrew Teliszewsky, would have attended.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, the CCG does a good job at providing one source of information to multiple people so we’re on the same page. But it’s not exclusive. And so I may have had, on any given day -- not may have; probably more than five conversations every day with the Chief of Police about the activity that was happening in Windsor related to the Freedom Convoy. And so it didn’t mean if I didn’t -- wasn’t in that particular meeting that there was an absence of information because there was great communication throughout the City, great communication inter-governmentally at the time and for the duration of the protests.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I represent ---
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
--- the City of Windsor. And so certainly I absolutely represent the people in the City of Windsor.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Of course. You would consider what’s being said on social media, you would try to understand the perspective; and, as we did here, trying to find a resolution. Trying to get this thing over with so we could open the route to the border crossing.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Only if it was exceptional. So for example, if there was a protest on the lawn of City Hall today between 4:00 and 5:00, I may never be given notice of that. I may walk out and see the protest, but it’s not normal that for sort of a general protest, which probably happens every week in some form, that the Mayor’s office would get notice of that.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Oh. Oh, I was notified of frequent protests at the flag, but I think your question was, was I aware that people who are at the protest at the flag were also part of the protests of the Freedom Convoy. I can’t create that connection.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I didn’t have to because the police were attending those functions independently.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well the -- and I don’t know if it was weekly. I don’t think it was weekly protests at the flag, but, you know, going back to when they started the protests at the flag, with respect to COVID restrictions, there were points where the gatherings were illegal; they were contrary to provincial legislation, at a minimum. And so police were there because you, again, had illegal activity, but you also had members of the public who are saying, “Why aren’t you guys doing anything about that?” Why are you letting this illegal activity happen when we have to follow the rules, we are following the rules, and clearly this behaviour is not following the rules? It’s illegal. Why are you not taking action?
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I don’t know, because I wasn’t receiving a debrief after every time folks gathered at the flag to protest covid restrictions. So I can’t help you with an answer there, because I just don’t know.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I’m aware of, I forget the fella’s name, but he had notoriety online and came to Windsor a couple of times. And that seemed to generate more activity at the flag when he came. Chris somebody, I think. But I can’t remember his full name. But anyway, this person, when he came to Windsor, and there was at least two occasions that I’m aware of, more people seemed to gather on those two occasions over two years.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, so my understanding was about 50/50, from the Chief.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
And our local Members as well. Members of Provincial Parliament and Parliament.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
He’s the NDP Member of Parliament for Windsor West, which is the area where Huron Church Road and the Ambassador Bridge is located.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Leading up -- I mean, I’m in frequent contact with him. About that particular issue, I don’t recall any conversations specifically about the protests that were going on. But when it happened, I did have communication with him once it set hold in Windsor.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I don’t. I mean, unless he’s talking about just sort of general construction that happens on Huron Church Road, which is, you know, a requirement on any road, I’m not aware of any major disruptions.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Edy is a Windsor resident. Recently ran for city councillor and has run several times in the past.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I don’t know if he holds that position.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I have no idea if he is or not.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Over what period of time?
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, that happens every year.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct. It’s the Detroit Free Press Marathon that happens every year. So it’s very well defined, very well prescribed, and the entire community on both sides of the border knows it’s going to happen.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I wasn’t aware of any major disruptions at the bridge, but ---
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well I would say it was the most unique and caused a complete shut down of traffic to the Ambassador Bridge. The others that you’re trying to compare to are very distinct and different.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Exactly.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, we didn’t know whether the slow roll was ever going to become permanent. That wasn’t - - we weren’t certain on that. And how long was it going to last? It was a complete closure. The other ones were very time limited for very discrete events, and this was something that, you know, there was no known end date.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well again, I think I mentioned that this morning, that there were times when the Chief told me that they had regained control of one lane and they thought they were talking to someone who had authority as a group leader to make sure that they could have emergency access through one lane, but then that quickly did not last because one party was never in power to speak for the other parties and they decided to sort of block that lane. And that was part of the problem here, that this was, in many ways, a leaderless movement where, you know, there was no one specific to talk to, and no one responsible for the outcome of the entire group.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Not necessarily. And so as long as one lane is open in each direction and vehicles can move, that works. I mean, we could work with that over a short period of time to continue commerce back and forth and let healthcare workers get to work. That can continue, as long as one lane is open. That is what police were trying to do from the very beginning, was find a way to keep one lane open, allowing the protests to continue, the slow roll protest to continue but allowing one lane in each direction to be open so commerce could continue.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I would have to have you tell me that answer. I'm not sure.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, that's correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I would say that there is -- because of the number of trucks that use Huron Church Road, there is always the need for some form of repair, rehabilitationm or construction along that road.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
We receive money from the provincial government under a program called Connecting Lights, which is designed to fund, repair and renewal of roads that are municipally owned by really serve a greater purpose, like Huron Church Road. And so this is an example of construction where traffic is continuing to move in both directions and there's construction happening today on that road that would look much the same, where it's disruptive but it does not stop international trade.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, there is ongoing construction on another portion of Huron Church Road which would look similar to this as well.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, she expressed to me that those were peaceful, that the vehicles continued to move, and international trade continued to move as well.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I don't recall.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Looks that way, yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, I don't recall seeing that email.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, I think it speaks for itself.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That's me.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It looks like that email was sent to me, but I don't recall reading it.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I think it was even earlier than that. And so I wasn't too concerned about -- I mean, I was interested in the Bluewater Bridge, but that's not within my scope of responsibility. But I think, you know, as soon as February 4th came when the Chief told me, and she actually elevated the fact that there was a slow roll protest, we started making arrangements that weekend. I think I mentioned this morning with respect to jersey barriers. We started making arrangements with respect to moving the tunnel bus. I initiated that action, trying to get the tunnel bus on the duty-free side, so that we would have a way to get healthcare workers through the tunnel in the event that there was a blockade at the tunnel as well. And so we didn't -- I mean, we started that particular weekend making arrangements, not knowing if the slow roll blockade or protest would ever become a full blockade.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, again, they had a role to play with respect to actions at the Ambassador Bridge. I was looking at other things as well, again, the tunnel bus issue, and making sure that, you know, the Chief had the resources she needed as things developed, making sure that they could respond very quickly, because we were watching what was happening in Ottawa. We were watching what was happening across the country, and we collectively wanted to make sure that we were finding best practices so as not to see that type of behaviour happen in Windsor as well.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, sir.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That if this escalated, they could expand the area in which they were going to provide enforcement.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No. I mean, I had just assumed it would have been Huron Church Road, but I was never given a plan that delineated the boundary.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, I believe that to be accurate.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, I know where it came from. It came from the Chief to me, but I never asked her to sort of explain to me how she came up with a hundred. I simply asked her, "What do you need to help get this situation resolved?" She got back to me and said, "I need a hundred officers."
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That's correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That's correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Hundred percent it came from the Chief. Is that February the 8th?
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
If we can see the date.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Okay, just ---
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, there we go.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
So February the 8th -- that's correct. And so February the 8th, the Chief had told me she needed 100 officers, which I amplified up to the Provincial and Federal Governments. What happened in the evening of February the 8th, my Chief of Staff, Andrew Teliszewsky, had a meeting with chiefs of staff at the federal level of government who asked that we put the request in writing.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Teliszewsky then told me that we needed to put in writing. I sent it to the Chief saying, "We need to put this in writing."
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I said "wrong" because it's completely contrary to the conversation that I had had with the Chief and that we had discussed with the Board.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That's Minister Mendicino's text to me.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
And so what I said was that we were offered tow truck support, but it was -- and what CBSA offered to do is to find the pathway to allow tow trucks and tow truck drivers into Canada, which may not normally be admissible sort of as a matter of right. They agreed to work with us if we needed to bring in U.S.-based tow trucks to find a pathway to get them through the border so that they could be of assistance.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I think what happened, when I received that message from Minister Mendicino and my response was "wrong", I called the Chief immediately to make sure I understood what was going on. The Chief explained to me that in a conversation that she had had with Commissioner Carrique that at that precise moment in time they weren't asking for anymore because officers were coming in and she didn't know how many officers were coming in.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, I knew that officers were coming in. I did not know. The Chief could not tell me how many officers were coming in, nor was I aware of how long it would take to resolve the issue.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I can't tell from the flash on their arm. It does not look like a Windsor flash, though.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I can't tell.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, I do recall that the, you know, the bridge had been -- the roadway had been cleared earlier than the bridge opened, and so they had to get the barriers in place. Once the people were moved out and the vehicles were moved out, they had to get the barriers in place before they could open the bridge, and then of course they had to make sure to notify everybody.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
As secure as it could be, but there was a heightened state of alert on that particular day and for weeks afterwards.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, I ---
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
She has retired, yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Absolutely.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Social media, for sure. A Facebook group had been set up. We had local labour leadership that was being very vocal about gathering a group of people and going down there and ending this blockade. And so it was -- it was a theme that I would suggest had a head of steam fairly early on because everyone appreciated the impact of what was going on here.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, I’m aware that there was a discussion with police that had people lower the temperature, people who were purporting to want to do that to lower the temperature and just let us resolve this in a peaceful way.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
A hundred percent. The harm was economic harm to a lot of people in the community.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
What I heard from the Chief is they were going to stand on the Saturday night, resume enforcement on Sunday. You know, there were people live streaming on social media from the area, so I watched some of that as well, and media was there reporting. And you saw the numbers of protestors swelled dramatically, and it was all of a sudden you saw kids in strollers, you saw young kids. And it was, I would submit, in direct relation to the sort of call to support by the pastor in that one particular church.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes. More a re-emergence. I mean, at the time, obviously, it was -- it was to try and have everyone move on, but again, I think it’s -- I’ve said this several times. The heightened state of alert that everyone was under, that police were under following the removal of the protestors and their vehicles, I've never seen that in my city in the past. And so there was a strong concern that this would happen again, which would put us on a cycle of having, you know, another week of trying to move people out and mobilizing resources from across the province and across the country.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
The yellow line is Huron Church Road, and the Xs are intersections that access Huron Church Road.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct. Once you pass that red bar where it says “no local traffic”, you basically had to get on the Ambassador Bridge.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Massively.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
They had to take a very long route to get to the same grocery store that they would normally get to.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
And we did, yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
There were, for several weeks -- I mean, immediately, once the jersey barriers were put in and access to the bridge was made available, there was a high state of alert for police. There was still a huge police presence along Huron Church Road, and there was a strong concern expressed to me by Chief Mizuno that there was a concern that this could flare up again. And that lasted for several weeks. It lasted, in fact, you know, until the situation was dealt with in Ottawa and the thought was that when Ottawa -- the protest in Ottawa was disbanded that folks would get in their trucks and come back to Windsor. So this lasted for quite some time.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah. I mean, certainly, you know, watching what happened in the U.S. where there were Freedom Convoys in the U.S. and that happened in several cities, that was concerning. Seeing what happened in Ottawa, that was concerning. Knowing the money that was being reported with respect to flows from those -- the Give Send Go or whatever it’s called, GoFundMe, that was concerning. And so there were lots -- there was no shortage of concern, and this was, in my mind, and will remain until I’m long gone, a national economic emergency. And that is a direct -- there is a direct correlation to a national economic emergency and, I would submit, to a national security issue. This is exactly what this was.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, sir.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Through traditional media.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That police were able to intercept a group of people who had weapons that intended to do harm to others, and they were part of the protest in Coutts, Alberta.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
You know, I would say that what -- for my impression, what I saw happen in Coutts, was the type of behaviour that police were posturing for here, the type of behaviour they thought may play out here. And I think that played out in the posture that they presented and the way that they handled themselves in Windsor. And so the Coutts' situation happened after the fact, but there was that level of temperature on the ground where police in Windsor were quite concerned and did not want to inflame the situation. They were taking every opportunity to de-escalate a highly charged situation.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I agree with that.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I agree with that fully.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, sir.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I don't know that I have a discreet -- I don't know that I have discreet knowledge on the imports versus the exports, and I would just say that with respect to the trade that we see regionally in our community, or at least locally in my city, there is -- I go back to the parts that cross the border six to seven times before they're put into a vehicle that rolls off the assembly line. It speaks to the tightly integrated supply chains that we have in Windsor and Detroit, which are -- respectively, our own auto capitals of our countries.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No. I believe that.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
In their entirety, no.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
One hundred percent agree with that statement.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It was part of the concerns for the reason that I mentioned, and they actually play out in part of the conversation, the read out which has been submitted in terms of documents, my read out with my conversation with the Prime Minister where I even raise the issue of the battery factory in that conversation with him. And so there is no doubt that we must tread very lightly with respect to these types of incidents as they relate to our competitive position, not just as a City of Windsor, but provincially and nationally because we are competing against Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee for these types of investments. And you've seen big auto makers make investments in those states, and we knew that we were fourth in goal, to quote a football term, on landing this battery factory, and so I needed to make sure that the signal was sent to those who would be interested in this, that we take this very seriously and we're going to resolve this very seriously and very quickly.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
You can keep scrolling.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah. Just underscores -- those statements underscore my explanation.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That's absolutely correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Absolutely I do.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That this was not just companies in Windsor or companies in Essex County, that this bridge and this border crossing has -- it's of provincial and national significance. So when it's blocked, he gets phone calls from major manufacturers all the way up the 401.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Good afternoon.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I'm a lawyer as well.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, sir.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No, sir.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
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.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Mostly municipal police.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, sir.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, they have their own Act, and certainly, I'm sure it's well spelled out in the Act, that if you brought it up, we could go through it but ---
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I think they're certainly a good source. I think RCMP would also be a great source as well from a policing perspective and ---
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
So was Minister Jones.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Both were great.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s right.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s true.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well they didn’t say, “Don’t send me the letter, but, you know, there was a conversation that the order of operations is Municipal to Provincial, Provincial to Federal. But, you know, the nature of what was happening here, and the nature of what was going on across the country, we knew -- I think a sensible person would know that there’s limited resources and they’re being drawn to assist in different areas, that from my chair and my perspective, and I think it’s fair to say from Chief Mizuno’s perspective, we didn’t care whether it was the OPP or the RCMP that arrived. We just needed more boots on the ground to help resolve the issue.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, you are.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s true.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well the City was, but the Chief, when I told her -- when I asked her, ---
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
--- “We’re going to apply for an injunction. Do you think this would be helpful?” That was never a conversation or a concern that she expressed to me from a policing perspective. So our Fire Chief saying that, I’m not sure where -- you know, where he put that -- where he got that from to think of putting that in an email, but clearly, you know, we weren’t looking to ratchet things up. We were looking to resolve things in a sensible way.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
She never expressed to me a concern about or drew a correlation between an injunction and the thought that we would be ratcheting up or escalating the situation.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Good afternoon.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That is correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I -- there were threats to firebomb my house. I was -- my -- some of the folks put my home address online. People were driving by my house and police were there. So you know, there was -- that was that threat directly. The other threats were to protest, and I’m not aware of any other death threats to other members of Council.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, I think it’s -- you know, I live with my wife and two kids, so it’s unpleasant to have someone threaten to come and firebomb my house.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, I can speak just from my perspective in the City of Windsor. And again, I would reiterate that this was different than almost anything else I can recall seeing in my entire time in the city, certainly my entire time as an elected official in the City of Windsor. And it was the temperature and the tenor and the aggressive nature of the actors that certainly caused everyone to respond in a different way and be far more calculated and concerned about the approach.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That not true. There was a protest back in the early nineties, but there was an injunction granted very, very quickly to re- establish the route to the Ambassador Bridge so it did not last for a very long time.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s right.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yeah, that’s fair. I think they were responding to the best of their ability. Chief Mizuno did tell me that someone in the mechanism of -- or in the group of folks she was working with, the mechanism of the police order, that they had to figure out how to allocate resources in Ontario because we were not the only place experiencing a protest like this.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No one said that to me, but you know, because of the significant economic damage that was being caused, a reasonable person would say they need to fix this quick.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It’s probably hundreds of thousands, if we’re being completely honest.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Not specifically. We did not go out and say we need 100 officers, but we did amplify the police request for additional officers so that the public knew that city, that police, that we were in harmony working together and we need additional support.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
If I made that mistake, it was corrected very quickly and it was not made twice.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
The Police Board meetings?
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Very early on, my Chief of Staff, Andrew Teliszewsky, sent a message to City Council asking that any requests for media interviews, any public comments, any desire to post on social media that we really speak with a unified voice so that there was clarity and no confusion. And I must give City Council immense credit for doing that. They were very -- we worked very well in harmony together.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s true.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That was extremely helpful. It was extremely helpful with communication to the public that they had one source of contact, that we weren’t stepping on each other in terms of messaging, and as a City Councillor there’s a great desire to respond to every complaint that’s coming in from residents, and we were all receiving them. And so by sticking together like we did, I think it was actually good for the public that they had cohesive communication, that it was checked and many times the public comments where we had public pressure conferences, those comments that I delivered were reviewed by the Chief of Police and her tea so that there was no -- there were no surprises when we delivered a message.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Spokesperson for the City, yeah.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Probably. I mean the most important point was that they were focused on the police operation and the communication to the public. Even as enunciated in our CCG, you know, duties and responsibilities, it’s the mayor’s responsibility to communicate with members of council, members of the public, members of the media, and so we just followed the roles were spelled out, and it worked very well.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Absolutely. These things should be spelled out so -- especially if you use -- the Ambassador Bridge is the perfect example, where you have federal responsibility, municipal roadway and municipal responsibility, and then connecting to provincial where there’s provincial responsibility, these types of things ought to be worked out. I’ll slow down. These things should be worked out in advance. Most importantly, who’s doing -- who’s paying for what because, at the end of the day, we’ve -- we are shouldering a big expense on the backs of the residence in the City of Windsor to deal with what I call “a national economic emergency”.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s true. We -- the board was never waiting on the plan to be presented to us for some sort of receipt for information or approval. We knew -- the point was, does the chief have the resources to implement whatever plan is being prepared? And that was the question asked by the board.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I was not privy to this. I didn’t know that there were these particular reports, but the chief would share with me the things she thought I needed to know.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, that’s true. That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That specific incident was relayed to me directly by the chief, and that happened in the parking lot of the high school.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Not in any lasting way.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I only became aware of that in reviewing some of the documents for this Commission.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I was unaware at the time.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Good afternoon.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
From my understanding, that’s true.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I would rely on Deputy Chief Crowley for that information. I know that it -- the number of protesters ebbed and flowed and there were 200 at one time, but ---
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
--- in terms of the number of trucks, I’d hate to hazard a guess because the police were tracking that with more precision.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s fair.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It’s true that there were lessons learned that they were trying employ in Windsor that were happening in Ottawa.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Absolutely.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, that’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s what Mr. Teliszewsky put in the email, yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I believe that’s true as well.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
M'hm. That’s correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That’s true.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, I think that may have come out very quickly, to the extent that it was mentioned to a member of the media. The course was corrected very quickly thereafter. And so we obviously don’t want to -- and certainly, as the Chair of the Police Board -- did not want to do anything that would jeopardize the police operation or tip our hand in terms of what additional resources might be needed specifically.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It would have been such a dramatic action to take that step in advance of a full blockade that I mean, no one would have understood that.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Absolutely true.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That was a concern, especially as it related to the Windsor Detroit tunnel.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Absolutely true.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Good afternoon.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes, I do.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes. I received a phone call from the Minister and then the federal government provided funding and business support for the businesses affected by the blockade.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I'd have to double check, but through this federal minister, the funds flowed to our Invest Windsor Essex Organization who acted as the clearinghouse for businesses affected to make application and receive payment.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Yes.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Well, because of the construct of the roadways and the infrastructure that exists going back 90 years, it really is imperative that we have a three-pronged approach here. Every level of government has a role to play. The City has to be an equal partner, and the City, respectfully, plays a disproportionate role in trying to resolve some of these issues, like the issue we're talking about in February, that we need to have these things coordinated in advance, have the conversation worked out in advance so we know who's doing what and who's responsible to fund some of these costs. And so after the fact, trying to get payment of over $5 million is -- it's frustrating to be honest, but, you know, we need to have these things worked out. And the response that we provided during the, let's say the week of -- the primary week of activity, all we did is respond. You know, we responded, we -- if it were the jersey barriers, someone said they're $1.3 million. "How fast can you get them here?" was the answer. We wanted to be as responsive as possible. But you know, from a City perspective there is a disproportionate burden, and so hosting an international crossing like this presents some opportunities for the City from an economic development perspective, but it also puts a disproportionate burden on the residents in the City of Windsor. Whether it's noise and air pollution, you know, whether it's, you know, traffic congestion on municipal roads and having to fund the costs of some of these municipal roads that fund truck traffic to an international crossing, all of these things, we really needed to sit down. And the point of this letter was "Let's sit down in advance. This may happen again, it may not happen again, but it's probably worth a few hours of discussion to figure out how we're going to do this moving forward so that it is -- you know, pull it from the shelf and implement as opposed to trying to figure it out in real time."
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That's correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I would submit that it really has no impact. Because this event has been happening for decades, it happens on a Sunday morning, I believe generally, and the closure is very early in the morning, say seven o'clock, for a defined period of time. And so runners will start the race in Detroit, run across the Ambassador Bridge, run down municipal streets in the City of Windsor, run back through the Windsor/Detroit Tunnel, back to the United States. And so everything is planned, coordinated, organised, and it's very time limited, and so with respect to local industry, they're able to adjust and adapt for that very time limited period.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Oh, no. No, we're talking a matter of maybe two hours.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No, I think I had two phone calls, but they were all quick. You know, it was just everyone was busy, I was trying to give information so they had situational awareness, pass out the information that I knew was coming, you know, through other channels, like the number of officers. And both the Premier, I think I've said this, but the Premier, the Solicitor General, Minister Mendicino, the Prime Minister, all extremely receptive, understood the issue, were well briefed. And certainly, you know, it was very good communication from my perspective with the two orders of government.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I can't remember if it was just a text or whether it was a quick phone call in and around the time the injunction was granted.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That's correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I thought there was more than one call with both, but I just can't be sure, and it's a function of the volume of what was happening. There were very quick touchpoints, and it was just a matter of sharing information very quickly. These were not long phone calls. It was in an effort for me to share what I knew. And you know, the Premier was excellent in terms of understanding the impact on the business community, he relayed that to me, and both of them were great to deal with.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Nothing else to add.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
That's correct.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I can't remember who initiated it. I mean, it was set up, and I know our federal member had asked, and you know, there was lots of things going on behind the scenes. But I was told the Prime Minister is going to call at a certain time on that date, so I was by the phone waiting for the phone call.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
We talked about what was happening on the ground in the City of Windsor. We talked about the battery factory, and you know, the work that was being done. And the Prime Minister understood very clearly what the impact was. He knows the City of Windsor, he understood what the impact was with that particular closure as it related to the Ambassador Bridge and the importance of the Ambassador Bridge, and he was very supportive in conversation about trying to find a resolution that got us all past this particular point in time and got things back to normal.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
No, not at all. The Prime Minister mentioned in that call that, you know, there may be something coming with respect to the United States that would make folks who participated in these types of activities, perhaps make them inadmissible to enter the United States, and I think that was enunciated in the readout of the call. But no discussion and nor was the Emergencies Act ever mentioned in that call.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
It came up in a conversation with Minister Mendicino. But I didn't -- you know, when -- I mean, I knew that that was the order of operations, he knew that was the order of operations, so we had a quick discussion about that and I relayed to him that my primary concern was getting the resources here on the ground so the response could be provided. I never felt like the Federal Government was sitting on their hands and not wanting to act in any way. I always got the sense that they were very receptive and trying to be a partner in trying to solve the situation and to find resources that would be helpful.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I never felt that way, no one never enunciated that, and I don't believe that to be true.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I did.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
I did.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Because I anticipated that the police would feel more comfortable to share operational details that we would not want to be in the public forum, and I also wanted the board members to feel comfortable to ask any question of the Chief or the administration that they felt needed to be asked, and so in-camera was the best place to do that. And I, you know, I thought it was right then and I think it's right now.
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Drew Dilkens, Mayor (Win)
Thank you, sir.