Ottawa Seeks To Bill Trucker Blockade For Police Costs

The Ottawa Citizen reports:

The city wants to invoke a clause in the revised Ontario Police Services Act that would allow it to bill protesters for the extra cost of policing. The tally would be enormous: an estimated $800,000 a day (times 12 and counting), plus possibly the cost of hundreds of extra outside personnel (as many as 1,800) now being airlifted into the capital to bring the blockade to a resolution.

Ontario is not breaking new ground here. There are several states in the U.S. where billing protesters for policing is legally possible, changes said to have brought about by the massive Black Lives Matter movement. Memorably, one state politician in Minnesota, referring to a historic civl rights case, put it this way: “Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus. She didn’t get out and lay down in front of the bus.”

Read the full article.

The truckers’ blockade in downtown Ottawa has gone on for 13 days. The city should bill protesters for the extra cost of #policing (about $2.5-million and counting), as the law allows, by @KellyEganColumn https://t.co/91m88Fom28 via @ottawacitizen #COVID19 #cdnpoli

— André Picard (@picardonhealth) February 9, 2022