RCMP issue tickets at Coutts blockade as pressure for enforcement action builds

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Mounties issued dozens of provincial tickets this weekend to protesters at the illegal Coutts blockade that has now stymied traffic at the border town for more than two weeks in protest of COVID-19 public health measures.

Cpl. Troy Savinkoff told Postmedia Sunday afternoon officers had issued 53 tickets over the past 24 hours, most under the Traffic Safety Act. One arrest was made of an impaired driver.

Mounties also disabled three excavators they believed were headed to the Coutts “in an effort to reinforce the blockade.”

Savinkoff said the number of vehicles involved continues to change, but that as of about 4 p.m. Sunday, there were 42 commercial and passenger vehicles, 10 recreational vehicles and 16 tractors at the border blockade, across the northbound and southbound lanes of Highway 4.

He said he expects enforcement of vehicles on roadways to continue, but said he can’t comment on how officers will approach the coming days.

The enforcement comes as police in Ontario moved in with force to clear out a similar blockade at the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor to Detroit, Mich. Officers there arrested as many as 30 people, forcing protesters off the bridge and seizing demonstrators’ vehicles. The crossing remains closed as officers turn their attention to reopening the bridge to traffic while ensuring a blockade does not restart.

Mount Royal University justice studies professor Doug King said law enforcement will face increased pressure to resolve the blockade at Coutts following the police action in Windsor. He anticipates a confrontation soon, with a large number of officers dispatched to the area, but little movement over the next several days.

“I would expect by the end of this upcoming week, the RCMP will have moved into the Coutts area,” King said.

“There’s going to be increased pressure. It will be public pressure, it will be media pressure, it will be expert pressure that suggests it’s about time the RCMP move in and start exacting arrests.”

However, King said there are some key differences between the blockades in Coutts and Windsor. He said the Ambassador Bridge blockade was viewed as more urgent because it is a busier border, carrying more than a quarter of all trade between Canada and the U.S. and up to $400 million in goods daily, and because the bridge is privately owned.

Logistically, multiple roadblocks at Coutts and challenges dispatching police resources to the remote port of entry also present difficulties, as does the absence of a court injunction banning the blockade, as was granted at the Ambassador Bridge.

Speaking to reporters last week, Acting Alberta Justice Minister Sonya Savage called the blockade “intolerable” but said it’s at the discretion of RCMP to decide how to uphold the law.

King said it is important to have a separation of church and state when it comes to policing, but that governments do have levers they can pull to spur action. That includes declaring a state of emergency or seeking an injunction, both of which occurred in Ontario.

“For whatever calculation is going on among the premier’s office and the justice minister’s office, they don’t want to touch this with a 10-foot pole,” King said.

Former Winnipeg police chief David Cassels said an injunction could provide police with more resources to take decisive action.

“The public doesn’t understand why the police don’t just go in there and clean it up, and there’s no doubt the protesters are interfering with the rights and freedoms of others,” said Cassels, now president of the Coalition for Canadian Police Reform.

“But they can’t just bring in a riot team and decide to clear people out, because they’re likely to create more of a problem than they have.”

Officers must continue negotiating with members of the blockade to drive towards a resolution, Cassels said, particularly as police deal with a group that has demonstrated they are in this for the long haul.

“They have to negotiate with the organizers. They have to negotiate with the truckers,” Cassels said, stressing he isn’t at Coutts and doesn’t have a perspective on the ground. “(And if they obtain) a court injunction, they must then do planning and seek resources to be able to deal with this. And they’re going to have to be creative to come up with a plan here.”

On Saturday, the Canada Border Services Agency announced it had temporarily suspended services at the Coutts border crossing until further notice.

In a statement, the agency said it “recognizes border disruptions affect both travellers and industry” and said it was working to restore normal operations as quickly as possible.

Commercial traffic is being rerouted to other ports of entry, with the closest locations in North Portal and Regway in Saskatchewan and Roosville and Kingsgate in B.C.

There has been no movement at the Coutts port of entry since Tuesday at 8 p.m., hours before Alberta’s vaccine passport program was lifted. Protesters in the area are digging in despite an easing of COVID-19 restrictions as they seek a full lifting of provincial and federal restrictions and mandates.

— With files from Brittany Gervais and the Windsor Star

jherring@postmedia.com

Twitter: @jasonfherring