By Don Urquhart, Times-Chronicle

While the Emergencies Act is clearly focused on Ottawa and significant border points such as Windsor (to ensure it remains open), Coutts Alberta (where a cache of weapons and ammunition resulted in arrests), and Surrey here in B.C., it’s not clear what the impact if any, will be for protests at smaller border crossings such as Osoyoos.

Anti-mandate protests began here in the Okanagan from Vernon down to Osoyoos just over three weeks ago, and have largely shifted from Main Street to the border crossing, clogging it for a few hours each Saturday afternoon.

When the Times-Chronicle was at the border crossing on Saturday, hundreds of cars could be seen parked along Hwy 97 as far as the eye could see, along with side roads.

A flatbed trailer truck loaded with plywood was stuck on the highway blocked from crossing the border by a dump truck owned by local Osoyoos businessman Kevin Ondrus who operates Kreative Krete Designs.

Ondrus says the truck was only tied up for 30 minutes at most and this was confirmed by Sgt. Jason Bayda, commander of the Osoyoos RCMP who said the truck was originally mistaken to be part of the protest contingent but once word went out that the truck wanted to cross the border, the dump truck was quickly moved to allow it to pass.

When asked what the aim of the protest is, Ondrus said: “We’re just all supporting the Ottawa one mainly. Everybody wants to see different things but for the majority of us I think, we want to end the mandates.”

“My daughter is in Grade 1 and she’s never seen a real school year . . . so she doesn’t know what real school is. Everybody has their own opinions on these vaccines, my wife is double vaccinated and we get along great, she wanted to get vaccinated for her safety and I don’t want to get vaccinated for my safety.”

“In my opinion, it’s not tested properly for me to trust it,” he says, adding that his kids are all immunized with the regular set of childhood vaccines. “Those are time tested,” he adds.

With word of the impending moves by the federal government on Monday, Ondrus told the Times-Chronicle at that time, “They are threatening to take our livelihoods more than they already have.”

When asked about the segment of protesters who have been causing anti-mask disturbances in local businesses, he says: “I don’t believe in making people uncomfortable or anything like that but the masks aren’t really helping in my opinion because people who are wearing the masks are still getting COVID, even the double vaccinated or triple vaccinated.”

He also highlights that he’s had verbal abuse thrown his way when he was simply driving his truck through town. “There’s both sides of the story,” he highlights. “You have your right to feel one way and I have my right to feel my way and we can both go about our lives and still be friends about it.”

“I don’t know who’s right and who’s wrong, but I support freedom of choice and that’s what I’m trying to put across.”

With the polarization that these protests are furthering is he concerned about negative impacts on his business? “I do have that concern, it does bother me,” he acknowledges, adding: “I can stand alone and do nothing or I can stand and fight for my country.”

He also acknowledges that there are “rebels” in the convoy “that want to make us look bad but I think the general consensus is we want freedom.”

Law enforcement

So far the protests both on Main Street and at the border crossing have been unhindered by law enforcement. Bayda said the plan for dealing with protests across B.C. is determined at the provincial divisional level and that is one of a “measured approach” he said.

When asked on Tuesday morning if the invoking of the Emergencies Act on Monday afternoon would impact their approach to the protests here, Bayda said: “We’re not going to change much on the policing front. Last weekend there were really no incidents from the protesters themselves, everyone remained peaceful throughout and that’s all we can ask for at this point.”

His understanding is the Act is for only very serious situations and “at this point, everything’s been peaceful, it’s a nuisance and they want their voices heard but certainly there hasn’t been anything within the convoy as of last weekend that has caused any concerns.”

While noting that the protest convoy does impede traffic at times and causes some noise, “it’s nearly impossible if you’ve got a thousand vehicles honking their horns to start ticketing every one of them and it’s not really going to go over too well. We’re not going to solve or gain anything by that. And what it may do is inflame the situation.”

The biggest priority for Bayda and his team, which includes extra resources from the Highway Patrol division, “is making sure people are safe and as long as protests aren’t causing criminal offences then we’ll continue to monitor and try to keep everyone safe regardless of their views and opinions.”

Councillors weigh in

Opinions amongst elected officials in Osoyoos on how to handle the ongoing protest are mixed but largely supportive of this position outlined by Bayda.

Mayor Sue McKortoff said she agrees with the ‘light touch’ strategy outlined by Bayda. “I understand that the noise is unusual and probably not what you want to hear but from my perspective thank heavens it’s only one day a week and not seven like it is in Ottawa.”

“But I do know that there are various opinions about this, I’m probably pretty old fashion because I don’t think this is the right way to do it but I’m not sure that what they are doing makes sense to me because if it’s that they don’t think they should have vaccines well I disagree with that.”

“But I know there are people in town that think we should be doing more and some that think it’s okay the way it is. I can’t speak for everyone but it just kind of concerns me and I take a conservative approach and think that we don’t want to stir things up, we don’t want to get people doing something they might otherwise do so I would say just keep it on an even keel,” she said.

The lone dissenting view on council was expressed by lawyer Brian Harvey, who might well be taking solace in the change in stance by the federal government. Harvey cites section 83.01 of the Criminal Code and the Department of Justice’s interpretation of that section, in saying Ottawa is being “traumatized by domestic terrorists.”

Harvey spoke to the Times-Chronicle prior to the invoking of the Emergencies Act, expressing his utter frustration at inaction by police for what he sees in Ottawa as a lawless crowd.

“These guys and their enablers in law enforcement and politics wrap themselves in freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is all well and good and I support it like anybody and more so, but it’s not absolute,” he says. He cites one of a number of Supreme Court of Canada cases that clearly identify the limits of this Charter right.

He highlights one particular case as an example: R.W.D.S.U., Local 558 v. Pepsi-Cola Canada Beverages (West) Ltd. [2002] SCC 8. This is a labour case that looks at picketing as a form of expression.

The Supreme Court holds among other things that “freedom of expression is not absolute.  When the harm of expression outweighs its benefit, the expression may legitimately be curtailed.”

The Court concludes that “[expression] which breaches the criminal law or one of the specific torts like trespass, nuisance, intimidation, defamation or misrepresentation will be impermissible, regardless of where it occurs.”

He adds that the tort of nuisance “includes excessive noise interfering with the peace and enjoyment of one’s property.”

“That this lawless crowd have been welcomed into that city with seeming open arms by the Ottawa police now has the entire population of that fair city (save for that minority that supports the conspiracy theorizing, anti-vaxing rabble) seeing the Ottawa force as inept, incompetent, and worse, as sympathizers.”

His frustration is echoed in the local environment where he is concerned his council colleagues are simply happy to sit on their hands and do nothing and say nothing.

“I want the people that are suffering to know that at least someone cares about their concerns. I suspect they feel nobody cares.”

While he acknowledges that neither he nor the council itself has any power to do anything, local law enforcement should not make the same mistake as Ottawa, he said.

He says that concerns around potentially turning what are peaceful demonstrations into more confrontational situations or that trying to ticket vehicles are misguided.

“I’m just encouraging law enforcement to stop being enablers,” he adds.