Accused bridge blockader avoids Windsor trial with cat donation

Published Sep 19, 2023 • 4 minute read

A large police force is shown marching south on Huron Church Road on Feb. 13, 2022, clearing protesters that had blockaded the Windsor access to the Ambassador Bridge since the previous week. Photo by Dax Melmer /Windsor Star

One of the dozens of individuals charged with blockading the Ambassador Bridge in February 2022 avoided a criminal trial set to commence last week by instead making a $500 donation to a local cat shelter.

Benjamin Lockstein was one of the many charged with mischief to property and disobeying a court order after police drawn from across Ontario moved in on Feb. 13, 2022, making arrests and ending a weeklong shutdown of North America’s busiest trade crossing.

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The Windsor border blockade by people protesting government COVID-19 measures started Feb. 7, the day after the City of Ottawa declared a state of emergency for what Premier Doug Ford would describe as a “siege” of the national capital’s downtown.

Assistant Crown attorney Iain Skelton last Thursday told Ontario Court Justice Christine Malott that several days of discussions with Lockstein’s defence counsel concluded with an agreement to resolve the case via “direct accountability” and an agreed-upon charitable donation.

The direct accountability program, introduced as part of Ontario’s Justice on Target Strategy to reduce court backlogs, provides an alternative to formal prosecution for adults charged with eligible criminal offences considered minor.

The adult diversion program, offered locally through the Crown Attorney’s office and St. Leonard’s House Windsor, is designed to hold accused individuals accountable for their actions through community-based sanctions. Those can include restitution, community service hours or programming, letter of apology — or a charitable donation.

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“It was a fairly small fine and a favourable resolution,” said Lockstein’s lawyer Alan Honner, adding his client is “very happy with the result.”

“The Crown requests the charges before the court be withdrawn,” Skelton asked the judge, who then obliged.

With his client’s case resolved through diversion and without a trial, “there’s no admission of guilt,” Honner told the Star.

Neither Skelton nor the local Crown’s office would comment further on either the allegations or the resolution discussions relating to the Lockstein case.

Honner, a Toronto lawyer and litigation director at The Democracy Fund, said the defence’s argument at trial would have been that, while Lockstein was out protesting that day, he was standing on the Huron Church Road median at the time of his arrest and not on the roadway.

“He’s not responsible for the actions of every other person who was at that protest,” said Honner, adding an arrest in such an instance equates to “criminalizing protest.”

Protesters are shown congregating late into the afternoon of Feb. 12, 2022, on Huron Church Road south of College Avenue, after police cleared a portion of the Ambassador Bridge blockade. Photo by Dax Melmer /Windsor Star

Police officers, many brought to Windsor from the OPP, RCMP, London and other police departments, moved in and began making arrests two days after a Superior Court justice issued an injunction for the access area to the Ambassador Bridge to be cleared. It also came the day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in response to blockades and occupations in Ottawa, Windsor and Coutts, Alta.

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The Democracy Fund, a civil liberties charity involved in criminal cases where Canadian Constitution issues might be at stake, is representing 13 of those arrested and charged in Windsor. Most of those arrested locally face the same charges as Lockstein, and those cases are only now beginning to reach court.

Honner said the Crown withdrew a previous Democracy Fund case on the eve of trial in August. Honner said that client, Eric Lemmon, was arrested on the sidewalk during the protests.

Asked by the Star about the status of other bridge blockade cases, including the number of individuals still facing trial or how many cases had either been withdrawn or dealt with via diversion, the Windsor Crown’s office responded it “cannot comment on other ongoing prosecutions.”

When it comes to going to trial and fighting it out in court, said Honner, “there’s always a risk for people facing criminal charges. If the opportunity arises to pay a small fine to have those removed, they take it.”

The Democracy Fund is also directly involved in a closely watched criminal trial currently underway in Ottawa involving two high-profile organizers of the Freedom Convoy that took over part of the capital’s downtown in January and February 2022. Chris Barber and Tamara Lich could face jail if convicted on charges of mischief, obstructing police and ‘intimidation of Parliament.’

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A protester is arrested on Feb. 13, 2022, as police removed truckers and supporters after a court injunction gave police the power to enforce the law and reopen access to and from the Ambassador Bridge which was blocked by protesters opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions. Photo by Nathan Denette /THE CANADIAN PRESS

Honner said The Democracy Fund crowd-funded and is paying for Lich’s defence in the closely watched three-week criminal trial.

The defence argues Barber and Lich were involved in lawful, peaceful protest, while the prosecution argues both were key organizers who crossed the line into illegal activity and that the right of citizens to protest that is protected under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms is not an absolute right.