A Unifor executive threatened to lead 1,000 autoworkers in a street brawl with Freedom Convoy protesters, the Public Order Emergency Commission heard yesterday..Dave Cassidy, president of Local 444 in Windsor, ON, denied remarks attributed to him in second-hand police notes..“Police liaison team update,” reads February 11 notes submitted in evidence. “President of autoworkers’ union looking at closing down a plant, claiming he has spoken to premier. He will look to come Monday with 1,000 people to crack heads or bring heavy equipment and push them in the river.”.Superintendent Dana Earley, Ontario Provincial Police commander in charge at Windsor’s cross-border Ambassador Bridge, testified the notes were from a police liaison team that spoke with Cassidy..“What kind of danger did this pose?” asked a Commission lawyer. “This is extremely concerning,” replied Earley..“They had discussions with a member from the auto union and he expressed his displeasure with the protest and in fact was sharing with them that he was going to take matters into his own hands if it was not resolved,” testified Earley. “We asked for time, for his patience.”.The superintendent accepted the note was to be taken literally that 1,000 Unifor members would arrive Monday, February 11 to beat Windsor protesters and throw them in the Detroit River..“This would create significant issues for public and office safety,” she said..Unifor’s Cassidy yesterday said the allegation was false..“While it is true that I spoke to Premier Ford to express my frustrations and many others at the lack of action to end a blockade that was harming auto workers, at no time did I threaten physical violence against the protesters,” said Cassidy..The judicial inquiry yesterday heard a commission lawyer’s summary of an interview with Supt. Earley in which she repeated the threat of violent counter-protest in Windsor..“Superintendent Earley understood that resolution was urgent,” said the summary..“In addition to engaging with protesters, the police liaison team also engaged with potential counter-protesters to attempt to mitigate their concerns and prevent them from attending the blockade site and confronting posters,” the summary continued. “Engagement gave potential counter-protesters an opportunity to vent.”.“On February 11 at 1:42 pm the police liaison team informed Supt. Earley that David Cassidy, the president of the local autoworkers’ union chapter Unifor Local 444, claimed he had spoken to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and that he was willing to bring autoworkers to the blockade site to forcibly clear out protesters by Monday, February 14 if police had not cleared the blockade by that date.”.The six-day Windsor protest ended peacefully February13 after Ford threatened truckers with $100,000 fines. The demonstration ended one day before the federal cabinet invoked the Emergencies Act.
