officers Canada
© Geoff Robins /AFP/Getty ImagesOfficers deployed to move protesters blocking access to the Ambassador Bridge.
Let's examine Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's statement yet again on Friday that "politicians don't direct police in a democratic society," which is nonsense. If that was true, the police would be a law unto themselves, which is what happens in dictatorships.

In fact, politicians and governments are directing police to remove protesters and blockades from the Ambassador Bridge, as well as in Ottawa and other locations. They're doing it right now.

Ironically, Trudeau's complete statement Friday makes clear federal, provincial and municipal politicians have ordered the police to end the trucker blockades and disband the protesters.

To wit:
"I want to remind everyone that politicians don't direct police in a democratic society, but I can assure you that the RCMP is working with provincial and local police departments to enforce the law. Everything is on the table because this unlawful activity has to end and it will end."
This is happening because politicians ordered it to happen. What is accurate, is that politicians do not direct police operations. That means they can't interfere with the police in their planning and execution of police operations to fulfill the directives politicians have given them.

The myth that politicians and governments have no say in directing police has persisted in Canada ever since the 1995 tragedy at Ipperwash Provincial Park in Ontario during a long-standing Indigenous land claims dispute. Unarmed protester Dudley George was shot and killed by OPP acting-sgt. Kenneth Deane (later killed in a highway accident), who was convicted of criminal negligence causing death in 1997.

The myth is that then Ontario premier Mike Harris ordered the OPP to march on the protesters, leading to George's death. In fact, Mr. Justice Sidney Linden concluded the exact opposite in his exhaustive 2007 inquiry into the Ipperwash tragedy. He wrote:
"The evidence demonstrated that the Premier and his officials wanted the occupation to end quickly, but there is no evidence to suggest the Premier or any official in his government was responsible for Mr. George's death.

"In my view the Premier did not give instructions to or interfere with the OPP's operations at Ipperwash in September 1995. There is no evidence to suggest that either the Premier or his government directed the OPP to march down the road toward Ipperwash Park, on the evening of Sept. 6.

"It was not inappropriate for the Premier to direct the Ontario government to seek an injunction as soon as possible."
To be sure, Linden was critical of the conduct of the Ontario and federal governments, and of the Ontario Provincial Police, leading up to the shooting.

He found Harris was not truthful in testifying he did not make the racist statement, "I want the (expletive deleted) Indians out of the park," and that the premier's urgency in disbanding the Ipperwash protest reduced the possibility of a peaceful resolution.

But Linden's key finding for our purposes is that:
"It was legitimate for the Premier to take the position that the First Nations people were illegally occupying the park, and that he wanted them out of Ipperwash Park as soon as possible."
Just as it is legitimate now for federal, provincial and municipal politicians to order police to remove today's protesters and blockades as soon as possible.