Spanning a full week, “Fun in the Sun” committee member Laurie Beadle said this year’s summer celebration will be bigger and be

“After seeing what happened at the Seattle protests, you have to wonder what could be happening down there.”
That’s the feeling of one local woman whose husband, an officer with the Fort Frances OPP, joined several others from the district in Windsor this week to help keep the peace at the Organization of American States conference.
“I think they have everything under control but it’s a concern. It’s always a concern,” she remarked. “But I was given a special number to call and that helps.”
Her husband is one of eight OPP officers from the district, which also includes detachments in Emo, Rainy River, and Atikokan, who went to join police from every detachment in Ontario at the conference.
The officers, whose names are being withheld, are acting in two separate–and very different–roles in Windsor, Fort Frances OPP Cst. Cameron Howard said yesterday.
“We have three uniformed staff, who will be on regular patrol with the Windsor Police Department, and five [Emergency Response Team] members, who work at crowd control,” he noted.
ERT is a local version of the OPP’s Tactical Rescue Units, of which there are three full-time teams across the province. TRU most closely resemble U.S. Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams.
“On any given night, there are ERT in district that we can call up if we need them,” said Cst. Howard.
The district officers left for Windsor about a week ago, and had to undergo several days of training and briefing before going on-duty.
“There’s a lot of organization for this on a police level. It’s a pretty major event,” Cst. Howard remarked.
They’re expected to return by Friday.
Formal meetings between foreign ministers from the 34 OAS states, including Canada, began on Sunday and ended late yesterday.
Thousands of protesters in both Detroit, Mich. and Windsor are protesting the conference, decrying that globalization “sacrifices human and labour rights to business interests.”
But the local woman has her own view of the protests. “What I find interesting is that it’s the protesters who are saying the police are causing problems.
“But it’s clearly the protesters who are starting things,” she charged.
More than 1,000 OPP and municipal officers, as well as about 1,000 RCMP officers, comprised the police presence in Windsor.