London police credit planning, communication for keeping lid on protest

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One of London’s deputy police chief credits extensive planning and communicating with protesters for ensuring nobody was injured or arrested during the city’s largest protest this year.

Between 1,500 and 2,000 demonstrators and counter-protesters gathered on opposite sides of Dundas Street outside the Thames Valley District school board office Wednesday for the One Million March 4 Children.

The demonstration was part of Canada-wide rallies organizers billed as a pushback to children being exposed to inappropriate content about sexuality and gender identity in the classroom.

Eighty police were deployed to keep the peace at the protest, where the opposing sides spent more than five hours shouting at each other across the four-lane road that officers patrolled with cruisers and motorcycles.

Although there was a lot of screaming and swearing, police say nobody was arrested or injured during the day-long event.

“We planned in advance. We gathered information to connect with people . . . folks that were involved in the protest,” deputy Chief Paul Bastien said in an interview Thursday.

“What’s important to us is to be able to connect with them in advance to just explain what our role is going to be and to hear from them about any concerns they have with respect to safety.”

At Thursday’s police board meeting, Chief Thai Truong and board chair Ali Chahbar thanked the commanders who oversaw that operation, Supt. Scott Guilford and Insp. Ryan Scrivens, and the other officers involved for keeping the community safe.

The turnout at the London protest – similar in size to demonstrations held in larger cities like Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary – didn’t come as a surprise to police, Bastien said.

“We had reason to expect that it could be very, very large,” he said.

Arrests were reported at demonstrations in Toronto, Ottawa, Victoria, Vancouver and other cities, where charges laid included assault and obstructing police.

In London, the school board officers and a nearby elementary school were closed Wednesday as a safety precaution. A line of police officers kept protesters off the school board’s property, while other officers ensured the demonstrators stayed off the street.

Dundas Street remained open throughout the protest that began before 9 a.m. and lasted until almost 3 p.m., except for during a brief stint when a group of demonstrators broke off to march down Highbury Avenue.

Bastien called the police handling of the demonstration a success, noting the barrier Dundas Street provided “really worked to our advantage.”

“Sometimes we will leverage or take advantage of infrastructure,” he said.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com