VIP police escort for nobody in particular turns Red Hill heads

A police-escorted motorcade turned heads and briefly blocked on-ramps to the Red Hill Valley Parkway on Thursday as part of a VIP protection effort for … nobody in particular.

The phalanx of motorcycle-riding police officers was actually part of a training exercise for GTA police and the OPP to prepare for VIP-attracting events such as the Invictus Games, which kick off Sept. 26 in Toronto.

Toronto Police Const. Clinton Stibbe said about 30 police officers took part in the “mock motorcade,” which on Thursday travelled from Exhibition Place to Niagara Falls with a stop in the middle at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mount Hope.

That meant local motorists would have seen the motorcade travelling along Highway 403, Highway 6 and the Red Hill Valley Parkway.

Stibbe said officers on motorcycles travelled ahead of the motorcade of cars to practise “rolling” blocks of on-ramps to the 403 and Red Hill to allow the stream of protected vehicles to whiz by.

Depending on how busy the highway is — or how important and numerous the VIPs — Stibbe said a motorist could conceivably be delayed at a blocked on-ramp for as long as 10 minutes, “but usually a much shorter period.”

Stibbe declined to provide any details about the identities or destinations of VIPs the service may be escorting over the next few weeks.

But event founder and British royal Prince Harry will be in Toronto for the Invictus Games competition for wounded veterans. U.S. first lady Melania Trump and former president Barack Obama are also expected to attend.