The man responsible for the closure of the Bennett Bridge in Kelowna has posted a lengthy rant to social media accusing the RCMP and others of destroying his life.

In a social media post, Roy Winter said the bridge will be closed until his “life restored with restitution or my life will cease to exist.”

Winters was arrested Monday after he parked his van on the bridge at 3:45 a.m. and ignited a small fire in the vehicle. Police said he was “in crisis” and called the bomb squad from the Lower Mainland. The bridge reopened later in the afternoon having been closed for over ten hours.

“Inside this vehicle is 60 pounds of highly volatile material that requires nothing more than a stupid human to make a simple mistake and regret their decision,” Winter posted to social media. “The doors of this vehicle have been sealed shut so don’t even think that you will be able to open them up, if you try just remember the phrase I will introduce you to GOD at the same time I introduce myself.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-iiqyheo3TU%3Fsi%3DexDFsn_dyaHuW5tK%3Frel%3D0

Winter said he would live-stream the event, although that doesn’t appear to have happened.

iNFOnews.ca spoke to Winter shortly before Christmas 2024 and at that time he denied that he was suicidal but claimed that certain people were after him.

In his lengthy social media rant, Winter accused Kelowna RCMP, the Hell’s Angels and Kelowna Cabs for his predicament.

“In the last 4.5 years the RCMP are responsible for causing me to lose $3.5 million in lost revenue, income and personal assets,” he said.

He accused the Kelowna RCMP of fabricating evidence against him of several driving offences.

He referenced being a Kelowna taxi driver, although a dispatcher at Kelowna Cabs said she didn’t recognize the name as one of their drivers.

“The scary part of the fact that I’m accusing the RCMP of being corrupt and crooked is that out of 24 complaints filed against 22 members of the Kelowna RCMP is that not one person who perpetrated a crime against me has ever been charged with any offence and not one RCMP member has ever been found guilty of any wrongdoing in their investigation by not charging these people while perpetrating the crimes against me,” Winter wrote in his rant.

In 2023, Winter took the highly unusual move of suing the Crown Prosecution Service, angry that they didn’t file charges after he claimed he was assaulted during a road rage incident.

Court documents show that the Crown didn’t pursue the charge as it deemed it to be a consensual fight.

In his social media post, Winter said he delivered all his evidence against the police to the Attorney General 10 days ago.

iNFOnews.ca has spoken to Winter on several occasions where he aired his grievances with the authorities. Specific details were hard to understand, but in December, he said he wanted to share his evidence just in case something happened to him. He later said that everybody he’d asked for help had turned their back on him.

Winter does not appear to have a criminal record but has racked up more than a dozen driving infractions, half of which have happened in the Okanagan in the last few years.

— This article was updated at 2:43 p.m. Monday, Jan. 27, 2025 to say the bridge has reopened.