Anti-lockdown rally charges withdrawn against controversial pastor

Charges laid against firebrand local pastor Henry Hildebrandt and his family in connection with a 2021 rally against lockdown restrictions amid COVID-19 have been withdrawn.

The charges were related to a rally in Brantford, one of several such events Hildebrandt attended and addressed. The charges of attending a gathering of more than five people were withdrawn against Hildebrandt, his wife Martha Hildebrandt and his son Herbert Hildebrandt, according to a group called the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms.

About 1,000 people attended the April 2021 rally on Henry Street in Brantford, held under a large anti-lockdown billboard. At that point of the pandemic, Ontario had reported 6,000 new COVID-19 cases and 39 new deaths in two days. There were more than 450 people with the virus provincewide in hospital intensive care units.

The two-hour event featured a slate of speakers urging people to ignore politicians, public health authorities and the media in favor of freedom.

Hildebrandt is a controversial pastor who turned his Alymer Church of God into a hotbed of anti-restrictions protest. He was a speaker at the rally and his family were attending as spectators. His views remain unchanged, saying in a statement: “COVID-19 mandates are political in nature and not based on science.”

The family said it was followed out of town by a line of police vehicles, stopped and each issued tickets for $880.

Hildebrandt and the Justice Center argued that church congregations were ticketed for gathering for worship while other rallies, such as those for Black Lives Matter, were being ignored.

Hildebrandt said his Brantford charges were withdrawn after he refused a plea deal and cited his thanks to the Justice Center for funding his continued legal representation.

Crown attorneys are beginning to “prioritize the prosecution of serious criminal and quasi-criminal offences” and called the prosecution of those such as the Hildebrandts “a waste of the court’s time,” his lawyer, Chris Fleury, said in the statement.

Charges against Hildebrandt following a rally in Norfolk in 2021 were dropped last year. He still faces prosecution in other areas, including Elgin County where his Church of God is located.

“We will continue to fight these charges aggressively,” Fleury said.

Hildebrandt was recently convicted of violating the Reopening Ontario Act in a London court after he appeared at a Victoria Park rally there in January 2022. He was fined $5,000 plus court costs.

Hildebrandt’s son, Herbert Hildebrandt was convicted in court last week of assaulting an 86-year-old man in December 2020 over a sign that advocated masking to slow COVID’s spread. He was fined $1,000, placed on a two-year probation and ordered to complete 100 hours of community service.

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