Anti-lockdown rally charges withdrawn against controversial pastor

Charges laid against Pastor Henry Hildebrandt and two family members after a No More Lockdowns rally in Brantford in 2021 have been withdrawn.

The charges of attending a gathering of more than five persons were withdrawn on Feb. 27 against Hildebrandt, his wife, Martha Hildebrandt and his son, Herbert Hildebrandt, the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms said in a news release.

The charges related to the trio’s attendance at a rally of about 1,000 people on Henry Street under a large anti-lockdown billboard.

It was at the point in the pandemic when Ontario reported more than 6,000 new cases and 39 new deaths in two days. There were 451 people with the virus in 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, a controversial pastor from the Alymer Church of God, was a speaker at the rally and his family were attending as spectators.

“COVID-19 mandates are political in nature and not based on science,” Hildebrandt says in the release.

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Hildebrandt said his Brantford charges were withdrawn after he refused a plea deal and cited his thanks to the Justice Center for funding his continued legal representation.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

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 shorter costs.

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

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