The leader of an Aylmer church that became an anti-lockdown flashpoint at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic has been fined $5,000 for participating in a downtown London rally last winter.
The leader of an Aylmer church that became an anti-lockdown flashpoint at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic has been fined $5,000 for participating in a downtown London rally last winter.
Church of God pastor Henry Hildebrandt was convicted under the Reopening Ontario Act, the law to enforce public-health measures to combat the spread of COVID-19, for attending the so-called World Wide Rally for Freedom on Jan. 22 at Victoria Park, municipal officials said on Thursday.
Hildebrandt was fined $5,000 and ordered to pay court costs, City of London officials said.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, municipal law enforcement officers were given additional duties to enforce provincial legislation based on advice from public health experts,” the city’s bylaw boss, Orest Katolyk, said in a statement.
The London rally was part of a movement in opposition to public-health measures such as limits on public gatherings, mandatory masking and the closure of businesses and schools. The overwhelming majority of the population supported the measures, but there was a vocal minority against them.
“Non-compliance at gatherings came with possible penalties,” Katolyk said. “In the vast majority of public interactions, officers used discretion, provided education and issued warnings. In other situations, charges were issued.”
Hildebrandt became a leading figure in the movement opposed to the government’s handling of the pandemic. He continued to hold both drive-in and indoor services at his Aylmer church, drawing attention from police and criticism from counter-protesters who held demonstrations outside its grounds.
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The defiant pastor racked up court fines and tickets since the beginning of the pandemic. He was charged along with then-MPPs Randy Hillier and Derek Sloan for attending a Norfolk County rally in June 2021, but the charges against the trio were dropped in September, according to the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), a legal advocacy group hired to represent the men.
The JCCF, a charity dedicated to fighting for constitutional freedoms, has taken on many cases of individuals charges under the Reopening Ontario Act.
The legal group scored a recent victory when charges against a Goderich family that was fined for holding a birthday party were dropped on Nov. 2.
The family had gathered to celebrate a birthday on April 23, 2021, amid a stay-at-home order that prohibited residents from leaving their homes except for approved reasons, when an OPP officer showed up and advised the family to disperse or be ticketed, the center said.
Only one person left and the officer ticketed all five family members, including the individual who had left, for obstructing an officer and breaking the stay-at-home order, the center said. A lawyer for the Justice Center worked out a deal with the Crown to drop the charges in exchange for the family agreeing to make a “modest” charitable donation, the center said.
“While we are pleased that the charges have been dropped, it is concerning that these charges were laid at all,” Justice Center lawyer Chris Naimi said in a statement issued Wednesday. “The right to peaceful assembly is an enshrined constitutional right, whether it is a public political demonstration or an intimate family gathering.”