COVID lockdown charges stayed against ex-politician and firebrand pastor

A controversial Aylmer pastor and a former MP charged for participating in anti-lockdown protests in Southwestern Ontario amid the COVID-19 pandemic have had their charges stayed.

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Henry Hildebrandt, pastor at the Church of God in Aylmer, was charged with violating the Reopening Ontario Act – the provincial law that limited the size of gatherings to slow the spread of COVID-19 – for attending an outdoor anti-lockdown rally on May 30 , 2021, in Woodstock that drew around 350 people.

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Then-MP Derek Sloan, an outspoken critic of the government’s public health measures, was charged for attending an outdoor rally on May 8, 2021, in Tillsonburg that drew nearly 1,000 people and included a slow-rolling procession of farm vehicles that drove to Norwich .

The charges against both men have been stayed, meaning a trial won’t be held and there’ll be no further court action to seek a verdict, said officials with the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, a legal advocacy group that has represented people charged with violating pandemic laws.

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“While my clients would have preferred not to have been charged in the first place, this is an excellent outcome,” lawyer Chris Fleury, who represented both Hildebrandt and Sloan, said in a statement. “With these resolutions, prosecutions under the Reopening Ontario Act are thankfully beginning to come to an end.”

Friday, Hildebrandt took to X, the social media site formally known as Twitter, to thank his legal team for defending Canadians against “tyrannical mandates.”

“We won some cases & we lost some in the short term, but we’re winning overall. Onward in truth!” he wrote.

Hildebrandt emerged as one of the most vocal critics of COVID-19 public health restrictions by holding indoor and outdoor Sunday services at his Aylmer church and speaking at rallies across Canada that challenged gathering limits in place. He racked up multiple charges – some of them later withdrawn – resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.

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Most recently, Hildebrandt pleaded guilty in August to one count of violating provincial pandemic rules related to a June 6, 2021, gathering at the Church of God and was fined $52,000.

But Hildebrandt, who was also ordered to pay a $13,000 victim surcharge, was defiant during the virtual hearing.

“Guilty of obeying God rather than men,” he said when entering his plea over zoom in a St. Thomas court.

Hildebrandt later launched an online fundraiser to help cover the costs of the fines, though it raised only a few thousand dollars.

All of the outstanding charges against Hildebrandt and Sloan have now been resolved, Justice Center officials said.

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