BARRIE, Ontario (Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms) — The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is pleased to announce that a charge against former MPP Randy Hillier relating to a May 2021 protest in Barrie has been stayed by the Court.
Hillier was charged with breaching a COVID order issued under the Reopening Ontario Act. The Crown stayed the charge on January 3, 2023.
READ: Ontario MPP: Lockdowns will end when people ‘stand up and assert their freedoms’
The Ontario Government declared a state of emergency in April 2021 due to the rising number of cases of COVID-19 in the province. It issued a “stay-at-home” Order that banned public gatherings, with very limited exceptions. The Order effectively criminalized public protests.
Hillier was alleged to have attended the Barrie protest when he was still a MPP (member of provincial parliament) for Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston. Hillier was a vocal opponent of lockdowns and stay-at-home Orders during his tenure as MPP, which is why he was invited to speak at the protest.
The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) failed spectacularly at resisting the initial COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates that were imposed by the government on freedom-loving Canadians.
Most CPC MPs subserviently complied with Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party in creating a police-state where our Charter Rights were regularly violated, but now Pierre Poilievre would have us believe they have turned a corner and nothing like it will ever happen again.
How can they rebuild our trust? Well, they can start by owning up to their terrible mistakes.
SIGN: The CPC must apologize for abandoning Canadians to Trudeau’s COVID regime.
You will remember how freedom-loving Canadians were abandoned by the CPC, with Erin O’Toole calling for vaccine passports and most CPC MPs pearl-clutching about “vaccine hesitancy”.
That was until the party realized how popular the Truckers’ Convoy had become and got behind the movement.
It’s quite possible the CPC would still be mute on vaccine mandates and lockdowns were it not for the heroic Freedom Convoy that converged on Ottawa.
Let’s not forget the businesses, churches, schools and universities that were shuttered for months on end because of the COVID hysteria generated by politicians in Ottawa, and the CPC did nothing.
They did nothing when people started losing their livelihoods (with some Canadians even losing their lives to suicide) because of the government’s deranged policy of locking people down.
The CPC must show they have learned a lesson from the COVID tyranny Canadians needlessly suffered and that they contributed to.
SIGN: Demand the CPC apologize for abandoning Canadians to Trudeau’s COVID tyranny.
In yet another reminder of how disconnected from reality the CPC were, MPs like Leslyn Lewis, Marilyn Gladu and Rosemarie Falk were omitted from their “Shadow Cabinet” in November 2021 because they dared to question the COVID shots.
Canadians must still contend with vaccine mandates in some settings and the intrusive ArriveCAN system in order to re-enter the country, while we are among the last three countries in the world to continue discriminating against unvaccinated visitors who remain barred from entering.
As Pierre Poilievre takes the reigns of the CPC, conservative voters must demand an apology from the party that abandoned them during the COVID-hysteria of the past two years.
SIGN: The CPC can rebuild trust by apologizing for capitulating to Trudeau’s COVID tyranny.
Breaches of orders under the Reopening Ontario Act carry the potential consequences of fines of $100,000.00 and/or a one-year jail sentence.
Hillier’s current counsel Christopher Fleury, provided by the Justice Centre, says that his client is pleased with this outcome and will continue to aggressively fight the similar charges that he is facing across the province.
READ: Ontario politician demands police investigate spike in youths dying after COVID jab
As part of his overall litigation strategy, Hillier has brought a Charter of Rights and Freedoms application in the Ontario Superior Court seeking to have various Orders made under the Reopening Ontario Act declared contrary to the Charter. The Court is scheduled to hear oral submissions in that case on July 27-28, 2023.
Reprinted with permission from the Justice Centre of Constitutional Freedoms.