OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) –– COVID-era charges leveled against former federal Conservative MP Derek Sloan and former Ontario MPP Randy Hillier for attending a “No More Lockdowns” protest in Stratford, Ontario, in 2021 have been dropped by Crown prosecutors.
Sloan and Hillier’s legal team from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) announced last Thursday that the prosecutor in charge of the case against the pair agreed to drop their charges in “exchange for a modest charitable donation or volunteer work.”
“Mr. Sloan made the charitable donation and Mr. Hillier volunteered at a food bank in Lanark County,” noted the JCCF.
In April of 2021, the Ontario provincial government once again increased its COVID measures and declared a state of emergency over rising cases of the virus. It then put in place a complete ban on all outdoor gatherings which, in effect, made peaceful protests illegal in the province.
At the time, Sloan was a sitting MP, and Hillier a sitting MPP. They both already had a history of protesting COVID mandates and lockdowns, and thus attended the “No More Lockdowns” protest.
According to the JCCF, the Ontario government under Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford enacted the harsh lockdown policy “despite the fact most experts agree that spread of respiratory viruses at short duration, outdoor events are extremely limited.”
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.
As a result, Sloan and Hillier each faced “a maximum fine of $100,000 for attending this protest.”
Said Sloan about the charges, the “Ontario government’s lockdowns, which effectively banned any political protesting whatsoever, were a grave threat to our freedom in Canada.”
“Restrictions may be over for now, but there was no indication how long they would last at the time. 2 weeks became 2 months which became almost 2 years of failed COVID policies,” he added.
Sloan noted that he is “proud” to have “stood against this tyranny with many other brave Canadians.”
He said that the Stratford prosecutor “made the right choice, and it is now up to other prosecutors in other districts to drop these meaningless charges.”
“One day, history, and the courts, will concur that these lockdowns were unwarranted and a serious and unnecessary interference with Canadian’s basic freedoms,” he added.
Both Sloan and Hillier were outspoken against draconian COVID mandates, including those surrounding the vaccines, which were enacted by both their provincial government as well as the federal government.
Sloan was kicked out of the Conservative Party of Canada shortly after the 2022 leadership race, of which he was a candidate. He is outspokenly pro-life.
COVID vaccine mandates split Canadian society. The mRNA shots themselves, approved for use in Canada, have been linked to a multitude of negative and often severe side effects in children.
The jabs also have connections to cell lines derived from aborted babies. As a result of this, many Catholics and other Christians refused to take them.
This is not the first COVID charge leveled against Hillier that has been dropped. In January of this year, Hillier had a COVID charge against him stayed by the courts.
In December 2020, the provincial government of Ontario first put in place very restrictive measures, including gathering limits on places of worship, which it claimed were needed to curb the spread of COVID.
Despite their Stratford charges being dropped, both Sloan and Hillier have similar outstanding charges remaining in Ontario.
Hillier, for his part, has launched a Charter of Rights and Freedoms challenge against the lockdowns “that banned all outdoor protests and will argue that they were an unjustifiable infringement of his rights.”
This hearing, noted the JCCF, is set to happen this coming July 27-28.
Other prominent Ontario anti-COVID mandate protesters have also had their charges dropped in recent months.
In early 2023, Canadian Crown prosecutors dropped 2021 charges levied against pro-freedom and anti-lockdown Christian pastor Henry Hildebrandt from the Church of God in Aylmer, Ontario, for allegedly violating COVID health orders related to worship size gathering limits that were in effect at that time.