Pastor fined $5K for participation in London anti-lockdown rally

The defiant Aylmer pastor, notorious for violating public health measures during the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been fined $5,000 for his part in an anti-lockdown rally in London.

Henry Hildebrandt has been convicted under the Reopening Ontario Act for participating in the so-called “World Wide Rally for Freedom” at Victoria Park on January 22. The City of London confirmed Hildebrandt’s conviction on Thursday.

“Hildebrandt was fined $5,000 plus court costs,” city officials said.

Hildebrandt is the pastor of the Church of God Restoration in Aylmer, which made headlines for frequently holding in-person services in direct violation of provincial pandemic rules. The repeated violations eventually led to a Superior Court order to lock the exterior doors of the John Street church in May 2021. Hildebrandt himself became one of the main faces of the opposition movement against pandemic restrictions and was repeatedly fined, ticketed and eventually deemed in contempt of court for violating COVID related gathering rules over several weeks in 2021.

The London rally came at a time when the Omicron variant of COVID-19 was surging across the province, forcing the Ontario government to again put public-health measures in place limiting public gatherings. Participants of the rally were opposed to those limitations, in addition to mandatory masking and vaccine mandates.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, municipal law enforcement officers were given additional duties to enforce provincial legislation based on advice from public health experts,” said Orest Katolyk, London’s chief municipal bylaw enforcement officer. “Noncompliance at gatherings came with possible penalties. In the vast majority of public interactions, officers used discretion, provided education and issued warnings. In other situations, charges were issued.”

Hildebrandt’s conviction in relation to the London rally comes two months after charges against him for participating in a Norfolk County anti-lockdown rally were dropped. Hildebrandt, former MPP Randy Hillier, and former MP Derek Sloan were originally charged for their part in the demonstration in June 2021. The rally was attended by roughly 300 people at a time when there were limits on the number of people who could gather both indoors and outdoors. In September, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which represented the trio, announced the Crown had dismissed the charges against its clients.

Read original story from London Ontario – BlackburnNews.com