Charges Against Ontario Pastor for Violating COVID Restrictions Dropped

Charges against Ontario Pastor Aaron Rock for allegedly attending an outdoor protest opposing pandemic restrictions have been dropped. Courtesy Harvest Bible Church

An Ontario pastor charged with violating pandemic restrictions has now had all charges against him either dropped or stayed.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), which represents Pastor Aaron Rock, reported on May 12 that charges against him were stayed by the Crown on April 30. The charges were laid after Rock, a pastor from Windsor, was accused of taking part in an outdoor protest on May 30, 2021, in Waterloo, Ont. The protest was in contravention of Ontario’s regulations against outdoor gatherings of more than 10 people.

The JCCF said if convicted, he could have faced fines of up to $300,000. The condition was that Rock had to make a modest donation to a registered charity.

On May 10, Rock took to Twitter, saying in part, “ALL REMAINING CHARGES DROPPED … “

“I believe humans are more than biotic beings, and that lockdowns were harmful to our spiritual, social, economic and mental health,” he said. “I believe it is immoral to penalize people for exercising bodily autonomy over medical injections.”

Rock’s lawyer Chris Fleury told The Epoch Times that his client is satisfied. He added that staying the charges after a charitable donation is one way of resolving the case.

“We’ve been able to resolve a number of similar cases in a similar fashion,” he said. “A diversion is something that is quite common. ... Sometimes it will be community service ... but in this case it was decided by the Crown and myself that a charitable donation would suffice.”

“I would say there is an implicit acknowledgement, when there are resolutions like this, that the public interest in prosecuting them is waning,” Fleury added.

In its news release, the JCCF pointed out that just a few days after the May 30 protest, Waterloo Regional Police did not ticket anyone at an outdoor vigil for indigenous children, even though hundreds of people were in attendance.

The vigil was over the announcement of the discovery of 215 suspected graves at the former Kamloops Residential School.

More Cases

The development is the latest in a series of charges being stayed or dropped against people protesting pandemic restrictions.

On March 9, the JCCF announced that charges against Ontario Pastor Henry Hildebrandt, his son Herbert, and his wife Martha were all withdrawn by Crown prosecutors on Feb. 7.

The charges were laid after a “No More Lockdowns” rally in Brantford on April 3, 2021. The JCCF said Hildebrandt was a speaker at the rally, while his family were there as spectators. Around 1,000 people were at the rally.

The legal organization said that Hildebrandt was not approached by police at the rally, but when he was driving home he was pulled over, and all three were issued an $880 Provincial Offence Notice ticket.

Hildebrandt argued the mandates were political and not based on science.

“At a time when government leaders were decreeing that thousands of people could attend a BLM (Black Lives Matter) rally in London, Ontario, over and over again, church congregations were getting tickets for gathering to worship,” he said in the release.

However, the pastor still faces charges in other jurisdictions in Ontario.

Also in March, the JCCF announced that charges against three people were stayed in Regina. They’d been charged for taking part in an anti-lockdown protest in Regina on May 15, 2021.

Regina Police had laid charges against 13 people in that case, for what was described as a small protest at the city’s Victoria Park. Charges against others in the case are reserved until May 25, pending legal and charter arguments.