A former Ontario nurse who lost her job for speaking out against COVID-19 mandates and gained notoriety for helping organize public demonstrations, has been fined $10,000 for attending a church service during Easter in 2021.
Kristen Nagle, who worked at the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) in London, Ontario, received the fine from the Provincial Offences Court for attending an Easter service at the Church of God in Aylmer.
She was convicted of failing to comply with the Reopening Ontario Act by attending the service, which had over 100 in attendance at a time when provincial COVID restrictions stipulated that people could only gather in groups no larger than 10.
The LHSC fired Nagle, a neonatal intensive care unit nurse, following an internal investigation initiated in November 2020 after she and two other women were charged with organizing an anti-lockdown rally at Victoria Park in London.
In January 2021, after she took part in an anti-lockdown rally in Washington, D.C., the College of Nurses of Ontario also launched an investigation into Nagle and another nurse.
Nagle said in her Instagram post that she received 11 summonses, and on Sept. 22 she was “convicted guilty ... and fined 10k for attending church, as in their words ‘I was not just a participant, but leading the way.’”
“I stand on my word, I did nothing wrong, am not guilty, and caused no harm against anyone. But here we are, where they acknowledge our rights and freedoms have been infringed upon, but with reasonable cause that infringement is allowed,” she wrote.
Nagle said she would be appealing the conviction and charge.
She also said she was joined at the service by former MP Derek Sloan and Ontario MPP Randy Hillier, both of whom have opposed COVID restrictions and vaccine mandates, but they did not get charged.
In fact, she said, no one else who attended the Easter service that day was charged.
The crown recently dropped charges against Sloan, Hillier, and Church of God Pastor Heinrich Hildebrandt for their involvement in a protest in Norfolk, Ontario, in June 2021. They were charged under the Reopening Ontario Act for the protest, which was attended by around 200-300 demonstrators in violation of strict capacity and attendance limits.
“Citizens have the right to make their opinions known. We are pleased in this case to hear that the Crown will not proceed with prosecuting citizens who spoke out against harsh government lockdowns.”
