Ontario Pastor Who Defied COVID Measures Pleads Guilty to Resolve Charges

Pastor Henry Hildebrandt speaks at a demonstration against measures taken by public health authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19, in St. Thomas, Ont., on Nov. 14, 2020. Geoff Robins/The Canadian Press

Aylmer’s Church of God Pastor Henry Hildebrandt says he has pleaded guilty to one count of violating pandemic rules, accepting a deal so that his other charges will be dropped.

“I admitted today to one count of obeying God rather than man. I freely admit that we violated the Reopening Ontario Act, an act which brazenly violated Section 2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” the pastor said in a video he posted on Aug. 24 to X, formerly known as Twitter.

Late December 2020, the pastor was issued his first ticket under the act for exceeding the provincial gathering limits. In February 2021, police in Aylmer, Ontario, laid more charges stating he had repeatedly defied the province’s gathering restrictions.

In all, Pastor Hildebrandt faced over half a dozen charges related to nine church services he held during the first six months of 2021 in Elgin County, Ontario. Congregation numbers exceeded provincial limits for gatherings set by the act during the pandemic period, which prohibited group gatherings of more than 25 individuals outdoors and 10 individuals indoors.

Following the pastor’s guilty plea in the Ontario Court of Justice on Aug. 24, Anna Marie Hampson, the justice of the peace, approved a joint proposal by Jack Huber, the public prosecutor, and Mr. Hildebrandt’s lawyer, Chris Fleury, to drop all other charges.

“After much prayer and consultation with leaders and wise counsellors, I made a decision to accept a deal that will end further legal battles,” Pastor Hildebrandt said in his social media video.

The ruling in Pastor Hildebrandt’s case is in contrast to several recent similar court cases in Alberta related to province-imposed gathering restrictions.

The Crown prosecutors in the cases against Pastor Tim Stephens of Fairview Baptist Church and Pastor Craig Buroker of Southside Victory Church, both in Calgary, have requested their charges be dropped. The cases have been in the Alberta court system for more than two years.

Leighton Grey, the lawyer for the pastors, told The Epoch Times on Aug. 23 that all his clients had been acquitted of pandemic-related charges, although the acquittals have yet to be processed through the court by the Crown.

The acquittals followed a July 31 ruling by an Alberta court that public health orders issued by the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) during the pandemic were invalid because they had been enacted outside the powers of the Public Health Act, and were made by cabinet instead of the chief medical officer.

In the Court of King’s Bench case R v. Ingram, Justice Barbara Romaine’s 90-page ruling found the CMOH orders until September 2021 were “ultra vires,” meaning they were acts beyond the powers provided by law.

The Crown has also asked that the case against Pastor James Coates and Grace Life Church be dropped. The pastor was one of the three Alberta pastors arrested and charged during COVID-19 for holding regular Sunday worship services in defiance of group restrictions.

Pastor Hildebrandt also said that he, along with his church, had offered to pay $75,000 over the next 12 months to the Aylmer Food Bank in lieu of the fine for his defiance of pandemic orders declared “a harmful act in the community.” The offer was rejected by the court.

“The $65,000 fine will be going to the Ontario government, not the local community. ... This raises the question whether our actions were a harm to the community or a harm to the government narrative. I'll let you decide,” Pastor Hildebrandt said.