| Dear friends of freedom, Where were you April 8, 2021? If you were in Ontario, your government said you must be at home, and nowhere else, unless you qualified to leave your home for a few select government-approved purposes. Even a peaceful outdoor protest with just five people was completely illegal from April 8 to June 2, 2021. This was not unlike the conditions courts impose on criminals when placed under house arrest. |
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| There was no medical or scientific justification for placing 14 million Ontarians under house arrest. The government was engaging in fear-mongering, and blatantly violating Charter rights and freedoms. |
| The vast majority of politicians went along with this tragic government overreach, even supported it enthusiastically. Former Ontario MPP Randy Hillier did not. Rather, he, along with other principled and brave Ontarians participated in safe, peaceful outdoor protests to challenge the government’s narrative, and to speak out against these egregious violations. Mr. Hillier was then charged under the Reopening Ontario Act and threatened with a $100,000 fine and a year in prison. He was also charged with hosting a public event where attendance exceeded the number permitted under an Order, for which the minimum penalty is $10,000. The Justice Centre is proud to be defending Mr. Hillier, and in turn, all Ontarians who endured and resisted the unscientific and unjust political edicts of 2020-2022, by challenging the constitutionality of Ontario’s public health orders. While we’ve already seen charge after charge withdrawn in the face of our legal defense, the government has not admitted that its prohibition on outdoor protests was unconstitutional (like the BC government did when we sued it for prohibiting protests). |
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| On Thursday and Friday this week, July 27-28, 2023 (livestream details below), our lawyers will be in court on behalf of Randy Hillier seeking to have Ontario’s prohibition on outdoor protests declared unconstitutional. Such a ruling would stop all other prosecutions under the Reopening Ontario Act. Prosecutors can then re-focus and go after real criminals, as they should. Furthermore, a court victory will serve as a precedent against the government imposing house arrest on its honest citizens again. Dr. Kevin Bardosh is one of three experts testifying for us in this case. Dr. Bardosh, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington with extensive medical credentials, provided the court with a compelling comprehensive expert report about lockdown harms. Based on a large volume of evidence, the report concludes that the government’s Covid-19 restrictions “cause excessive and needless harm to the mental health, physical health and well being of Canadians” which will have “long-term, negative consequences on the future of Canadians society.” It is clear that lockdowns destroyed businesses, prevented children from attending school, damaged people’s mental health, and caused a huge rise in addictions. |
| We cannot allow governments to take us back to April 8, 2021 |