Tag Archives: Marty Moore

Crown Drops Covid Charge Against BC Pastor who Opened his Church for Prayer and Reflection

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Crown Drops Covid Charge Against BC Pastor who Opened his Church for Prayer and Reflection

Posted On: November 16, 2022

Creston, BC: The Justice Centre is pleased that the Crown has dropped the charge against Pastor David Ripley of Grace Christian Fellowship, who was personally ticketed for allegedly violating a provincial health order.

The Provincial Health Orders issued by Dr. Bonnie Henry during the final months of 2020 prohibited in-person worship services – entirely. In carefully reading the document, Pastor Ripley found a particular clause allowing people to attend houses of worship for prayer and reflection. The local public authorities he called, including the Mayor, the fire chief and the RCMP, confirmed his understanding that the Provincial Health Order permitted him to open his church for prayer and reflection. So Pastor Ripley opened up the church on Sunday mornings, roped off pews to ensure physical distancing and complied with the public health guidance. There was no singing, no preaching. The people who came prayed and read Scriptures.

On January 3, 2021, as a small number of individuals attended Grace Christian Fellowship for prayer and reflection, two RCMP cruisers pulled up on the property. The Pastor’s wife Gina showed them the Order permitting attendance at houses of worship for prayer and reflection. The officers took issue with the number of cars in the parking lot, but otherwise did not challenge the language of the Order or the actions of the church.

Later that day, however, RCMP officers arrived at the Ripleys’ residence and issued Pastor Ripley a ticket, fining him $2,300 for allegedly violating the Provincial Health Order.

After more than a dozen preliminary court appearances by Justice Centre lawyers on behalf of Pastor Ripley, and the filing of a Notice of Constitutional Question challenging the constitutionality of Dr. Henry’s Order, the first phase of the trial to determine whether Pastor Ripley violated the Order was set to run on November 22-23, 2022, at the Creston Law Courts.

On Tuesday, November 15, 2022, the Crown directed a stay of proceedings on the charges against Pastor Ripley.

“The unjustified intrusions of government into the homes and churches of Canadians in the name of Covid enforcement is a stain on Canada’s free and democratic society,” states Justice Centre Lawyer Marty Moore. “Pastor Ripley was attempting to follow public health orders and serve the needs of his congregation. There was no justification for forcing him through nearly two years of court appearances and legal processes. He is relieved to have this behind him.”

Two-week trial underway today in Saskatoon against Maxime Bernier and the Saskatchewan 23 for peaceful protests http://cafe.nfshost.com/?p=7991

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Two-week trial underway today in Saskatoon against Maxime Bernier and dozens of other protestors for peaceful protests

Posted On: September 12, 2022

SASKATOON: The Justice Centre announces that the trial of the Honourable Maxime Bernier, leader of the Federal People’s Party of Canada, and dozens of other protestors charged for attending an anti-lockdown rally in Saskatoon on May 9, 2021, started today in Saskatoon.

The trial is being held in Centennial Room ‘B’ at TCU Place, 35 22nd Street East, Saskatoon, and is scheduled to run for two weeks.

On May 9, 2021, a peaceful outdoor protest against government violations of Canadians’ constitutional rights and freedoms was held near the Vimy Memorial in Kiwanis Park. The Saskatoon Police Service aggressively targeted the protestors by posting images of many of them online, and subsequently issuing dozens of summons tickets, each with a $2800 fine. Later, Saskatchewan prosecutors also issued charges via Criminal Code Information against 46 individuals.

Justice Centre lawyers represent 23 of the defendants at this trial, including Mr. Bernier, a Saskatchewan freedom advocate Mark Friesen (known as the Grizzly Patriot), and Darrell Mills.  On behalf of Mr. Mills and a young mother who attended outdoor protests, Justice Centre lawyers argued a constitutional challenge in the Court of Queen’s Bench (now King’s Bench) to the Saskatchewan government’s strict restrictions on outdoor protests on June 29, 2022.  The Court’s decision in that matter is pending.

Meanwhile, Saskatchewan prosecutors are continuing to pursue charges against individuals who attended even small anti-lockdown protests.  No charges were issued to people who participated in protests for other causes that exceeded the 10 to 30 person limits the Saskatchewan Government imposed on outdoor gatherings.  In the next six months, Justice Centre lawyers are scheduled to defend protestors in more than a dozen other trials scheduled in Provincial Courts in Saskatchewan.

“There is no legal or medical justification for the strict numerical restrictions imposed on outdoor protests in Saskatchewan,” states Marty Moore, a lawyer with the Justice Centre.  “Yet, an incredible amount of public resources, including prosecution and court time, has been committed to prosecuting protestors. The targeting of these protestors is not on the basis that their protests were a health risk, but rather because they expressed opposition to the government’s unjustified restrictions on Canadians’ constitutional rights and freedoms. Not a single transmission of Covid has been associated with an outdoor protest in Saskatchewan, and yet the government continues to go after protestors for exercising their constitutionally-protected freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly.”

B.C. Health Commissar Bonnie Henry Seeks Police Powers to Arrest Christian Churchgoers

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B.C. top doc files to give police power to arrest churchgoers

British Columbia is one of the more open provinces in Canada, and yet it’s also one of the provinces that has come down the hardest on places of worship, as far as COVID-19 restrictions go. It may officially become the most oppressive province in Canada for freedom of religion very soon, if the injunction that Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry is now seeking against a few of the churches who have remained open is granted.

Perhaps that would be more understandable if churches, and other places of worship in B.C., had actually proven to be “super spreaders” as they’ve been treated, except that statistically, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

In a previous report, I showed you a peaceful protest of Catholics worshipping outside in Vancouver. These churchgoers are perplexed as to how all of their parishes (over 70 of them) have been kept closed, when they have been linked to zero COVID cases.

The very minute percentage of the thousands of places of worship in B.C. that have had a COVID case linked to someone who attended services there pales in comparison to other industries and services that have remained open. Like the business of ski hills concentrated in the small tourist hotspot of Whistler, which was recently linked to 547 cases in just over a month.

Dr. Henry’s application for an injunction specifically targets only the Christians connected to the three churches whose names were not anonymized on a petition that was filed on January 7 through the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. The petition was filed on behalf of some of the churches in B.C. that have tried to remain open while adhering to comprehensive COVID-19 plans, including attendance limits and social distancing.

The injunction Henry is seeking is set to be argued in front of B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson on Friday. If granted, it will not only provide police with the authority to arrest anyone who attends any religious gatherings put on by those three churches — including Riverside Calvary Worship, which has had zero COVID-19 outbreaks, yet was previously fined thousands of dollars for remaining open — but it will also give police the authority to arrest anyone they suspect was going to attend such a service, whether they did so or not.

So, is Dr. Bonnie Henry retaliating against only the churches who made public their opposition to her order?

I interviewed Marty Moore, one of the JCCF’s freedom-defending lawyers who is representing these three churches, shortly after he landed in Vancouver. I got his thoughts on the injunction, and a better understanding of the data Henry uses to try and justify keeping nearly everything open but places of worship.

Click to watch the full report