A court has stayed a charge laid against former Ontario MPP Randy Hillier related to a May 2021 protest he was involved in, according to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF).
The JCCF said in a statement that the court on Jan. 3 stayed a charge against Hillier for breaching a public health order issued under the Reopening Ontario Act when he allegedly attended a protest in Barrie, Ontario, while he was still an MPP for Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston.
The Ontario government declared a state of emergency in April 2021, placing the entire province under a stay-at-home order for four weeks due to a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases. The order banned public gatherings with very limited exceptions, which the JCCF said had “effectively criminalized public protests.”…