Charges laid against an Ontario couple who protested the province’s COVID-19 lockdown measures have been dropped at the request of a Crown prosecutor, according to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF).
On May 8, 2021, Richard and Valerie Bostock participated in a protest against Ontario’s lockdown measures at the Courthouse Square in Goderich, a town located northwest of Toronto. At the time, the province had announced a third emergency declaration, while a “stay-at-home” order was in place to prevent citizens from leaving their residence except for limited purposes such as going to the grocery store. Protesting was not among the permissible reasons to leave one’s residence.
According to the JCCF, the Huron County Provincial Police warned the protestors to disperse, but the couple asserted their constitutional freedom of peaceful assembly and refused to leave. They subsequently each received an $880 ticket.
The Bostocks immediately completed the back of the ticket and requested a trial date. But they did not hear anything about their case until more than a year and a half later in January 2023, when they received a notice of trial, with a trial date slated for March 7, 2023.
The couple’s lawyer and the prosecutor reached an agreement for the Bostocks to make a “modest charitable donation” after which, their charges would be withdrawn. The court adjourned the case to June 6 to allow the couple time to make the donation. On June 6, all charges against the Bostocks were withdrawn.
“Had the case proceeded, my clients would have made an issue of the 22-month delay in bringing the case to trial,” Christopher Fleury, the legal counsel for Richard and Valerie Bostock, said in a news release issued by the JCCF on June 9.
“Delays of this length in the Provincial Offences Court, which normally hears minor traffic tickets, are unacceptable,” he said, adding that the couple is “quite happy” about the outcome.
The Epoch Times reached out to the JCCF for comment on why the couple didn’t proceed with the case but didn’t back immediately.
Fleury also represented Ontario’s former MPP Randy Hillier, who was charged with breaching public health orders for protesting the provincial lockdown measure in May 2021 in Barrie, Ontario. Charges against Hillier were also dropped earlier this year.
JCCF said it has filed a constitutional challenge in the Ontario Superior Court in Toronto, arguing that the province’s stay-at-home order in place in 2021 went against the Canadian Charter. The case will be argued in court on July 27 and July 28.