Crown blocks challenge by anti-lockdown protesters

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This article was published 15/07/2022 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Five Manitobans set to stand trial next month for repeatedly violating pandemic restrictions were in court Friday as Crown officials tried to block their charter challenge of the charges.

Retiree and lockdown opponent Gerry Bohemier, Hugs over Masks organizer Sharon Vickner, anti-lockdown rally organizers Todd McDougall and Patrick Allard, and Church of God (Restoration) pastor Tobias Tissen were individually charged for alleged repeated violations of public health orders involving outdoor gatherings between November 2020 and May 2021.

The five co-defendants have filed notices of application arguing their arrests were in violation of their charter right to assembly.

The Crown countered with its own motion to dismiss the defence motion, arguing before provincial court Judge Victoria Cornick on Friday that the issue had already been settled in an October ruling by Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal.

Joyal dismissed legal challenges launched by Gateway Bible Baptist Church and six other churches. They argued the province’s pandemic public health orders unfairly violated their rights and were improperly enacted into law.

The churches specifically challenged three provincial orders that in the fall of 2020, at the height of the second wave of the pandemic in Manitoba, restricted private and public gatherings and limited on the number of people who could attend in-person worship services.

Joyal ruled that although the orders did restrict the freedoms of religious expression and peaceful assembly, they didn’t infringe upon charter rights to liberty and equality. He said they were justified as a pandemic response based on credible science.

“The issues being raised aren’t new,” Crown attorney Charles Murray told Cornick. “They were all dealt with in (the) Gateway Baptist (decision).”

Lawyer Alex Steigerwald, who represents four of the five co-defendants, argued Joyal’s decision focused on indoor church services, with only a “cursory” mention of outdoor gatherings.

“There is a fundamental distinction between this case altogether and the Gateway case,” he said. “We are here today for outdoor gatherings.”

Steigerwald argued people opposed to pandemic restrictions constituted a distinct group of people and as such were discriminated against by the government, which was inconsistent in its enforcement of outdoor gathering restrictions, noting in particular a local Black Lives Matter rally held in June 2020 that was allowed to proceed without interference.

“The government was treating different groups differently in this case… not based on what they were doing, but what they stood for,” he said.

Cornick will rule on the Crown’s motion on Aug. 2. The trial is set for five days, beginning Aug. 22.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca