COVID Charges Withdrawn Against Former Ontario MPP Hillier: JCCF

Prosecutors in Peterborough, Ont., have withdrawn charges against former Ontario MPP Randy Hillier related to COVID-19 gathering restrictions, according to a legal advocacy group. 

Although charges against Hillier were dropped in Peterborough, they remain in place in other jurisdictions, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) said on Sept. 22 on social media, noting that it is continuing to work toward a resolution. Hillier is being represented by lawyers funded through JCCF.

Hillier said in an X post the same day that he has faced 25 charges since November 2020 for his involvement with the ‘No More Lockdowns’ rallies that opposed COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. 

“As the first elected representative in Canada to publicly oppose the COVID con, I was singled out for lawfare and abuse of process,” Hillier said, adding that 24 of those charged have either been stayed or withdrawn since then, and only one remains.

Hillier had served as the Progressive Conservative MPP for the riding of Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston since 2007. He was suspended from the Ontario Progressive Conservative caucus in 2019 over comments he was alleged to have made to parents with autistic children. He continued to sit as an MP until the dissolution of Parliament for the 2022 election.

Hillier became an outspoken critic of COVID-19 public health restrictions in 2021 and was involved in protests against the measures in Ontario cities like Kemptville, Cornwall, Peterborough, and Belleville. 

Hillier was charged with nine offences in connection with the Freedom Convoy protest against COVID-19 restrictions in February 2022. Charges included assaulting a peace officer, mischief, counselling others to commit mischief, and resisting or obstructing a peace officer. The assault charge stemmed from allegations that Hillier pushed a metal gate into an officer while trying to enter Parliament Hill.

The former MP announced in November 2024 the charges against him had been dropped because a judge had determined the case had gone on for too long. He said the Crown had been seeking a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled in April 2025 that provincial restrictions on peaceful protests during the pandemic were unconstitutional, which overturned a lower court ruling that dismissed Hillier’s Charter challenge.

Hillier had argued in court in response to rally related charges that the lockdowns were unjustified violations of Section 2(c) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects freedom of peaceful assembly.

Justice Joseph Callaghan dismissed Hillier’s challenge in November 2023, but the Court of Appeal later found that Ontario “failed to consider the impact of the gathering limits” on Section 2(c) of the Charter, and that the limits on the number of people who could gather were unconstitutional. 

Hillier said that decision, along with Justice Richard Mosley’s earlier decision, were “historic milestones for Canadian freedom.” Mosley had ruled in 2024 that the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act to respond to the Freedom Convoy was unjustified. Before that, a public commission concluded that the government had met the legal standard for using the law.