Canadian church latest to clash with authorities over COVID-19
Wednesday, January 6, 2021 |
Charlie Butts (OneNewsNow.com)
Spanish
It appears as if a court will determine if a Canadian church is staffed with criminals.
The church is Trinity Bible Chapel, located in Waterloo, Ontario, where authorities are charging church elders with violating a 10-person limit imposed because of COVID-19.
Church leaders are vowing to fight the charge and to continue holding in-person worship services.
Police officers with the Waterloo Region Police Service served six elders at their homes with a court summons that alleges they are violating the Reopening Ontario Act.
Attorneys from the Canadian-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms will represent the church elders in their first court appearance, which is set for later this month.
Trinity Bible Chapel in Waterloo, Canada | Facebook/Trinity Bible Chapel
Multiple churches will be challenging the legality of Ontario’s measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, amid police actions halting in-person worship services.
The Calgary, Alberta-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announced Monday that they were taking on multiple challenges to the Reopening Ontario Act, which only allows churches to have an attendance of 10 people indoors and 10 people outdoors.
These include Old Colony Mennonite Church and Word of Life Mennonite community, both of which were charged by police for holding services in violation of the Act.
According to the Centre, at least one of the services involved police giving a brief warning and then entering the building, demanding that they end their worship immediately.
January 6, 2021
An Alberta-based law firm is taking up the case of church leaders, including three Chatham-Kent men, accused of holding illegal gatherings during the pandemic.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is taking on the case of several churches across southwestern Ontario.
Chatham-Kent Police charged two men connected with the Old Colony Mennonite Church in Wheatley under the Reopening Ontario Act for holding church services over the Christmas holidays, contrary to provincial lockdown measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Another Chatham-Kent man was charged by the OPP after a service at the Word of Life Mennonite church in Leamington, and similar charges have been laid against church leaders in Woodstock, Windsor, and Aylmer.
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