Pandemic-era public well being prices have been dropped in opposition to an Edmonton-area pastor and church, in addition to a central Alberta man who hosted a rodeo in protest of COVID-19 restrictions.
GraceLife Church pastor James Coates had been cited for violating public well being orders by holding church companies with out adhering to gathering limits imposed by the provincial authorities.
“I am pleased with the result and Pastor Coates and his church should feel a degree of vindication,” stated an announcement from Hart Spencer, the lawyer representing the pastor and church.
He appeared in Stony Plain provincial court docket Thursday on behalf of his shopper.
“Pastor Coates and his congregation had these charges hanging over them for close to three years. That could not have been easy.”
For a number of months in 2021, the church positioned simply west of Edmonton defied well being orders and hosted a whole lot of individuals for its weekly companies.
The church didn’t adhered to guidelines on carrying masks or preserving distances and ignored a closure order, at the same time as fencing was put up across the constructing on Highway 627 in Parkland County.
GraceLife Church of Edmonton, positioned simply outdoors the town limits on Highway 627 in Parkland County, on Friday, Jan. 29, 2021.
Eric Beck/Global News
The standoff between the church and public well being officers was contentious, drawing an anti-restriction crowd to protest outdoors the power.
But now, Crown prosecutors say they needed to quash the case in opposition to Coates and GraceLife after one other court docket resolution final month discovered the Alberta authorities beneath then-United Conservative premier Jason Kenney had improperly imposed the orders beneath the Public Health Act.
In that call, the court docket discovered Dr. Deena Hinshaw, who was the provincial chief medical officer of well being on the time, had not made the choice to impose the general public well being orders, as an alternative leaving it as much as cupboard of the Alberta authorities.
The province’s Public Health Act doesn’t enable these choices to be made by politicians, and the Alberta Court of King’s Bench dominated them invalid.
The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service says the court docket’s ruling in that case made it unlikely they may get a conviction in opposition to Coates for contravening public well being orders.
An Alberta provincial court docket spokesman confirms prices have additionally been stayed in opposition to Ty Northcott, whose household hosted a “No More Lockdowns Rodeo Rally” close to Bowden, Alta., in May 2021.
Coates and Northcott had been two of a number of folks whose pandemic-era prices had been dropped within the wake of the court docket ruling.
— With information from Karen Bartko, Global News
