Judge dismisses independent MPP Randy Hillier’s bail review request

Independent MPP Randy Hillier’s request to revise terms of the bail conditions placed on him in the wake of the “Freedom Convoy” protests earlier this year have been denied by an Ontario judge.

Last month, Hillier turned himself in to police after being charged with several offences including assault, obstructing police officers and mischief related to the protest and his social media posts. Among them, a post in which he urged people to keep calling a 911 emergency line after Ottawa police asked people not to so during the crisis.

An attorney for the 64-year-old says he denies the charges against him.

Hillier was released on $35,000 bail and banned from communicating with alleged organizers of the protest. He was also barred from posting comments online about the convoy and COVID-19 mask mandates and vaccines.

Hillier’s lawyer, David Anber, said the bail conditions should be lifted because they are overly restrictive, and that there is a weak connection between the convoy’s actions and an opposition to mask and vaccine mandates.

Referencing remarks by Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson Wednesday that the city is better organized than for the convoy in January, Anber said there is not a need to maintain the bail conditions anymore.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Hugh McLean said Hillier and his lawyers had agreed to the conditions and “acknowledged (their) need” when they were originally set.

“Your client, shall we say, has an interesting record of not following the law. He has a record of not listening to laws that were legally passed,” McLean said to Hillier’s lawyer, referencing the fact that Hillier has broken provincial rules related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

McLean noted that Hillier is held to higher standard because he’s a member of a legislature.

Hillier has been forced to sit as an independent at Queen’s Park since 2019 when he was kicked out of the PC caucus for comments made related to the pandemic, including publishing photos and information which wrongly claimed people had died from the COVID-19 vaccine. He also referred to federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra – who is Muslim – as a “terrorist” in a tweet, which got him suspended from the legislature.

Earlier this month, Ontario’s integrity commissioner recommended Hillier be reprimanded after he was found guilty of violating the Members’ Integrity Act following a pair of complaints. In one of two reports released April 13, J. David Wake found Hillier used his office for partisan purposes including collecting information and sending out messages supporting the People’s Party of Canada to his constituents.

Hillier has already announced he will not be seeking reelection in the riding of Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, telling constituents in a lengthy Facebook post that “the political system is broken.”