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(LifeSiteNews) –– Canadian pastor Henry Hildebrandt, who kept his church open during COVID despite mandates, recently finished paying off a staggering $339,005 in fines, but said the sum was a “small price to pay” to validate his church’s commitment to the principles on which “Canada and the USA were founded.”
“Just paid our last fine for gathering to worship to @ONAttorneyGen. $65,005 yesterday + $274,000 earlier for doing what was Biblical and constitutional,” wrote Hildebrandt on X on August 24.
Just paid our last fine for gathering to worship to @ONAttorneyGen. $65,005 yesterday + $274,000 earlier for doing what was Biblical and constitutional.
We refused to live a lie and the truth is now becoming common knowledge, praise God!
Thank you all for your support! pic.twitter.com/m1bJbmEReH— Pastor Henry Hildebrandt (@aylmerpastor) August 24, 2024
“We refused to live a lie and the truth is now becoming common knowledge, praise God! Thank you all for your support!”
Hildebrandt, who is the lead pastor of the Church of God in Aylmer, Ontario, included a video in his announcement, reiterating that his refusal to go along with provincial COVID mandates was merely his way of doing what “the bible commands us to do, not to forsake the assembling of ourselves.”
“It is important in times like these that we stand,” Hildebrandt said. “You know we inspired the truckers, the truckers inspired us, the truckers inspired the farmers, the farmers inspired us, we inspired the farmers. The human family came together, stood together, and the governments, as corrupt as they are, they recognized, they had to see what happens when the human comes together and stands together.”
Hildebrandt observed that the “only” reason his church was fined such an exorbitant amount of money for staying open during COVID was that “we had a church service at our own property, which the constitution, the Charter, the Bill of Rights, allows us.”
“We were fined for that. But I’ve said often before and I’ll say again this morning, if my faith is not worth dying for, it is not worth living for,” he said.
In another posting to X on August 27, Hildebrandt observed that having to pay “$339,005” was a “small price to pay to demonstrate our commitment to the principles on which Canada and the USA were founded.”
“When the citizens enjoy freedom to thrive with their families and their faith communities – that is a result of Christian values in justice and governance,” he wrote.
Hildebrandt spoke out frequently against COVID mandates during the so-called pandemic, including during 2022’s now-famous Freedom Convoy. By the time he had spoken at the Freedom Convoy, Hildebrandt’s Church of God had racked up no less than $274,000 in fines since the start of the COVID crisis and the lockdown rules that ensured.
He had said that faith leaders who opposed COVID lockdowns and mandates were “not careless,” as critics claimed, but that they merely would “not bow” to oppressive rules.
Hildebrandt was also a vocal opponent of the experimental mRNA vaccines. Such vaccines were imposed by both the provincial Progressive Conservative government of Ontario under Premier Doug Ford, as well as the federal Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The Ontario government in 2021 put in place COVID restrictions on houses of worship, but exceptions were made for drive-in religious services.
Last year, Hildebrandt made a deal with an Ontario court that saw most charges levied against him and his church for breaking COVID gathering rules dropped in exchange for pleading guilty to one related charge.
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