Police in Aylmer, Ont., say two officers attended the third “drive-in” service at the Church of God on Sunday, April 26 and gathered video footage as part of an investigation into allegations that the services violate provincial orders issued amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
A police spokesperson says they are reviewing the video footage to see “what course of action we need to take as a result.”
As of Monday, no fines have been issued in relation to the service, but Insp. Nick Novacich told Global News that “a summons will be issued to the persons that need to be summoned for breaching” a portion of the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, which states it is against the law to attend a gathering of more than five people for the purposes of conducting religious services.
“I think there’s been a misconception that all churchgoers were going to receive a fine from the Aylmer police, and that’s simply not the case,” he said.
“It will be either the church itself, maybe one or two individuals that would be named [in the summons].”
A police investigation of the services followed roughly 15 complaint calls from the public, according to a statement posted to Facebook on Friday.
The church said Saturday evening that it would be holding its service on Sunday “… under the threat of hefty fines, disruption, and physical roadblocks by order of the Aylmer chief of police.”
The statement also said the church had attempted, “unsuccessfully, to reach an acceptable compromise” with police.
Novacich said police have been taking a measured approach, consulting with the church as well as the local county prosecutor and the provincial Crown attorney.
Aylmer Mayor Mary French said she also reached out to the church, urging it to hold off on services until it heard back from either the premier’s office or local MPP Jeff Yurek, both of whom she said the church had reportedly reached out to.
“Typically, the Town of Aylmer council does not get involved with police matters. The only reason I called Pastor Hildebrandt is I do know pretty well everyone in the community — it’s a small town — and I just thought if I reached out to them because, to be honest, I was concerned about their health and safety and I certainly wouldn’t want to see anyone get fined.”
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French is concerned that the situation is dividing the town, saying: “A lot of people are really trying to follow the rules and stay home and stay safe, and when somebody tries to work around the rules to figure out a way that they can do what they’d like to do, it upsets people.”
However, she’s hoping both the church and police will make concessions.
“What I would like to see is no charges laid, them not have a service next week,” she explained.
“I would just like to see this settle down a bit and everybody think twice about what’s going on. I’m a person that just believes we all need to work together for the common good of our community.”
It appears unlikely that services will cease, however, as the church previously told Global News that if police were to fine it for holding a drive-in service, the church would “absolutely not” pay.
The Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms was retained by the church to write a letter to police after officers first warned they would take enforcement action if necessary. The same centre previously sent a letter to the Saskatchewan Health Authority expressing concern about a drive-in service in that province being declared a mass gathering.
Lisa Bildy, a London, Ont.-based lawyer with the centre, argued on Monday that two local services had gone ahead successfully with no issues from police.
“The church was warned, and they made the decision as a church that this was something that they felt they had to do. In any event, they had held two previous services successfully — with police blessing, by the way, who, as I understand, had come out and confirmed that nothing untoward had happened, they were abiding by all the social-distancing requirements and so on,” she told Global News.
“So they felt inclined to go forward with the third service regardless of the change in tone, which I think was brought about by some people complaining, which sort of put pressure on police.”
When asked about concerns that the service violated the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, Bildy questioned if it could even be considered a gathering. According to the church, during drive-in services, parishioners are asked to stay inside their parked vehicles in the parking lot with the windows rolled up and listen to the service through a radio signal.
“They weren’t actually even out of their vehicles,” she argued.
“People can sit in parking lots at Walmart, they can go through the drive-thru at Tim Hortons in their vehicles, but when you put that parking lot in front of a church then somehow it’s a problem.”
Bildy also suggested that a heavy-handed approach could backfire.
“If you want to continue to have people willingly abiding by these rather draconian rules — and I think, again most people are and doing so willingly and cheerfully, for the most part — I think the authorities can use a little bit of discretion,” she said.
In the meantime, police are hoping to continue a dialogue with the church.
“We’re not sure what next steps we’re going to take on our end,” said Novacich.
“We’re still looking at it, and hopefully, we can have some further discussion with the church again and our local Crown attorney and that type of thing.”
— With files from Global News Radio 980 CFPL’s Kelly Wang and the Canadian Press
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