Trial begins for B.C. man accused of breaking quarantine to go to Flat Earth conference

A Metro Vancouver man accused of repeatedly breaking COVID-19 quarantine rules appeared in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster on Thursday for the first day of his trial.

Mak Parhar, an outspoken COVID denier and conspiracy theorist, is charged with three counts of breaking the Quarantine Act.

1:20 B.C. anti-mask activist charged for quarantine violations

Parhar allegedly refused to self-isolate after returning from a Flat Earth conference in the United States in November 2020. At the time, he spent four days in jail.

Outside the court, Parhar said he was facing “an illegal, unlawful criminal trial.”

1:55 Well-known anti-masker arrested and behind bars

“I didn’t harm anybody, there’s no proof I harmed anybody, there’s no proof I’ve been sick, and yet they want to make an example out of me,” he said.

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“You know, it’s about quarantining the healthy. What an absurd idea, what kind of a clown world do we live in that lets them quarantine people who are perfectly healthy and haven’t been sick for 17 years of something like that.”

Following Thursday’s sitting, Parhar, who is representing himself, told Global News he felt he had been “completely railroaded” by the judge, who he said regularly interrupted him.

In March of 2020, the City of Delta revoked the business licence for Parhar’s hot yoga studio, after he encouraged people to attend and falsely claimed the heat would kill the coronavirus.

He also faced criticism for entering and filming inside health-care facilities at the height of the pandemic’s first wave to get the “truth” about the pandemic.

In April, the B.C. Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit Parhar filed against the B.C. government, ruling it was “was embarrassing in the legal sense of that term; was frivolous and vexatious; and was an abuse of process.”

Parhar admits his actions have caused problems in his personal and family relations, but insists he’s standing up for rights and freedoms. His trial is scheduled for two days.

2:07 Delta businessman called an ‘idiot’ for COVID-19 denial stunts