Ottawa Police charged Ontario MPP Randy Hillier Monday morning with allegations stemming from this year’s so-called “freedom convoy”that occupied downtown Ottawa.
The 64-year-old provincial politician is facing nine charges. Police charged Hillier with three counts of an uncommitted indictable offence, two counts of resisting a public officer, two counts of mischief exceeding $5,000, one count of resisting a person aiding public/peace officer and counsel, assault on peace of public officer.
In a press release, Ottawa police wrote they had received “multiple complaints about social media posts and other activities” relating to Hillier and the convoy.
Later on Monday, Hillier, an independent member of Ontario’s legislature, was released with several conditions after he surrendered to Ottawa police.
The Crown consented to the Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston member’s release after he made an appearance in court by telephone in the afternoon.
Hillier was permanently suspended from Twitter on Mar. 8 for his tweets about vaccine mandates and other public health measures. He had also previously made a racist comment about Transport Minister Omar Alghabra by calling him a “terrorist.”
A week before his suspension on Twitter, Hillier announced he would not be seeking re-election, ending a 15-year run in provincial politics.
“Our political system is broken. There is no sense spending any more time trying to fix a broken system from within when the problem lies without,” Hillier said in the video.
Hillier uploaded a video before he surrendered himself to police.
“Today going into the Ottawa police, I’ve been asked to surrender, face charges for expressing myself at the Freedom Convoy and I’ve been deemed that I have to prove that I’m not a danger to society to have my freedom,” Hillier said.
In an emailed statement, Hillier said that he plans to defend himself against the charges and that “questioning and challenging public policy is the role and responsibility of any elected representative.”
Hillier is scheduled to appear in court today. None of the charges against Hillier have been proven in court.
— with files from The Canadian Press