Cerna tears into Herbert Hildebrandt, Church of God
Councillor Rick Cerna, at a Malahide council meeting Thursday, May 6, ripped into Herbert Hildebrandt and his father, controversial Aylmer Church of God Pastor Henry Hildebrandt, and their actions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Herbert Hildebrandt had sent an email to Mayor David Mennill and township councillors about comments the mayor made in a recent interview with CTV News London.
Questioned about the relatively low uptake of COVID-19 vaccine in the N5H postal code, which includes all of Aylmer and much of Malahide, Mayor Mennill said, “Unfortunately, the Church of God people, they’re always protesting about the anti-masking, the anti-vaccining, you’re probably not going to convince them and unfortunately, if they get the COVID, then they’re going to have to deal with it.”
On his Facebook page, Mr. Hildebrandt posted the following, along with a clip from that interview: “As a long-time Malahide resident and taxpayer, I take serious issue with your recent interviews where you single out ‘the Church of God people’ for public derision on the lack of ‘C19 jab’ uptake in the N5H region.
“Not only is that statement hateful and promotes others to hate a specific group that you were elected to represent, you are potentially exposing yourself as the mayor, the township council, and by extension the Township of Malahide to a massive libel, defamation, and slander lawsuit by singling out a particular religious group and disparaging them publicly.”
Cr. Cerna commented, “This is a guy, I don’t know where they’re coming from, but I take offence to that letter, big time. This is a guy who’s threatening us with libel, defamation, all that stuff, and all you (Mayor Mennill) did in in that interview was tell the truth.
“It is their prerogative to do what they’re doing, and Henry’s going all over Ontario, protesting about the rights and freedoms. Well, you know what? Part of the rights and freedoms is freedom of speech, and yet they get offended if you say something, or I say something, and yet they run around all over. It’s the biggest crock.”
More details in the May 12 edition of The Aylmer Express.