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No charges for April 26 Church of God service

April 30, 2020 | 2

Chief Zvonko Horvat announced Thursday, April 30, that Aylmer Police would not lay any charges in connection with a drive-in service conducted by Aylmer Church of God on John Street North on Sunday, April 26.

Police believed they had reasonable and probable grounds to lay a charge for a violation of Ontario’s emergency order banning gathering of more than five persons for a religious service, he stated.

“However, Aylmer Police Service has decided to use the incident on the 26th of April 2020 as an educational tool for the Church of God organizers and parishioners so they have a clear understanding that the gathering is in violation of the Emergency Order enacted to prevent the spread of COVID-19 global pandemic.

“With this decision and education, we anticipate that the Church of God organizers and parishioners will respect the emergency order in place to minimize the risk to their parishioners and community.

“This decision is yet another example where Aylmer Police are taking the measured and educational versus retributive approach in achieving compliance with emergency orders put in place by our provincial leaders.

“Aylmer Police will continue to respond to complaints of emergency order breaches and take appropriate action based on the evidence collected. ”

 

 

Posted in News, News Headlines
  • jeff Altweg

    A more suitable outcome then was insinuated before ,we must say….We would imagine that the Crown Attorney, who hopefully has some Commonwealth constitutional expertise, Had a few words of advice for the town Police chief ,and this is the outcome up to this point.
    They say a Photo may be worth a thousand words .In this case ,the photo featured in these sundry articles, is probably worth Ten thousand words, The Church Officials would do well to preserve and file away all evidence like this , for possible future references…

  • Abraham Klassen

    Interesting choice of words by the Chief
    of police: We decided not to lay charges…….
    A little late for a comment like that, the community is paying attention Chief, we heard and read all your previous comments and what position you held. It’s awesome to see how this church didn’t waver while respecting provincial guidelines. Seems that while the rest of the churches should have shored up support for this church, they were hiding and nowhere to be seen.