The legal proceedings against former Ontario politician Randy Hillier for his involvement in the 2022 convoy protest in Ottawa have been reinitiated following a decision by the province’s highest court to reverse a ruling that had halted the charges.
The charges were paused in late 2024 when a lower court judge determined that the case had exceeded the mandatory time constraints established by the Supreme Court of Canada.
The maximum allowable duration for cases in the Superior Court is 30 months, and based on deductions for delays caused by the defense and exceptional circumstances, Superior Court Justice Kerry McVey found that Hillier’s case had spanned 31 months and 13 days.
In a recent ruling, the Court of Appeal for Ontario decided that an additional 93 days, roughly three months, should have been attributed to exceptional circumstances and subtracted from the total time, thereby bringing the case back within the prescribed limits.
This delay was related to the rescheduling of a motion for a change of venue following a Supreme Court decision that impacted the evaluation of such motions.
While acknowledging that the Supreme Court ruling constituted an exceptional circumstance, McVey concluded that the Crown had not done everything possible to expedite the rehearing of the motion, thus precluding the deduction of time.
However, the Appeal Court noted that some delay was unavoidable since the Crown could not have expedited an immediate hearing for the venue change application.
The prosecutors demonstrated efforts to address the delay and accepted one of the earliest court dates offered, according to the ruling.
“Both parties appeared to genuinely believe that a hearing date earlier than September 2023 was unattainable,” the ruling stated.
Consequently, the case will be returned to the Superior Court for further proceedings.
9 charges filed in 2022
Hillier served in the provincial legislature for 15 years, initially as a Progressive Conservative member and later as an independent representative.
He was charged in March 2022 with nine offenses related to his alleged involvement in the convoy protests that inundated Ottawa’s city center for weeks. The demonstrations were against COVID-19 measures and the federal government.
The charges encompassed accusations of assaulting a peace officer, committing mischief, inciting others to commit mischief, and resisting or obstructing a peace officer.
The assault charge stemmed from allegations that Hillier shoved a metal gate toward an officer while attempting to access Parliament Hill.