Thu Aug 31, 2023 – 7:42 pm EDT
RED DEER, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) – A Canadian café owner who defied COVID health mandates and kept his restaurant open to in-person dining in early 2021 has been acquitted of all nine charges leveled against him.
On Monday, Justice James Glass of the Red Deer Provincial Court told Whistle Stop Cafe owner Christopher Scott that he “will acquit” him “of the charges.”
“You’re free to go,” Glass said.
From January to April 2021, Scott kept his café, which is in the small hamlet Mirror, north of Red Deer, open contrary to COVID rules in place at the time banning in-person dining.
Eventually, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Scott later in the year in his restaurant parking lot. He was jailed for a time and charged with multiple COVID-related violations.
Crown prosecutors had argued that Scott had defied the Public Health Act. However, Scott’s lawyer, Chad Williamson, said outside the courthouse on Monday that the health orders were not reasonable.
“Whenever you’ve got government-administrated bodies, it’s important that they’ve got the right legal advice to exercise their powers lawfully,” he said to the media.
“And that was not done
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