Former Cop Says Christians Were Singled Out
'People were in pain. The one place they should be able to go is their place of worship.'
Yesterday on X/Twitter, Chris VandenBos alleged in a video that Christian churches were targeted during the pandemic. Chris left policing, after 17 years, due to his disgust at how the cops were used by governments during COVID, and dismay at how some officers behaved. He is a co-founder of Police on Guard for Thee. You can watch his two-and-a-half-minute video by clicking the above image. Here’s part of what he said:
This is what they did to people who were attending church who were going through a lockdown that was unscientific and made no freaking sense…Canada arrested more pastors during COVID than China. So going to this story of Pastor Henry Hildebrandt. This is the level that the police sunk to. That they abandoned their oath. That they went and they targeted people going to church that were struggling.
They didn’t do it to other religions, by the way. Because I drove by mosques and synagogues, and everything was fine. There was no police presence there. They were allowed to conduct their business as usual. It was selective enforcement. It was targeted enforcement.
…The reason I left [policing] is because there is absolutely no way that I would obey an order that said go out and target parishioners who are struggling because they’ve been locked down by a government that’s not listening to science. People are dealing with suicide, people are dealing with depression and anxiety. Domestic violence is through the roof, substance abuse is through the roof. People were in pain. The one place they should be able to go is their place of worship. To find community, respite, help, and hope. And the police took their big old jackboot and put it right on the necks of everyone that tried to go.
Pastor Hildebrandt leads a Christian church in Aylmer, half an hour southeast of London, Ontario. Aylmer is a community of less than 8,000 people, surrounded by farmland. This congregation pushed back against COVID restrictions. Which weren’t a minor inconvenience. They interfered with church services for months. And months. And months.
Pastor Hildebrandt took part in the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa. He addressed the crowd from the stage on the first weekend. During the weeks that followed, he sometimes led the daily 11 am prayer service. Recently, he posted the following on X/Twitter:
Police “went door to door in Aylmer ticketing people for attending church,” he wrote. They “visited homes after dark to intimidate citizens.”
Amongst those who received an $880 ticket was 85-year-old Martha Oppel. Joe Warmington, from the Toronto Sun, reported the story at the time. In a video recorded while he visited Aylmer, we learn that although local police had the resources to ticket 47 people for the crime of attending church, no charges had yet been laid against those responsible for vandalizing large signs on church property.
I’m still researching this matter. I know that members of the Jewish faith had at least one unfortunate experience with Quebec police during the pandemic. If anyone is aware of incidents in which worshipers of other faiths were persecuted the way the congregants of Pastor Hildebrandt’s Church of God were persecuted, please drop me a line:
As time goes on, people will not believe what happened. Intimidating an elderly woman for going to church! Thank you for these important reminders, Donna!
thanks for this Donna - the process of attacking Christians seems a good thing to have documented. It seems to be part and parcel of destroying our way of life that we and our ancestors built. Under cover of an "emergency", the powers that be showed how they want to destroy us didn't they.