MPP Roman Baber Sues Ford Government Over COVID-19 Lockdown Measures

Ontario Premier Doug Ford attends a press conference after touring a mass COVID-19 vaccination site during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hamilton, Ont., on March 18, 2021. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

MPP Roman Baber has filed a lawsuit against the Ontario government’s COVID-19 lockdown measures.

Baber, who was removed from the Progressive Conservative caucus over his stance on lockdowns, said the lawsuit aims to strike down Premier Doug Ford’s Reopening Ontario Act as unconstitutional.

“I sued the Attorney General of Ontario for our right to protest, pray and gather outdoors,” Baber wrote on Twitter.

“The risk of transmission outdoors is exceedingly low, but the Government’s outdoor restrictions deny Ontarians their fundamental freedoms.”

In his 14-page court file to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Baber stated that the provincial law violates Ontarians’ Charter rights and the rights of “free association, the free expression of ideas and peaceful assembly, including for protests,” the Toronto Star reported.

The court filings said prohibiting worshippers from gathering outside the Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario in Toronto “or elsewhere” is unconstitutional.

Baber said the outdoor restrictions in the Reopening Ontario Act “are inconsistent with their purpose or over-intrusive and therefore in violation of the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act.”

Baber was ousted from the PC caucus in January after writing an open letter opposing the lockdown measures.

“The lockdown isn’t working. It’s causing an avalanche of suicides, overdoses, bankruptcies, divorces and takes an immense toll on our children,” he wrote.

Ford called Baber’s comments “irresponsible.”

Prior to Baber’s ousting, Cambridge MPP Belinda Karahalios was expelled from the Tory caucus in July 2020 after voting against the Reopening Ontario Act, which she said was an “unnecessary overreach on our parliamentary democracy.”

During a press conference on Tuesday, Ford said he does not regret having imposed some of the most stringent COVID-19 restrictions in North America.

“I’m going to stick with what I’ve done right from the beginning, I’m going to stick with health and science and work with them collaboratively,” Ford said.

“I will always, always listen to the chief medical officer [and] his team because they’re the professionals when it comes to health care, and I’m not,” he said.

Editor’s note: The headline for this article incorrectly stated MPP Roman Baber’s current status as an MPP. The Epoch Times regrets the error.