Canadian court overturns convictions against pastor who held services during COVID lockdowns

(LifeSiteNews) — A Canadian Christian pastor who defied COVID orders to keep his church open has seen his convictions vacated by a provincial court.

Pastor John Koopman, of the Free Reformed Church in Chilliwack, British Columbia, was charged in 2020 and 2021 for having worship services despite a ban on them by the province’s government.

The province’s Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, had put in place a complete ban on in-person religious worship. However, bars, restaurants, gyms, all salons, as well as other secular venues, were allowed to continue operations.

As noted by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) in a recent news release, Koopman had two convictions for attending in-person worship services vacated by the Provincial Court of British Columbia.

In a January 8, 2026, ruling, Justice Andrea Ormiston, as noted by the JCCF, “corrected the court record after the Crown acknowledged that two tickets issued against Pastor Koopman had already been voided by the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) under section 18 of the Offence Act.”

Because of this, the pastor’s convictions entered on his tickets were “legally invalid, and Pastor Koopman has been relieved of $460 in fines.”

“The Crown’s acknowledgement of their error is welcomed. Dr. Henry and the government should carefully evaluate their entire approach, for this is only one of many errors which were made, the greatest of which is the restriction of the public worship of our God,” said Pastor Koopman in a press release sent to LifeSiteNews.

Constitutional lawyer Marty Moore noted that the case does not resolve the fact that neither Dr. Henry nor the provincial government of British Columbia has taken “responsibility” for their COVID mandates.

“Sadly, we have yet to see Dr. Henry and the BC government take responsibility for the harm they caused by imposing unreasonable and overbroad Covid mandates and restrictions on British Columbians’ fundamental freedoms and liberty,” noted constitutional lawyer Marty Moore said.

The JCCF noted that Koopman’s case shows the “Crown acting responsibly to correct an error, while the British Columbia government has yet to acknowledge the serious injustice of banning worship services entirely.”

COVID mandates saw many Canadian Christian pastors either jailed, arrested, or fined for refusing to stop services during lockdowns.

Last year, Ontario pastor Henry Hildebrandt, who kept his church open during COVID despite mandates, celebrated paying off a staggering $339,005 in fines, but said the sum was a “small price to pay” to validate his church’s commitment to the principles on which “Canada and the USA were founded.”

Alberta pastors James Coates, Tim Stephens, and Artur Pawlowski, were not so lucky to get off with just fines, but instead were jailed for keeping churches open.