Image: Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms image /

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Chilliwack pastor to challenge Dr. Henry

Chilliwack pastor to challenge Dr. Bonnie Henry for alleged preferential treatment: JCCF

Dec 4, 2023 | 1:15 PM

ABBOTSFORD — With the backing of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms in Alberta, Chilliwack pastor John Koopman argues that B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry granted preferential treatment to some faith groups over others during the pandemic.

According to a news release from the centre dated Monday, December 4, Pastor Koopman of Chilliwack Free Reformed Church, located next to Service B.C. on Yale Road in Chilliwack, faced charges in relation to violating COVID-19 gathering restrictions for conducting in-person worship services, while Dr. Henry allegedly permitted some orthodox synagogues to gather for outdoor and indoor services.

In a hearing that is scheduled to run December 4-7 at the Abbotsford Law Courts, Pastor Koopman will be requesting records of the accommodation requests the provincial health officer received and how she reportedly managed them, along with records and files of communications she received from elected officials in British Columbia about regulating in-person worship services.

The justice centre argues that in November 2020, Dr. Henry restricted in-person church services while allowing bars, restaurants, gyms, and salons to remain open for in-person service, the JCCF wrote in its news release.

Due to its belief that assembling for in-person services was a must, the Free Reformed Church reopened its doors in 2020 and 2021 while concurrently complying with health orders regarding face masks, hand washing, social distancing, the justice centre claimed in its news release.

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In January 2021, the Free Reformed Church, along with two other churches, mounted a legal fight against the ban on in-person worship services. After submitting the legal paperwork, Pastor Koopman and others submitted an accommodation request to gather for in-person worship services, but their request received no response for several weeks, the justice centre stated. Two business days before the court was to hear the constitutional challenge, Dr. Henry granted the Free Reformed Church and the two other churches limited permission to gather outdoors, while refusing permission to gather indoors, claiming this to be too risky, the justice centre alleged in its news release. However, earlier that same week, Dr. Henry had granted all orthodox synagogues in the province permission to gather indoors, the justice centre claimed.

On March 18, 2021, B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson dismissed the Free Reformed Church’s challenge, in part because Dr. Henry had granted permission to meet outdoors. The BC Court of Appeal upheld Chief Justice Hinkson’s decision, and the Supreme Court of Canada subsequently denied a leave of appeal.

Meanwhile, Pastor Koopman and other churches and pastors have been prosecuted by the Crown in B.C. Provincial Courts, the justice centre argues. On November 8, 2022, Pastor Koopman was found guilty of hosting an in-person worship service on December 6, 2020.

According to a news story from the Canadian Press that was published in May 2022, the B.C. Prosecution Service confirmed that it dropped two dozen COVID-19 violation tickets that were filed against three clergymen from Chilliwack who defied public health orders by continuing to meet as a congregation for worship services. The Crown canceled seven tickets against Pastor Koopman, 11 tickets filed against Pastor James Butler from Free Grace Baptist Church and six tickets assigned to Pastor Timothy Champ of Valley Heights Community Church. The justice centre indicated those 24 fines would have amounted to $55,200.

JCCF lawyer Marty Moore argues the actions of the B.C. government were discriminatory towards faith communities in British Columbia during the pandemic.

“The actions of the Provincial Health Officer toward people of faith in British Columbia during Covid were frankly shameful,” Moore alleged in a news release. “She categorically prohibited in-person gatherings for worship, indoor or outdoors, and even brought an injunction application seeking to have pastors and parishioners arrested for gathering for worship. At that same time, she was providing permission to select groups to meet for worship, both outdoors and, in some cases, indoors, while ignoring, from what we can tell, all other requests from other religious groups to meet.”