Calls emerge for arrest of 'rogue' Ottawa-area MPP

While Dr. Alan Drummond was tending to patients in the emergency room of the Perth and Smiths District Hospital over the weekend, his MPP sent out a tweet encouraging protesters to flood Ottawa police phone lines.

"This is like a new level," said Drummond, who's had public social media disagreements with Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston MPP Randy Hillier since the COVID-19 pandemic started two years ago. 

"Maybe this will be the beginning of the end of this, if they actually formally arrest him — as I think they should." 

Hillier, who was expelled from the Progressive Conservative caucus prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and now sits as an independent, told CBC he'd spent much of the past three weeks protesting in downtown Ottawa, rallying against the "great crime" of not allowing dissent.

On Friday, police began clearing those protesters out of the downtown.

• Cleanup crews replace protesters in downtown Ottawa as heavy police presence remains
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Ottawa police then tweeted a plea Saturday for people to "stop calling critical emergency and operational phone lines to express displeasure about the police action."

Hillier retweeted that request, affixing his own message: "Keep calling in a democracy expressing yourself is a fundamental freedom #FreedomConvoy2022." 

The post was encouraging people to ring up the police force's "operational dispatch," said Hillier.

His message was shared widely on Twitter, with many angry that Hillier would urge protesters to call emergency phone lines.

Soon, #ArrestRandyHillier started trending.

Ottawa lawyer James Bowie compared Hillier's involvement in the occupation with leaders like Tamara Lich, who was arrested and charged with counselling to commit mischief and remains in an Ottawa jail. 

"I think Randy Hillier did almost exactly, precisely the same thing as Tamara Lich has done," said Bowie. "I see no juristic reason why she should be prosecuted and he should not be." 

But Hillier said he's not worried about "bots on Twitter" calling for his arrest.

"We should always be able and free to call up our institutions and express either our acceptance or displeasure with their operations," he said. 

Vocally opposed to COVID-19 mandates

Initially elected to the Ontario legislature in 2007, Hillier represents a largely rural riding south of Ottawa that includes the communities of Perth, Smiths Falls and Carleton Place and part of Kingston. 

He was expelled from the Ontario PC Party caucus in 2019 after making "disrespectful" comments to parents of children living with autism.

But Hillier's vocal opposition to government mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to even more controversy.

Last November, Hillier apologized for a social media post in which he used names and photos of people to suggest, without evidence, that they had died or suffered harm due to the COVID-19 vaccine. 

That was after the legislature had unanimously called for an apology for "a string of disreputable conduct" in the context of COVID-19. At the time, Premier Doug Ford said Hillier was "ridiculous" and had "gone rogue."

In the spring of 2021, Hillier was charged for attending a large church service in Aylmer, Ont., during lockdown. Shortly after, he was charged for his role in an anti-lockdown rally in Kemptville, Ont., just outside Ottawa. 

No longer supports MPP

It's a history that saddens and disappoints some former supporters and constituents, including Drummond. 

"I've always supported the Conservative Party in Lanark County [and] actually have supported Randy Hillier for many, many years. But when COVID came along, I was kind of surprised by his anti-vaccine, anti-mask, anti-public health measures," said Drummond. 

Despite Hillier's opinions about COVID-19 and public mandates, the Leeds Grenville and Lanark Public Health Unit was the first in the province to announce 90 per cent of residents had been vaccinated. 

"We've done extremely well. So nobody was listening to Randy and everybody was listening to science," said Drummond. 

"I always thought he had his heart in the right place, fighting for the little guy. This is not about the little guy anymore."