From the October 2021 issue of Toronto Life

The Anti-Vax Crusaders

In Aylmer, Ontario, a fiery doomsday preacher has amassed a diverse following of evangelicals, libertarians, conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers, united by their distrust of government, science and mainstream media. They’re loud, mad and organized. And their gospel is spreading

On a rainy Sunday morning in April of 2020, 70 cars pulled into a church parking lot on the outskirts of Aylmer, a small town a two-hour drive west of Toronto. It was a few weeks into the pandemic, so religious gatherings weren’t allowed. But Henry Hildebrandt, the pastor, decided that his congregation, the Church of God Restoration, would hold a drive-in service anyway, reasoning that there was little risk of spreading Covid if everyone stayed in their vehicles. When a photo of the gathering appeared online, locals complained, police got involved and the province eventually told Hildebrandt to stop. He didn’t. He and his 300 followers kept meeting, first in their cars, then in the pews, and finally—when the attorney general locked the church’s doors—on the front lawn. The province slapped the church with fines totalling nearly $275,000, which they paid in September. Yet the parishioners have continued to gather almost every Sunday, unmasked, undistanced and unvaccinated.

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