Randy Alexander Hillier (born 1958) is a Canadian politician who served as a
member of provincial parliament (MPP) in the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2007-2022. Hillier represented the riding of
Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston as an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
MPP from 2019 to 2022. This riding contains much of the dissolved riding of
Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, which he represented from 2007 to 2018.
Hillier was initially elected as a
Progressive Conservative (PC) Party MPP, remaining a member until he was removed in 2019. Despite announcing that he would run for election under the banner of the Ontario First Party in November 2021, Hillier announced in March 2022 that he would not seek re-election.
Hillier was a candidate in the
2009 PC leadership election and the interim leadership election in 2014.
He has formerly served as the PC critic for the Attorney General, Labour, Northern Development, and Mines and Forestry in the legislature.
Hillier was removed from the PC Party by Premier
Doug Ford
Douglas Robert Ford Jr. (born November 20, 1964) is a Canadian politician and businessman who has served as the 26th and current premier of Ontario since June 2018 and leader of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party since March 2018. He ...
in 2019 after making disrespectful comments to parents of children with
autism. He has been outspoken against the use of
facemasks,
vaccines
A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified.[< ...]
, and
lockdowns during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. He spent extensive time at the "
Freedom Convoy
A series of protests and blockades in Canada against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions, called the Freedom Convoy (french: Convoi de la liberté, links=no) by organizers, began in early 2022. The initial convoy movement was created t ...
", encouraging people to flood police phone lines during the clearance of protesters, and is currently on bail following nine charges related to his activity around the protest.
He sat as an independent MPP until the dissolution of Parliament on May 3, 2022. As of August 2022, Hillier provides landscaping and excavation services.
Background
Hillier was a licensed construction electrician (licence expired July 31, 2013) with a diploma in electrical engineering technology from
Algonquin College
Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology is a publicly funded English-language college located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The college serves the National Capital Region and the outlying areas of Eastern Ontario, Western Quebec, and Upst ...
and former employee of the Canadian federal government. He lives near
Perth, Ontario
Perth is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Tay River, southwest of Ottawa, and is the seat of Lanark County.
History
The town was established as a military settlement in 1816, shortly after the War of 1812. The settleme ...
.
Property rights activism
Prior to serving as an MPP, in 2003, Hillier co-founded and served as the first president of the
Lanark
Lanark (; gd, Lannraig ; sco, Lanrik) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located 20 kilometres to the south-east of Hamilton. The town lies on the River Clyde, at its confluence with Mouse Water. In 2016, the town had a population of 9 ...
Landowners' Association. He then assisted in creation of local landowner groups in other parts of Ontario, modelled on the Lanark Landowners. In 2006, he became the first president of the 15,000-member
Ontario Landowners Association (OLA), an umbrella group for these groups. The OLA was formed "...to preserve and protect the rights of property owners and to enshrine property rights within the Constitution of Canada and the laws of the Province of Ontario."
Under Hillier's leadership, the landowners' groups initially engaged in acts of civil disobedience, including blocking highways, barricading government offices, staging illegal deer hunts, and publicly breaking laws that the landowners regarded as unjust.
Hillier has explained the illegal actions of the landowners as follows:
In 2007, when he was seeking election to the provincial legislature, Hillier was challenged to justify his participation four years earlier in an illegal deer hunt. He responded by stating,
As well as acts of civil disobedience, the landowners conducted demonstrations at
Queen's Park and
Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill (french: Colline du Parlement, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings, and their archit ...
. Hillier's ability to attract media notice through the use of attention-grabbing rhetoric and tactics prompted one television commentator to describe him as "
Don Cherry
Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five se ...
in plaid and rubber boots." On one occasion in 2006, Hillier was arrested and detained (but not charged) for trespassing during a protest at a water quality meeting in
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
.
After the creation of the OLA in 2006, acts of civil disobedience were replaced by attempts to influence the political system by more traditional means. Landowner-endorsed candidates ran for municipal office in many rural municipalities in the 2006 Ontario municipal elections. Hillier and other members of the OLA began to appear as witnesses before parliamentary hearings into issues affecting rural areas.
Hillier resigned as president of the OLA in 2007 in order to run for a seat in the provincial legislature.
Perspective as an MPP
Hillier was elected to the provincial legislature in 2007. In October 2014, Hillier referred to members of the Lanark Landowners' Association as "nutbars," claiming "
en I was there I tried to keep a distance from the fringe elements and the nutbars, if I can put it that way." The practice adopted by Landowners Associations of seeking original Crown patents for their land "has been, quite frankly, a problem for me as an MPP," Hillier said. "People are following this advice and not getting building permits, and then when the building inspectors visit them they’re phoning me as their MPP and seeking my assistance."
Editorialist
Hillier is the author of numerous editorials on a wide range of policy issues. Between 2003 and 2010, he contributed 11 articles to ''
Le Québécois Libre'', a bilingual libertarian online journal that was published in Montreal until 2010.
Beginning in 2006, Hillier was co-publisher and co-editor of the OLA's official organ, ''The Landowner'' magazine (known since September 2019 as ''Landowner Voices'') which is published bi-monthly. Hillier used to publish an editorial in each issue of ''The Landowner''.
Political career
2007 election campaign
In January 2007, Hillier resigned as president of the OLA to seek the Progressive Conservative nomination in
Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington in the upcoming provincial election. Some members of the party suggested that Hillier's activist past made him an unsuitable candidate, and the ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...
'' speculated that the party might disqualify him.
Scott Reid, the federal MP for Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, responded that he would be "very disappointed" if Hillier were prevented from running, adding "I can't think of anything more dangerous to our prospects
f winning in this riding. On May 5, Hillier won a three-way nomination against Jay Brennan and Brent Cameron. He was elected MPP for the riding on October 10, 2007, capturing 40.58 per cent of the vote and defeating Liberal candidate Ian Wilson by 820 votes.
During the election campaign, some observers questioned Hillier's fitness for elected office, given his history of civil disobedience. But this history won him some admirers as well. Similarly, his willingness to take contrarian positions (for example, announcing his denial of
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
at a mid-election meeting of the
editorial board
The editorial board is a group of experts, usually at a publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take.
Mass media
At a newspaper, the editorial board usually consists of the editorial page editor, ...
of the ''
Ottawa Citizen
The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
History
Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The new ...
'') earned him approval as well as opposition. Shortly after this meeting, the ''Citizens editorial board endorsed Hillier. An editorial in the paper advised voters to "
ke a chance on Randy Hillier" and stated that "the landowners'-rights activist is doing the right thing by running for the legislature and trying to change the system he's been battling for so very long."
2007–2009: Early career as a Member of Provincial Parliament
Following the 2007 election, Hillier was appointed his party's critic for rural affairs.
However, it became increasingly clear that Hillier was unhappy with the leadership of PC leader
John Tory
John Howard Tory (born May 28, 1954) is a Canadian politician who has served as the 65th and current mayor of Toronto since 2014.
After a career as a lawyer, political strategist and businessman, Tory ran as a mayoral candidate in the 200 ...
. In March 2008, an article in the ''Ottawa Citizen'' reported that Hillier was considering leaving the Progressive Conservative caucus and joining the small
Reform Party of Ontario. Hillier brushed aside this rumour as "void of fact."
2009: Ontario PC leadership candidate
In early March 2009, John Tory resigned as leader of the Ontario PCs. On March 30, Hillier announced his candidacy in the
leadership race to succeed Tory. Few observers thought Hillier had a realistic chance of winning, but some media commentators speculated that he might fill the role of kingmaker.
Lacking in high-profile endorsements, Hillier instead focused his leadership bid on a series of policy announcements. These included:
*Allowing Ontarians to vote to elect their senators;
*Enacting a law, which he proposed to call the ''Freedom of Association and Conscience Act'', which would allow health care professionals and other government-paid individuals to refuse to provide services to which, for religious or moral reasons, they were personally opposed (such as doctors and nurses refusing to perform abortions and marriage commissioners refusing to perform same-sex marriages);
*Abolishing the
Ontario Human Rights Commission
The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) was established in the Canadian province of Ontario on March 29, 1961, to administer the Ontario Human Rights Code. The OHRC is an arm's length agency of government accountable to the legislature through ...
and allowing all legal proceedings under the province's
Human Rights Code to be dealt with in the regular court system.
*Allowing the sale of beer and wine in corner stores;
*Restoration of the spring bear hunt;
*Ending the
closed shop
A pre-entry closed shop (or simply closed shop) is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to hire union members only, and employees must remain members of the union at all times to remain employed. This is different fr ...
in unionized workplaces;
*Reverse the ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides;
*abolition of the province's
property tax
A property tax or millage rate is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net wealth, taxes on the change of ownership of property through inhe ...
assessment agency (
MPAC);
*Increasing the speed limit on Ontario highways;
*Allowing the de-amalgamation of municipalities which had been forcibly amalgamated in the 1990s;
*Cracking down on the aboriginal occupations in places like
Caledonia.
Hillier placed fourth in the September 2009 leadership vote, with just under 10 per cent of the vote. However, the initial vote-count showed no clear leader among the other three candidates:
Tim Hudak had won 33.9 per cent,
Frank Klees
Frank Klees (born March 6, 1951) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2014. He was a cabinet minister in the governments of Mike Harris and Erni ...
had 29.9 per cent, and
Christine Elliott had 26.4 per cent. Because the election was structured as a
preferential vote, the ballots cast by Hillier supporters were then redistributed among the other candidates. This system meant that Hillier's prior public endorsement of
Tim Hudak as his own second choice for leader was important: two-thirds of the second-preference votes of Hillier supporters went to Hudak, doubling his lead over Klees.
2009–present: Political career after the leadership election
Following the election, Tim Hudak appointed Hillier as the party's critic for Labour, and for Northern Development, Mines and Forestry in the provincial legislature.
Regarding Hillier's support of
Jack MacLaren, former Ontario Landowners Association President, to challenge sitting MPP
Norm Sterling
Norman William "Norm" Sterling (born February 19, 1942) is a Canadian politician, who served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1977 to 2011.
Background
Sterling attended Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, and worked as ...
at the Annual General Meeting of the
Carleton-Mississippi Mills Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Riding Association
An electoral district association (french: association de circonscription enregistrée), commonly known as a riding association (french: association de comté) or constituency association, is the basic unit of a political party at the level of the ...
, the ''
Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it f ...
'' described Hillier as a "shrewd political operator"
Prior to the 2011 provincial election, Randy Hillier and federal counterpart Scott Reid introduced motions to the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario and the federal
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
, respectively, to enshrine property rights for Ontarians in the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part ...
.
2011 election
During the
2011 provincial election, it was reported that, as the result of a dispute over with the agency over taxes said to be owing for the sale of some land, the
Canada Revenue Agency
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA; ; ) is the revenue service of the Canadian federal government, and most provincial and territorial governments. The CRA collects taxes, administers tax law and policy, and delivers benefit programs and tax cre ...
(CRA) had placed two liens with a total value of $15,000 on property owned by Hillier and his wife. Hillier responded that they were working with CRA to resolve the dispute. The dispute did not hurt Hillier's re-election effort; he won by a 10,000-vote margin.
2012
After the 2011 provincial election, Randy Hillier co-sponsored a bill to repeal Ontario's breed-specific restrictions on
pit bull
Pit bull is a term used in the United States for a type of dog descended from bulldogs and terriers, while in other countries such as the United Kingdom the term is used as an abbreviation of the American Pit Bull Terrier breed. The term was f ...
ownership. The bill was supported by members of all three parties at second reading in February 2012. Despite passing second reading and committee, Ontario's Liberal Government did not call the Bill for third
reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...
. It died on the order table with Premier McGuinty's
prorogation
Prorogation in the Westminster system of government is the action of proroguing, or interrupting, a parliament, or the discontinuance of meetings for a given period of time, without a dissolution of parliament. The term is also used for the peri ...
of the legislature.
Following revelations in January 2012 that the head of a union local in Toronto was rehired after improperly spending public funds, Hillier called on the Ontario Government to make unions receiving public money to be made more accountable.
In March 2012, Hillier introduced a bill to proclaim "Constitution Day", recognizing the day that the
British North America Act and the
Constitution Act were proclaimed into law.
With the support of the
Canadian Taxpayers Federation
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF; french: Fédération canadienne des contribuables, link=no) is a federally incorporated, non-profit organization in Canada. It claimed 30,517 donors and 215,009 supporters in 2018–19. Voting membership, ...
, Hillier introduced a bill to strengthen the Taxpayer Protection Act introduced by the Harris government and to require all pieces of legislation be costed before they are introduced to the Ontario Legislature.
2013
In September 2013, Hillier was stripped of his role as the party's labour critic after the ''Toronto Star'' published an email Hillier had sent to the PC caucus raising concerns over colleague Monte McNaughton's private member's bill abrogating construction company
EllisDon
EllisDon is an employee-owned construction services company that was founded and incorporated in 1951 in London, Ontario, Canada, by brothers Don and David Ellis Smith. The company is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
History
...
's 1950s-era collective bargaining agreement. The Star revealed that Hillier's concerns included that the PC Party would receive donations from Ellis Don for pushing the legislation. Hillier acknowledged that the email was his but did not comment on it. Hillier voted against the bill at second reading along with the members of the New Democratic caucus. Hudak, McNaughton and nine other members of the Tory caucus and 22 Liberals voted for the bill at second reading. All but two Liberals voted against the Bill at third reading. Hillier was not in attendance for the third reading vote.
At the end of October 2013, Hillier introduced a bill to allow provincial politicians to be
recalled from public office. Hillier's bill received some public support after he recommended that it should apply to Toronto mayor
Rob Ford
Robert Bruce Ford (May 28, 1969 – March 22, 2016) was a Canadian politician and businessman who served as the 64th mayor of Toronto from 2010 to 2014. Before and after his term as mayor, Ford was a city councillor representing Ward 2 Etobi ...
, who was embroiled in a
crack cocaine scandal.
In the fall of 2013, Hillier wrote an article for the ''Canadian Parliamentary Review'' detailing his ideas to reform Ontario's Legislature to "empower" Members of Provincial Parliament.
Interim leadership bid
Hillier stood for the position of
interim leader of the party following
Tim Hudak's resignation in the aftermath of the
2014 provincial election. Hillier advocated moving power out of the hands of the leader and having more decisions made by caucus, including the selection of
House Leader
{{Politics of Canada
In Canada, each political party with representation in the House of Commons has a House Leader who is a front bench Member of Parliament (MP) and an expert in parliamentary procedure. The same representation is found in the pr ...
and
Whip.
He was defeated by
Jim Wilson. Prior to the caucus meeting where the vote for interim leader was held, Wilson had dismissed Hillier's bid as a stunt, saying "He’s crazy... he has consistently betrayed the trust of caucus."
2018
In February 2018, Hillier filed a formal complaint against former Ontario PC Leader and MPP
Patrick Brown during the leadership race. "I've known Patrick Brown to lie just about every time he opens his mouth" Hillier told reporters, he "engaged in dirty and crooked politics". "He purposely and willfully lied to the people of Ontario." An investigation found no evidence to support Hillier's allegations that Brown failed to disclose gifts of travel. Brown publicly responded calling Hillier's allegations "garbage," and "fabricated".
2019
Hillier was suspended from the PC caucus by Premier Doug Ford on February 20, 2019 after making what Ford characterized as "disrespectful comments to parents of children with autism." Hillier denied the allegation, and said he was ousted for other reasons. A letter sent by the PC Party President was released blaming him for a lack of commitment to the caucus.
He was subsequently removed from the PC caucus on March 15, 2019.
2020–present: opponent of COVID-19 measures and laws
At the outbreak of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, Hillier was sitting as an independent MPP after being removed from the PC caucus in 2019. He has been skeptical of the pandemic and has been a vocal proponent of ending the emergency measures put in place by the Ontario government, such as
lockdowns,
stay-at-home order
A stay-at-home order, safer-at-home order, movement control order (more common in Southeast Asia), or lockdown restrictions (in the United Kingdom) – also referred to by loose use of the terms (self-) quarantine, (self-) isolation, or lockdow ...
s, and advice regarding
social distancing
In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dis ...
and use of
face masks.
In June 2020, he took part in a rally protesting the
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...
lockdown in
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
at
Queen's Park, and was later condemned by
Premier Doug Ford who described Hillier's participation in the rally as "totally irresponsible" and said it goes against "what everybody has been working for."
In October 2020, Kingston public health officials sent a letter to Hillier expressing concerns regarding his spreading of
misinformation
Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. It differs from disinformation, which is ''deliberately'' deceptive. Rumors are information not attributed to any particular source, and so are unreliable and often unverified, but can turn ...
about the pandemic. Hillier refused to say whether he thought the pandemic was real, said he was anti-mask and likened the pandemic to a bad flu season. He had also asserted on Twitter that public health officials were guilty of
crimes against humanity.
On November 26, 2020, Hillier organized an anti-COVID-19 lockdown rally at Queen's Park. Unlike the first such rally that Hillier organized (on October 21), this rally led to Hillier being issued a court summons by police, for violating the lockdown restrictions in place in Toronto at the time, which limited outdoor gatherings to 10 people. His court date was set for January 7, 2021.
On December 29, 2020, Hillier
tweeted
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
a Christmas photo of a gathering at his home with 15 people from multiple households. At the time, Ontario was in a province-wide lockdown and the number of people allowed to gather indoors had been restricted to only members of a family living in the same household.
On January 24, 2021, Hiller attended an in-person service at a
Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (formerly Waterloo County). Waterloo is situated about west-southwest of Toronto. Due to the close proximity of the ci ...
church, during a time when such services were prohibited by provincial law due to the pandemic.
On February 25, 2021, Hillier tweeted that "there is no (COVID-19) pandemic & never was, we were duped", and in a separate tweet urged his followers that "we must start shaming those who wear a mask, as they shame others, the masks are coercing us to live their lie." Hillier was blocked from Twitter for 24 hours for violating its terms of service, and when he returned he blamed "
trolls
A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...
and bots" for his temporary ban.
On April 1, 2021, Hillier tweeted an image of
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
with a caption that read "The Third ....wave. Everyone who has ever been to the sea, knows there is no end to waves. Its only 28 days this time. Truth does not mind being questioned. Lies do not like to be challenged. #onpoli #WeAreLivingaLie #nomorelockdowns", drawing a comparison between Ontario's COVID-19 lockdowns (a 28-day province-wide lockdown had been announced to begin on April 3, 2021, to combat the so-called "third wave" of the province's pandemic) and the fascist government of
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
under Hitler. Hillier's tweet coincided with the Jewish holiday
Passover
Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the first month of Aviv, or spring. ...
, and the
Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA; ) is a Zionist and Jewish advocacy organization and an agency of the Jewish Federations of Canada. It was founded in 2004 as the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CCIJA) and headqu ...
, a Canadian Jewish advocacy group, criticized Hillier's insensitivity and drawing of "false equivalencies" between lockdown measures and
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
. He was also condemned by
Kingston and the Islands
Kingston and the Islands (french: Kingston et les Îles) is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1968.
It covers part of the city of Kingston, Ontario and the sparse ...
MPP
Ian Arthur and MP
Mark Gerretsen
Mark Gerretsen (born June 5, 1975) is a Canadian politician who is the Member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada. He was first elected in the 2015 federal election, and re-elected in 2019 and 20 ...
, the latter calling for Hillier's removal from office.
On April 8, 2021, Hillier was billed as the special guest speaker at a "Mask Burning" event at the South Branch Bistro,
Kemptville, Ontario
Kemptville is a community located in the Municipality of North Grenville in Eastern Ontario, Canada in the northernmost part of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville. It is located approximately south of the downtown core of Ottawa and s ...
, organized by No More Lock Downs Canada.
On April 25, 2021, Hillier attended a church service in
Aylmer, Ontario
Aylmer is a town in Elgin County in southern Ontario, Canada, just north of Lake Erie, on Catfish Creek. It is south of Highway 401.
Aylmer is surrounded by Malahide Township.
History
In October 1817, John Van Patter, an immigrant from New ...
at Church of God Restoration. Hillier, along with
Hastings—Lennox and Addington
Hastings—Lennox and Addington is a federal electoral district in Ontario.
Hastings—Lennox and Addington was created by the 2012 federal electoral boundaries redistribution and was legally defined in the 2013 representation order. It came ...
MP Derek Sloan
Derek Sloan (born November 11, 1984) is a Canadian politician who formerly represented the riding of Hastings—Lennox and Addington. Shortly after being elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 2019 Canadian federal election, Sloan r ...
(who had also been expelled from his own Conservative caucus after receiving a donation from a white supremacist) attended the event without wearing face masks or maintaining physical distancing, as shown in a video of the event. Four individuals were charged with violating the ''
Reopening Ontario Act'', including two that fit the description of Hillier and Sloan. Those charged have been summoned to court, with scheduled appearances in June.
The local governments of several municipalities within Hillier's riding have passed motions condemning Hillier and asking the provincial government to sanction him in any way possible. Motions to this effect have been passed in
South Frontenac
South Frontenac is a township in Frontenac County in eastern Ontario, Canada. It was amalgamated in 1998 from the former townships of Bedford, Loughborough, Portland, and Storrington.
The Holleford crater is located in the township near the comm ...
,
Central Frontenac, Perth,
Smiths Falls
Smiths Falls is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada, southwest of Ottawa. As of the 2021 census it has a population of 9,254. It is in the Census division for Lanark County, but is separated from the county. The Rideau Canal waterway passes thr ...
,
Carleton Place
Carleton Place is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in Lanark County, about west of downtown Ottawa. It is located at the crossroads of Highway 15 and Highway 7, halfway between the towns of Perth, Almonte, Smiths Falls, and the nation's cap ...
, and the
Kingston, with the latter city council's motion calling for an investigation from the Ontario Integrity Commissioner.
As of May 5, 2021, Hillier has been charged eight times for his defiance of the ''
Reopening Ontario Act'', including for hosting an anti-lockdown protest and march in
Belleville on April 16. According to a Facebook post, Hillier plans to fight all charges.
In October 2021, families of several people in Ontario accused Hillier of spreading fake news and unauthorized use of their relatives photos and personal details to promote his anti-vaccination views. Hillier tweeted the images of 11 deceased people, suggesting they died or suffered from a "permanent adverse reaction shortly after receiving their first or second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine," contrary to what their obituaries and relatives said. On October 28, the Ontario legislature unanimously condemned and called for a public apology for Hillier's "disreputable conduct", in particular the post misrepresenting several people's deaths. As of that time, Hillier had violated the legislature's rules regarding the use of face masks four times.
On November 15, Hillier falsely claimed on his Facebook page that Public Health Ontario (PHO) had undertaken investigations into "37 possible deaths" caused by COVID-19 vaccines, according to a 2021 Global News article on the role of
COVID-19 misinformation
False information, including intentional disinformation and conspiracy theories, about the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease has been spread through social media, text messagin ...
has contributed to "radicalizing Canadians".
Hillier went camping with people who displayed a Diagolon flag; Diagolon is a Canadian-founded neo-fascist group linked to the convoy protests.
Freedom Convoy protests
During the
Canada convoy protests
A series of protests and blockades in Canada against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions, called the Freedom Convoy (french: Convoi de la liberté, links=no) by organizers, began in early 2022. The initial convoy movement was created t ...
' occupation of Ottawa in January and February 2022, Hillier claims to have spent much of three weeks among the protesters.
On January 25, Hillier posted a tweet that referred to federal Minister of Transportation
Omar Alghabra
Omar Alghabra ( ar, عمر الغبرا, ʿUmar al-Ḡabrā; born October 24, 1969) is a Saudi-born Syrian-Canadian politician who has served as Canada's Minister of Transport since January 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, he has represent ...
as a "terrorist." In a separate tweet, Hillier called on the
RCMP
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...
to open an investigation into Justin Trudeau, whom he accused of an "act of domestic terrorism" by depriving Canadians of food and essentials in the winter (a reference to perceived
supply chain issues caused by the vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers, an inciting reason for the convoy protest). Public Safety Minister
Marco Mendicino
Marco Mendicino (; born July 28, 1973) is a Canadian politician who has been the Minister of Public Safety since October 26, 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, Mendicino represents Eglinton—Lawrence in the House of Commons, sitting as a me ...
urged Twitter to remove the post that referred to Alghabra, as
Islamophobic
Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism.
The scope and precise definition of the term ''Islamophobia'' ...
hate speech. The provincial Liberal and
New Democratic Party leaders called for increased sanctions against Hillier, beyond the "disreputable conduct" mechanism previously used.
Hillier called for "dialogue" with the protesters, on February 8 and attended a press conference on February 9, reiterating his support for the convoy.
On Twitter, Hillier claimed that protesters would leave Ottawa shortly after a press conference to be held at 1:00 PM on February 19. He claims that police blocked him from attending the conference. He urged supporters to "keep calling" and jam the phone lines of the Ottawa Police. It was compared it to the "counselling to commit mischief" charge applied to protest leaders like
Tamara Lich
Tamara Lich is a former logistics worker, and a Canadian right-wing activist known for her involvement in the Yellow Vest protests, the Wexit movement, and the Canada convoy protest in Ottawa.
Lich was among the organizers of the Yellow Ve ...
, suggesting Hillier should be jailed.
On February 22, the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario unanimously passed a motion that authorized the
Speaker
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** I ...
to not recognize him in the legislature until he publishes written apologies for his actions and the Speaker is satisfied of their sincerity. The motion stated that "this House expresses its disapproval of, and dissociates itself from, continued disreputable conduct by the Member for Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, most specifically his use of social media to make racist and discriminatory statements about a federal cabinet minister and for publishing social media posts insinuating a call to violence."
On March 28, Hillier turned himself in to the Ottawa Police, while facing nine charges against him due to his actions at the protest: one count of assaulting a peace or public officer (allegedly checking an officer with his shoulder and hip), two counts of obstructing or resisting a public officer, one count of obstructing or resisting someone aiding a public or peace officer, three counts of counselling an uncommitted indictable offence, two of them considered mischief, and two counts of mischief or obstructing property exceeding $5,000. He was granted bail and released later that day, on the conditions that he would avoid the general area of downtown Ottawa, not associate with any of the protest organizers, and refrain from posting on social media about the convoy and anti-vaccine or mask mandates. The justice of the peace at his bail hearing noted that his social media activity "poses a substantial risk."
2022 general election
In November 2021, Hillier announced his intention to run for re-election under the banner of the
People's Party of Canada
The People's Party of Canada (french: Parti populaire du Canada, PPC) is a right-wing populist federal political party in Canada. The party was formed by Maxime Bernier in September 2018, shortly after his resignation from the Conservative P ...
's Ontario wing. Hillier launched the Ontario First Party (OFP) on December 4, 2021 as an unregistered provincial political party.
The party began a registration process with
Elections Ontario
Elections Ontario (french: Élections Ontario) is an independent office of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario responsible for the administration of provincial elections and referendums. It is charged with the implementation and enforcement of th ...
on December 17, 2021, with Paul Maletta requesting the registration. While the party name was approved on January 19, 2022, it remains an unregistered party.
There were also plans to run candidates in the
2022 Ontario general election
The 2022 Ontario general election will be held on or before June 2, 2022, to elect Members of Provincial Parliament to serve in the 43rd Parliament of Ontario. As of December 2016, Ontario elections are held on the first Thursday in June in th ...
, though none were ultimately confirmed.
Initially, there were attempts by the federal
People's Party of Canada
The People's Party of Canada (french: Parti populaire du Canada, PPC) is a right-wing populist federal political party in Canada. The party was formed by Maxime Bernier in September 2018, shortly after his resignation from the Conservative P ...
(PPC) to register the name "People's Party of Ontario" with Elections Ontario. The elections agency rejected the name five times due to its similarity to the existing
Peoples Political Party, which has been registered since 2011 by
perennial candidate
A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for elected office and rarely, if ever, wins. Perennial candidates' existence lies in the fact that in some countries, there are no laws that limit a number of times a person can ...
Kevin Clarke. In March 2021, the PPC and Clarke discussed Clarke relinquishing his rights to the name in exchange for running under the PPC banner. The discussions, while initially productive, later broke down after Clarke posted about the matter on social media and added other people to his email conversations with the PPC.
On March 3, 2022, Hillier announced by a video posted on social media that he had decided not to run for re-election in the 2022 provincial election, saying "our political system is broken... there is no sense spending any more time trying to fix a broken system from within when the problem lies without."
This would have been his first attempt at running against a Progressive Conservative, instead of running as a PC candidate. The website and social media for the Ontario First Party were shut down.
The
Populist Party Ontario
The Populist Party Ontario (french: Parti Populiste Ontario, PPO) is a minor political party in Ontario, Canada. The party began its registration process with Elections Ontario upon Shelley Batcules' request on December 17, 2021, and its party na ...
(PPO) was announced as an unregistered provincial political party upon the closure of the Ontario First Party (OFP). The party began a registration process with
Elections Ontario
Elections Ontario (french: Élections Ontario) is an independent office of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario responsible for the administration of provincial elections and referendums. It is charged with the implementation and enforcement of th ...
on December 17, 2021, with Shelley Batcules requesting the registration. The party name was approved on January 24, 2022,
and then the party itself was officially registered on May 9, 2022. The OFP website currently redirects to the Populist Party Ontario website, where a few references to the OFP remain.
On May 12, 2022, Hillier's daughter Chelsea Hillier joined the
PPO to contest his seat in
Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston.
Other controversies
In 2017 allegations were made against Hillier for violating the internal conduct policies of Tay Valley Township and the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Following a three-month investigation Hillier was found to have harassed municipal staff in Tay Valley. The township investigation wrote that Hillier "unfairly called into question the competence and proficiency of Township staff and undermined their integrity." A letter from the township Chief Administrative Officer said there was a pattern of criticism and that the MPP had been "cautioned" about this "type of behaviour" in March. The letter stated, "Much of the information upon which you rely for your criticisms is inaccurate and the commentary about staff is disparaging. The impact of this behaviour is made even more harmful by the position and authority that you hold as MPP."
In June 2020, Hillier came under fire for appearing to trivialize Minister
Ahmed Hussen
Ahmed Hussen ( so, Axmed Xuseen; born 1976) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who has been serving as the minister of housing and diversity and inclusion since October 26, 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, Hussen has also sat as the mem ...
's experience with racism, when in response to a CTV article where Hussen discussed experiences of prejudice while shopping, Hillier tweeted "A guilty conscience?" The tweet has since been deleted but has been met with sharp criticism online and multiple accusations of racism, including by
Andrea Horwath
Andrea Horwath (; born October 24, 1962) is a Canadian politician who has been the 58th mayor of Hamilton since 2022. Horwath previously served as the member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Hamilton Centre from 2004 to 2022, as leader of t ...
who commented "At a time when Black people are protesting for their lives, you’re denying the reality of Black, Indigenous and racialized people."
Hillier went camping with people who displayed a
Diagolon
Diagolon is a Canadian alt-right organization which was considered significant to the Canada convoy protest by the Government of Canada. It is led by Jeremy MacKenzie.
Organisation and aims
Diagolon is a right wing, alt-right, extremist mil ...
flag in 2022.
Public profile
After numerous controversial posts, Twitter banned Hillier from its platform on March 8, 2022. Hillier shared a screen capture of the ban on his Instagram, suggesting the ban was temporary, for 7 days. The cited tweet claimed that Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine was a "killer medicine".
Electoral record
Post-political career
After his political career, Randy has opened ''Randy Hillier Contracting & Consulting'', providing a wide array of landscaping and excavation services, snow plowing, as well as assistance with building permits.
Notes
References
External links
Official Website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hillier, Randy
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs
Politicians from Ottawa
People from Lanark County
1958 births
Living people
Canadian activists
Canadian libertarians
21st-century Canadian politicians
Independent MPPs in Ontario
Politicians affected by a party expulsion process
Canadian anti-vaccination activists
Protesters involved in the Canada convoy protest