Charges laid against an Ontario couple who protested the province’s COVID-19 lockdown measures have been dropped at the request of a Crown prosecutor, according to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF).

On May 8, 2021, Richard and Valerie Bostock participated in a protest against Ontario’s lockdown measures at the Courthouse Square in Goderich, a town located northwest of Toronto. At the time, the province had announced a third emergency declaration, while a “stay-at-home” order was in place to prevent citizens from leaving their residence except for limited purposes such as going to the grocery store. Protesting was not among the permissible reasons to leave one’s residence.