Anti-vaccine activist Francois Amalega-Bitondo, who spent more than 90 days in detention for gestures related to his fight against health measures, was found guilty of disturbing the peace for an anti-mask demonstration he led in a supermarket in Joliette in July 2021.
Posted at 1:39 p.m.
Mr. Amalega-Bitondo was accused of having led a group of demonstrators to shop without a mask in a Canadian Tire in Joliette, to protest against sanitary measures.
After being kicked out of the business and forced a police intervention, the 43-year-old man was arrested and banned from approaching the store. He immediately defied the police order, which led to him being arrested and spending the night at the police station. The next day, he did it again, despite release conditions that clearly prohibited him from returning to business.
His stubbornness to return to demonstrate there despite the conditions of release imposed by the police earned him two counts of breach of condition, of which he was however acquitted by the Court of Quebec. These were reasonable and valid, even if Mr. Amalega-Bitondo refused to sign them, but the Crown did not prove beyond any doubt that the parking lot where Mr. Amalega was arrested twice during his repeat offenses belonged to Canadian Tire, justified judge Normand Bonin.
The guilty verdict on the count of disturbing the peace would normally have earned him a fine, but the Crown questioned its ability to pay, since Mr. Amalega-Bitondo has accumulated tens of thousands of dollars in fines for violation of health rules and that he is currently unemployed.
The judge chose to suspend the sentence and upheld the ban on entering the Joliette store, in addition to ordering him to keep the peace for the next 12 months. “It’s not the most serious acts of the Criminal Code”, but “it’s annoying for people who want to go shopping and for [employés] who want to work,” noted Judge Normand Bonin, pointing out that his gesture had a serious impact on business operations.
The former mathematics teacher for his part asked the judge to give him the right to “do similar acts” in the future and not to impose any sanction on him, since he has already suffered an “unjustified” prison sentence. 90 days in other cases for which he was accused of non-compliance. “I took actions that were important and which remain so today,” he pleaded.
“It is not possible that, without providing any scientific justification, we impose that all women will have to wear the veil [islamique] because Public Health believes it protects against COVID, ”he tried to argue.
“Don’t get into it…”, replied the judge, before handing down his sentence.
Mr. Amalega-Bitondo is currently awaiting trial in Trois-Rivières for having allegedly breached a police promise by which he was prohibited from entering within 300 meters of Prime Minister François Legault. This promise stemmed from an arrest for obstructing police work during a visit by the Prime Minister to Shawinigan, for which he was acquitted.
Due to the revocation of the release orders which resulted from his numerous legal adventures and his refusal to commit once and for all to respect the orders of the police, the activist spent more than 90 days in prison.