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AYLMER — The town’s police chief says officers will lay charges this time, but a church here says it may hold drive-in services again on Sunday anyway in defiance of Ontario’s emergency orders to stall the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pastor Henry Hildebrandt of the Church of God said Wednesday he’s considering whether the emergency orders are an attack on faith.

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The Southwestern Ontario church held a drive-in service Sunday when congregants pulled into the parking lot and listened to the sermon through their radios, prompting local police to warn church officials there will be legal consequences if any future services are held.

That’s left Hildebrandt questioning whether Ontario’s emergency law, slapped in place to halt the spread of the coronavirus, is an attack on freedom of religion.

“The Bible teaches Christians to be good citizens and obey the reasonable demands of our government. It does not, however, teach blind obedience to the authorities when onerous restrictions are placed on our freedoms,” Hildebrandt said in a statement .

“In fact, we are guaranteed the right to religious freedom and peaceful assembly in the Canadian Constitution, subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. We now find ourselves debating what constitutes a justifiable, reasonable limit,” Hildebrandt said.