Arrest warrant out for pastor

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/06/2021 (1485 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Provincial authorities are seeking to arrest a local pastor whose open defiance of public health orders has made him a household name in Manitoba.

Tobias Tissen, a minister at the Church of God (Restoration) south of Steinbach, is the subject of a May 27 arrest warrant for repeated violations of public health orders issued by Manitoba’s public safety investigation unit.

Warrants were also issued for five other prominent opponents of Manitoba’s coronavirus restrictions, four of whom have spoken at anti-restriction rallies in Steinbach. According to court documents first reported by the Winnipeg Free Press, police took those four individuals into custody over the weekend and released them on bail.

As of Tuesday, only Tissen and Chris Saccoccia, an anti-restriction activist from Ontario, remained at large.

Manitoba RCMP did not respond to questions about Tissen’s warrant.

“RCMP currently has a lookout stationed in the proximity of my home, they already attempted to do the arrest at my home. But no one is home,” Tissen wrote Monday on his Twitter feed.

Tissen has spoken out against public health restrictions from the pulpit, and at rallies in Steinbach and Winnipeg.

His church congregation has followed his lead, repeatedly flouting public health rules, including as recently as last Sunday, according to video footage the church posted online.

Meanwhile, Manitoba enforcement officers set a record by issuing 161 fines and 150 warnings from May 24-30.

At press time, Justice Minister Cameron Friesen was scheduled to discuss COVID-19 enforcement at a news conference.