VIDEO: Trial set for Fraser Valley farmer who rolled tractor while fleeing police in an anti-LGBTQ convoy

Malkiat 'Bill' Shoker pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving, flight from police, assaulting a peace officer with a weapon

February 20, 2025

Remember Bill Shoker's slow-motion police chase in a tractor as he was part of a convoy of clowns protesting the anti-bullying school resource SOGI 123? 

That was back on Nov. 25, 2023, in a circus-like display that might have been funny if it wasn't so ignorant and dangerous. It was an anti-LGBTQ parade on Highway 1 that ended badly for farmer Malkiat "Bill" Shoker. The produce farmer took his John Deere on Highway 1, filmed himself talking about SOGI 123 while driving, then when RCMP officers put on their lights to end the nonsense outside of Surrey, instead of pulling over, Shoker bolted. 

He faced the problem that a high-centred tractor doesn't corner well at speed, apparently even as slow as he was going. Shoker rolled and flipped the machine on an exit off the highway in a dramatic scene caught on video as he was pursued by RCMP vehicles.

Shoker turned himself in to police in Chillliwack on Dec. 18, 2024, beside his lawyer Paul Dutt after being charged on Dec. 9 with dangerous driving, assaulting a peace officer with a weapon, and flight from police for his comically karmic drive.

While Shoker turned himself in to the Chilliwack RCMP detachment, the charges he faced and the trial scheduled is in Surrey. Dutt was with him at the Chilliwack RCMP detachment to grandstand about freedom of expression.

"We are not only dealing with criminal charges, which we will vigorously defend, we are also dealing with an individual's right for freedom of speech," Dutt said.

What allegedly fleeing from police while driving illegally and dangerously down roadways in the Fraser Valley has to do with freedom of expression is a bit of a mystery that Dutt will likely explain at trial.

"Whether you're on either side of this, for Mr. Shoker he's on one side of it, but the main factor is that he was still protesting peacefully in his tractor, and he was able to do so, and he should be able to do so under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms," Dutt said. 

Shoker runs Shoker Farms, a Chilliwack grower and farmgate seller of berries. After the incident several people started boycotts against Shoker's products sold in stands around the community and directly from his main location across from the dump at 46825 Bailey Rd. 

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Paul J. Henderson
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