Mark Parhar, an influential COVID-19 denier whose profile was boosted by the Flat Earth conspiracy movement and the anti-mask movement, passed away in his New Westminster home on Thursday.
The cause of death of the 48-year-old is unknown.
According to a spokesperson of the BC Coroner Service, a full investigation will be conducted by the coroner, which may take months.
The past two years have seen Parhar in the news for spreading COVID-19 myths, violating public health regulations with his yoga studio, and being charged with failing to comply with quarantine laws.
Parhar’s yoga studio was suspended by the City of Delta in March 2020 after he falsely claimed that hot yoga kills coronaviruses and encouraged students to attend class despite orders limiting gatherings at the time.
Parhar said in a rambling video of Nov. 3 that he recently took ivermectin, a drug that is falsely marketed as a COVID-19 treatment, despite the fact that he didn’t believe COVID-19 existed.
“… That horse parasite remover? So I did take that and I feel like 40 to 50 percent better. But I am a little bit down right now,” Mark said in the video.
Mostly used to treat livestock parasites, Ivermectin has been proven effective in treating parasites, and not viruses.
US and Canadian health authorities have warned against taking Ivermectin for COVID-19.
Parhar filmed an earlier video in late October, in which he coughed and complained of being sick, but denied having “CONVID.”
“I’m jacked up on extra strength Advil and Tylenol for the last two days, that’s the only way I can function. If I’m not on Advil or Tylenol, I’m lying in bed,” he asserted in the video..
In the fall of 2020, Parhar became known as a conspiracy theorist after repeatedly violating Canada’s quarantine laws after returning to B.C. the year after attending a U.S. flat earth conference.
His court date was postponed last week after he was arrested in November 2020.
Parhar had informed the prosecutors he was too ill to proceed with the trial, according to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.
A lawsuit was filed on Parhar’s behalf in April 2021 claiming the BC Government kidnapped and terroristically arrested him and was thrown out for being “patently absurd and nonsensical.”