Pastor who defied government COVID-19 protocols regains freedom

A Calgary pastor accused of repeatedly flouting public safety measures who was arrested by members of the Canada Border Services Agency Monday afternoon after he touched down in the city on a private charter flight, Artur Pawlowski, has been released.

According to the lawyer representing him, Sarah Miller, a bail hearing was held late Monday night and the pastor was subsequently released.

“I am here before this court as a political prisoner of conscience,” Pastor Pawlowski said in a statement during a sentencing hearing on 14 September.

He claimed that Alberta Health Services and the “politicians have found a new way of penalising anyone that is opposing their unconstitutional medical tyranny. They hate the idea that they have been exposed for what they really are: liars, hypocrites and cheaters”.

“I have heard from my grandparents about similar tactics from the time of the Nazis, persecuting churches and the clergy,” he added, according to the National Post. “Canada has fallen. Sure, you can lock us up and throw the key away, but our political imprisonment will shout even louder about the hypocrisy.”

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The pastor, as well as his brother Dawid Pawlowski, were both found guilty of contempt for violating COVID-19 health orders. The Pawlowskis hosted and participated in gatherings and conducted services at a church in southeast Calgary where mask and physical distancing rules were violated.

In 2021, Pawlowski marched in and led an anti-mask rally in Downtown Calgary while holding a tiki torch during the daytime

In 2021, during an Easter service, police were called to Pawlowski’s congregation over reports that Pawlowski and his church “were not adhering to the government’s COVID-19 public health orders.”

Pawlowski was accused of holding a church service exceeding capacity limits set by the Alberta government during a surge of COVID-19 variant infections.

He repeatedly referred to the police and a Public Health Inspector as “Nazis” and “Gestapo” and belligerently demanded them to leave the congregation. The police left and no tickets were issued.

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Pawlowski was later charged for organizing, promoting and attending an illegal in-person gathering that violated public health orders and was arrested by the Calgary Police Service.

The pastor and his brother are scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 13.

Artur Pawlowski is a Polish-Canadian Protestant street preacher and political activist.

He is pastor of the Cave of Adullam congregation in Calgary and previously led the Kings Glory Fellowship. Pawlowski is also founder and pastor of Street Church Ministries (SCM), a politically active group no longer recognized as a religious or charitable organization by the Canadian government, where he engages in open-air preaching and Christian street outreach.