“The police have done as much as they can about the harassment we’ve received,” she said. She isn’t sure what more police can do at this point about harassment from members of the congregation. The Fortress: The church of the Might Men and Women of God Live. McQueen said all she wants to see is consistent enforcement of public health mandates. The grande showdown of Pastor Artur Pawlowski. Johnston and Whistle Stop Café owner Chris Scott. In addition to the Pawlowski brothers, police have arrested several other prominent scofflaws since the injunction came into effect, including Fairview Baptist Church pastor Tim Stephens, Calgary fringe mayoral candidate Kevin J. His consistent and sacrificial efforts to provide comfort and food for the hungry are legendary. “It is extremely disappointing that people would knowingly put their fellow Albertans at risk by ignoring the current rules, particularly with the growing pressure on our health care system.”Īn Alberta justice granted AHS a court injunction earlier this month to allow them and law enforcement officials to take action against gatherings violating COVID-19 restrictions. One of those pastors is still behind bars: Pastor Artur Pawlowski of Calgary, the Street Church pastor who has been ministering to Calgary’s homeless and downtrodden for many years. “AHS strongly condemns the intentional disobeying of COVID-19 public health restrictions,” the authority said in a statement. The health authority said its team along with police monitored a gathering at the church Saturday afternoon. This incident was hardly the first time Artur Pawlowski faced legal trouble amid the pandemic. At times, he was arrested within days of his release on other charges.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The Whistle Stop Cafe similarly operated for months in defiance of public health orders. The Pawlowskis had held large, maskless gatherings for church events in Calgary throughout the pandemic. Miller said those costs are expected to exceed $30,000. The panel also ordered that the fines and costs the Pawlowskis paid be reimbursed, and that the Pawlowskis' costs for the lower court proceedings and the appeal be paid by AHS to the brothers. The Pawlowski brothers had appealed the contempt findings and the sanctions, while Scott appealed only the sanctions.Īt the time of sentencing, Germain had said the trio was "on the wrong side of science" and the "wrong side of common sense," and that all three had "encouraged others to doubt the legitimacy of the pandemic." Pawlowski claimed he had been harassed by authorities for 13 months. But they have concluded that AHS did not obtain an order that applied to the Pawlowskis." "They're not by any means endorsing the Pawlowskis, that's not what we were asking for. "Rather than the proper legal analysis as to, does the order apply, and if so, what is an appropriate sanction?" Miller said. Sarah Miller, an associate with JSS Barristers who represented the brothers, said though the Pawlowskis can be "somewhat abrasive" at times, she argued that the Court of Queen's Bench justice made the decision based on a disagreement with what the Pawlowskis were doing. The appeal court agreed with the argument that the order did not apply to the Pawlowskis and didn't sufficiently capture what they were doing in May 2021.Ī central Alberta cafe was at the centre of a months-long battle over enforcement of COVID-19 health restrictions last year. On Friday, the appeals court set aside the speech provisions included in all three orders and set aside the sanctions against Scott and the contempt findings against both Pawlowskis, which resulted in the sanctions also falling. They were convicted of contempt of court in June 2021 for breaking COVID-19 health rules a month prior, tied to the enforcement of an injunction granted to Alberta Health Services (AHS).Īll three were fined, put on probation and ordered to present the perspective of medical experts if they continued to deliver public speeches that criticized COVID-19 public health rules. Pastor Artur Pawlowski of Street Church Ministries, his brother Dawid Pawlowski and Christopher Scott, who owns the Whistle Stop Cafe in Mirror, Alta., had been sentenced in October 2021 by Court of Queen's Bench Justice Adam Germain. A Calgary-based street pastor, his brother and a cafe owner, all of whom flouted public health restrictions for months, have seen their contempt of court sanctions set aside by the Alberta Court of Appeal.
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