A Canadian pastor who was jailed for holding a church service last spring was recently sentenced to a variety of penalties, including a requirement that whenever he speaks out against government COVID-19 mandates, he must also read a disclaimer stating that his views do not align with those of “medical experts.”
Pastor Artur Pawlowski of the Cave at Adullam church in Calgary, Alberta, and his brother Dawid Pawlowski were arrested “in a dramatic highway takedown” in May for defying “a government-mandated health order to keep [their] services at reduced capacity and enforce social distancing and mask-wearing,” The New American reported at the time. The two men spent three nights in jail before being released on bail.
Last Wednesday, Alberta Justice Adam Germain sentenced the Pawlowskis for contempt of court. Although Germain rejected prosecutors’ requests for jail time for the men, he did fine them both heavily, place them on probation, order them to perform community service, and prohibit them from leaving Alberta without their probation officers’ permission.
Perhaps most shocking of all, though, was his demand that “whenever they are opposing the … Health Orders in any public forum…, they must also place the other side of the argument on the record” in the form of this statement:
I am also aware that the views I am expressing to you on this occasion may not be views held by the majority of medical experts in Alberta. While I may disagree with them, I am obliged to inform you that the majority of medical experts favor social distancing, mask wearing, and avoiding large crowds to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Most medical experts also support participation in a vaccination program unless for a valid religious or medical reason you cannot be vaccinated. Vaccinations have been shown statistically to save lives and to reduce the severity of COVID-19 symptoms.
There was no word on whether Germain intended to impose a similar mandate for even-handedness on anyone speaking in favor of COVID-19 restrictions or vaccines.
But then Germain is hardly an unbiased arbiter. His 12-page ruling, released Friday, is riddled with statements demonstrating that he sides with the coronavirus tyrants. He repeatedly referred to the health orders as having been “designed to protect people.” He claimed that the Pawlowskis had “contributed to this ominous health situation by their defiance of the health rules and their public posturing.” He complained that Artur Pawlowski had condemned “everyone who follows the science on COVID-19.” And he ultimately declared that the brothers “are on the wrong side of science, history, and common sense.” (There are, of course, mountains of evidence to suggest that those pushing the various so-called mitigation strategies, including the vaccines, are “on the wrong side of science.”)
Germain wrote that while he agrees that the health orders “are all intrusions on personal liberty, they are not sacrifices that would offend the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and they are not egregious sacrifices.” Tell that to the churches and businesses that have gone under all over the world because of such restrictions.
Germain seemed to be less offended by the Pawlowskis’ defiance of the orders than he was by their willingness to speak out against them even if it meant going to prison. Indeed, he suggested that their opposition to the orders had little to do with principle and much to do with fundraising and fame. He griped that Artur Pawlowski had taken advantage of his international fame after his arrest to make a speaking tour of the United States, something “leaders and statesmen don’t do.” He also said the pastor’s repeated references to the health-order enforcers as “Nazis” were “inappropriate.”
In addition, Germain made a point of sentencing the Pawlowskis to punishments severe enough to “impact and influence” the behavior “of others who choose to flaunt [sic] court orders.” In other words, he wanted to make an example of them.
“Welcome to Chinada 2021,” Artur Pawlowski quipped after leaving court last week.
“[Now] every time I open my mouth to the public,” he said, “I have to lie … stating that vaccinations are saving lives, that masks work, that doctors and scientists are all for restrictions.”
He is already working on an appeal.
