You likely remember Art Pawlowski, the pastor of the Cave of Adullam in Calgary, Alberta. Police showed up to shut down his service during Holy Week in the days leading up to Easter weekend earlier this month. Pastor Pawlowski gained fame after he sent the officers on their way with some choice language, ordering them to come back with a warrant if they dared show up again. Well, they have their warrant, and it informs police to be ready to arrest the pastor using "anything necessary," according to Rebel News.
As Townhall reported about the initial incident:
Calgary police were met with resistance when they attempted to shut down a Good Friday church service for violating COVID restrictions. Artur Pawlowski, the pastor at The Cave of Adullam, told police to leave and not return until they have a search warrant in hand.
"You come back with a warrant," Pawlowski said. "Out! Out! Out!"
Police were hesitant to leave but the pastor wasn't backing down. "Out of this property, you Nazis!" Pawlowski shouted. "Gestapo is not allowed here!"
As police left the property, Pawlowski told them "not to come back, you Nazi psychopaths."
"Unbelievable sick, evil people. Intimidating people in a church during the Passover! You Gestapo, Nazi, communist fascists! Don’t you dare come back here!” he shouted as they walked away.
The pastor turned the camera to face him.
“Can you imagine those psychopaths? Passover, the holiest Christian festival in a year and they’re coming to intimidate Christians during the holiest festival? Unbelievable," Pawlowski said. "What is wrong with those sick psychopaths? It’s beyond me. Wow. Wow. How dare they?"
"How dare they" indeed, especially when they're treating a pastor like a violent criminal. As Adam Soos of Rebel News reported, the warrant is a "secret warrant — obtained in secret, using secret evidence." Pawlowski has received lockdown tickets because he's refused to stop feeding the homeless outside in Calgary, which is considered an illegal gathering, and does not wear a mask while doing so outside. Rebel News has a "civil liberties initiative" known as "Fight the Fines." The pastor also refuses to limit his church services to 15 percent capacity. They have a specific campaign to support Pastor Pawlowski, SaveArtur.com.
A relevant portion of the warrant reads [emphasis mine]:
Upon there being reasonable grounds to believe that the Respondent, Artur Pawlowski or any other person has breached any terms of the Court's Order, any member of Law Enforcement is authorized to forthwith arrest that person, restrain him or her and bring him or her at the earliest possible time before a Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench to show cause why he or she should not be held in contempt of Court, provided that such person shall not be arrested unless he or she has been previously served with a copy of the Court's Order by a member of Law Enforcement or an Executive Officer and, upon being given an opportunity to do so, does not thereafter obey the Court's Order. It is further ordered that, in making an arrest under this Order, Law Enforcement is authorized to do anything necessary to carry out the arrest, including the use of as much reasonable force as may be necessary to make the arrest, and without warrant to enter any place where on reasonable grounds Law Enforcement believes that the offending person may be found.
The warrant was dated April 23, but the pastor's attorneys did not find out about it until this week, as Jon Brown reported for the Daily Wire.
Pawlowski is not the only Calgary pastor to be targeted in such a way by this "Gestapo" police.
Pastor James Coates was arrested and released days later earlier this year because he was violating the Public Health Act by defiantly holding his church services. As I reported earlier this month, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was used as a literal wall to block the church building. A Friday press release from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which is representing Pastor Coates, announced that the trial will proceed on the morning of May 3, as it was supposed to, but only for four days, because the government will ultimately be delaying the trial, as it threatened to do.
The press release sent to Townhall reads in part:
The trial will proceed for up to four days initially, but will then be adjourned because government lawyers are not yet prepared to present any medical or scientific evidence that might support the health orders under which Pastor Coates is charged. Pastor Coates’ Charter challenge to the constitutionality and legality of Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s lockdown restrictions will be heard by the Court at an unknown later date.
If you still aren't disturbed, Matt listed countless more reasons why you should be, writing, "When It Comes to COVID Lockdowns, Canadians Have Collapsed Under the Government Boot." You would never know this was happening to our neighbors to the north, though they did try to reach out to the United States by signaling an "SOS" in morse code from Niagara Falls, as Leah reported. In a follow-up piece, Leah wrote that those responsible are being charged, though "detectives have been continuing to investigate the gathering to determine appropriate charges." In other words, they didn't even know what they were being charged with.
Count your blessings, and send Canada thoughts and prayers.