A Canadian judge on Tuesday found Calgary pastor Artur Pawlowski guilty of “mischief” for urging truckers to continue a 2022 protest that blocked the main border crossing in Alberta for two weeks.
The Alberta blockade was one of the most controversial events in the Freedom Convoy protests of 2022. Truck drivers blocked the border crossing in the town of Coutts with their vehicles to protest coronavirus lockdowns and vaccine mandates. Protesters erected a similar blockade on the bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan.
Protesters voluntarily dismantled the Alberta blockade following a raid by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) that uncovered a “heavily armed group” among the demonstrators allegedly plotting “seriously criminal activity.”
Thirteen people were arrested in the raid, which also seized a cache of weapons and ammunition. Protest organizers said they had been “infiltrated by an extreme element,” and would “peacefully leave Coutts and return to our families” to eliminate the risk of violence.
Justice Gordon Krinke said in his ruling on Tuesday that Pawlowski “intended to incite the audience to continue the blockade” and “intended to incite protesters to commit mischief,” including their efforts to “interfere with the use of Highway 4 in a manner which rendered it useless.”
Related: Canada “Freedom Convoy” Protester: Families “Have Had Enough”
The speech in question was delivered by Pawlowski on February 3, 2022, after the Freedom Convoy protesters had struck a deal with the authorities to dismantle their border blockade. Pawlowski exhorted them to hold their ground, and the blockade remained in effect for another two weeks.
“I believe that the eyes of the world are fixed on this place right here. That’s right – this little pitiful piece of land,” Pawlowski said to a cheering crowd of protesters in the videotaped speech.
“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes. Don’t you dare go breaking the line,” he said in the most widely-quoted line from his oration.
“For the first time in two years, you have the power. You pack your stuff, you go to Edmonton and you will be lost,” he said, referring to the agreement that would have seen the protesters retire from Coutts to Edmonton.
Prosecutors argued Pawlowski was clearly urging his audience to resume a criminal activity they had largely decided to abandon. The defense said he was expressing himself lawfully, and the charges against him criminalized free speech.
“This speech, on balance, when you take the full context, is not calling for violence. It is constitutionally protected. It does not meet the requisite burdens of proof … and it does not show Mr. Pawlowski counseled interference with the highway,” Pawlowski’s lawyer Sarah Miller argued unsuccessfully.
Pawlowski emerged from the courtroom to be greeted by hundreds of supporters who played music, passed out T-shirts, and festooned the terrace in front of the courthouse with signs supporting his cause. The crowd evidently believed he would be acquitted, and grew angry when he was not.
“I’m not ashamed of what I did. If I had a chance to do it again, I would do it again, gladly,” he told his supporters. “I stood with the truckers, I stood with the farmers, I stood with Canadians.”
“I told the people this is a peaceful uprising. No guns. No swords. I stand by what I said a year ago,” Pawlowski said.
“I am proud that I stood with the people that simply stood for their God and state. Our rights do not belong to the politicians or bureaucrats or even judges or Crown prosecutors. They belong to us, the people,” he declared.
“Mischief” can be a fairly serious charge in Canada, with penalties ranging up to heavy fines and years in prison depending on the value of property damage or activity obstructed by the defendant. Pawlowski was also convicted on Tuesday of breaching his release order (essentially, violating the terms of probation) and may yet be charged with willfully damaging essential infrastructure.
Pawlowski had a history of clashing with the authorities during the coronavirus pandemic, especially when the Canadian government decreed that religious services posed an unacceptable risk of contagion and tried to shut them down.
In April 2021, the Polish-Canadian pastor angrily threw six police officers out of his church in Alberta, denouncing them as “Gestapo Nazi communist fascists” and “psychopaths” for interfering with Easter services. Pawlowski videotaped the confrontation and posted it to Facebook as a victory for religious freedom.
Related: “Trudeau for Treason!” — Canadians Protest Against Mandatory Vaccines
Corrina ConlanThe police arrested Pawlowski in May 2021 for continuing to hold religious services in defiance of lockdown orders, this time confronting him on the side of a road to avoid his church and cameras, although a journalist was on hand to document the encounter. By Pawlowski’s count, he was hit with 40 tickets, numerous fines, house arrest, and jail time for insisting on practicing his religious freedom during the lockdowns.
The Pawlowski case could have political ramifications because Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP), spoke with Pawlowski on the phone before his trial began and promised to enquire about his case. Smith has been accused of ethical violations for interfering with the trial. Alberta’s next election began two days ago, with Smith in a tight race that could be swayed by the charges against her.
“Danielle Smith is on video very clearly announcing that she plans to interfere with the administration of justice on behalf of somebody whose actions cost our economy hundreds of millions of dollars,” Smith’s rival Rachel Notley, whose New Democratic Party (NDP) publicized Smith’s phone conversation with Pawlowski, said on Tuesday.
“I don’t care if it’s today, if it was a month ago when she claimed she was going to sue people, or two weeks from now. Quite frankly, Albertans are very, very nervous about the extreme nature of Mr. Pawlowski’s views. Danielle Smith clearly, clearly aligns herself with him,” said Notley, referring to Smith’s threat to sue CBC News for defamation over a January story about her office allegedly interfering with prosecutions related to the Freedom Convoy protests.
Smith refused to comment on Pawlowski’s conviction on Wednesday, but she said the Coutts blockade was a “win for Albertans” because it eliminated coronavirus mandates.
Related: Trucker Who Lived in Communist Romania: “This Is not Canada Anymore, This Is a Communist Country”
Robert Kraychik / Breitbart News
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