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Pastor facing 10 years in prison for preaching at Canada trucker blockade protesting vaccine mandates
By Taylor Penley
Published February 07, 2023
Canadian pastor Artur Pawlowski faced jail time after tossing out health officials and armed police and defying court orders to keep his church open during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now under scrutiny for accusations that he contributed to $400 million in damages by holding a church service during last year's trucker blockade at the U.S.-Canada border, he could be facing up to ten years behind bars.
"We have never seen something like this before in our beloved Canada," he told Laura Ingraham Monday on "The Ingraham Angle."
Pastor Artur Pawlowski maintained that Canada's response to the pandemic was an attempt "to destroy the middle class." (Artur Pawlowski)
"This was truly a trial of the century. Freedom of expression, freedom of religion…"
Pawlowski said he was asked by the truckers to deliver a church service at the blockage protesting stringent COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the country,
"We had the Lord's supper, the holy communion, we were singing hymns together, and I told them, ‘Stand up for your rights,’" he said. "I was wearing a hoodie with [a message of] solidarity on it. The trial prosecutor said because I had that hoodie, I was inciting people.
A sign calls for the freedom of Pastor Artur Pawlowski in Times Square in New York City, New York, in March 2022. (Firebrand Action and Media)
"He compared me to someone that was inciting murder. He compared me to Rwandan genocide. I'm telling you, this nation has gone crazy. We are truly living behind the Iron Curtain right now…" he added.
Pawlowski said freedom of expression and freedom of religion are on the line as he awaits the judge's final decision in the trial that is expected to come in mid-March.
He also told Ingraham that he is the "first and only Canadian" facing such Draconian charges for simply speaking at an event.
CANADIAN PASTOR REPEATEDLY JAILED OVER COVID PROTOCOLS TO FACE FINAL TRIAL: ‘CRAZY STUFF’
Lines of trucks block the U.S.-Canada border during a demonstration in Coutts, Alberta, on Feb. 2, 2022, the day Pastor Artur Pawlowski delivered a speech that landed him in prison. (Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"Everything is upside down, but that's what you get when you have communism or fascism or socialism," he said of the Canadian government cracking down on churchgoers during the pandemic, adding, "we are being attacked left and right."
Pawlowski said the government has elected him to serve as an example of those who challenge their authority and urge others to discern right from wrong.
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