For months, Polish-Canadian pastor Artur Pawlowski, his family, and his congregation at the Fortress of Adullam Church and the Street Church, in Calgary, Alberta, have been accosted, fined, and harassed by government bureaucrats and police. And on Saturday, May 8, the COVID-crazed cops not only attacked them again, they literally arrested Artur and his brother, David, in the middle of a busy rainy street, offering the world the unforgettable image of peaceful, well-dressed, men of God being thrown to their knees and handcuffed by jack-booted, armor-vested, gun-toting, “social-distance” breaching, tax-consuming cops.
Shortly after the arrest, fellow pastor Henry Hildebrandt tweeted a picture of Artur on his knees, and wrote:
“Earlier this afternoon, my fellow pastor Artur Pawlowski was arrested in Calgary for the crime of holding a church service, as he does every Saturday morning. Are you awake yet?”
And Ezra Levant, and the team at Rebel News, provided video.
On Twitter, Ezra said:
“A heavily-armed SWAT team just took down a Christian pastor heading home from church. Police say he’s charged with “inciting” people to go to church. This is the second pastor jailed this year. We’re crowdfunding his lawyers at http://SaveArtur.com”
And if that last portion of Ezra’s tweet recalls some important memories, it should, because Pastor Pawlowski’s year-long fight against the crackdown cops – a fight that saw him fined and arrested numerous times for FEEDING THE HOMELESS – was what inspired Levant and Rebel News to start their “Fight The Fines” charitable site so that people could donate to help pay the towering legal fees of folks, worldwide, who have been harassed, fined, and arrested for engaging in voluntary association or news reporting contrary to government COVID commands.
MRCTV readers might recall my coverage of Pawlowski’s courageous stand for liberty a few weeks ago, when armed police and a COVID-crazed bureaucrat interrupted his service and he powerfully told them to leave, correctly citing their actions as reminiscent of the Nazi Gestapo and the Soviet communist police-state he left behind decades ago.
Since that time, the cops have continued to harass him and his congregation, whle the faithful have continued to resist, to recognize the authority of God over the authority of men who claim “power,” and to recognize the logical, historical, and ethical primacy of voluntary association.
The godless state would not be deterred, and, at the end of April, intrepid reporters discovered that the Alberta judicial branch issued a warrant for the pastor’s arrest. Wrote Tré Goins-Phillips for FaithWire.com:
“Through a quietly signed warrant, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice David Gates authorized police and heath officials in Alberta ‘to use such reasonable force as they deem appropriate to gain access’ to the building belonging to The Fortress of Adullam Church in Calgary, led by Pastor Artur Pawlowski.”
And, as befits a police state:
“The warrant furthermore forbids the pastor or anyone else operating on his behalf from interfering with officials, should they attempt to gain access to the church or try to reach Pawlowski. If anyone tries to impede their actions, the judge has permit (sic) law enforcement officers ‘to do anything necessary’ to detain and arrest Pawlowski.”
With that threat hanging over him, Artur took his place at church Saturday, and defied the government, offering his sermon, and witnessing the congregation reject the armed cops who tried, once more, to interrupt. Tweeted Rebel News reporter Adam Soos at 1:05 pm Saturday:
“Artur Pawlowski's supporters have ejected Calgary Police from the church. We expect they will return in force.”
And they did, expanding the number of armed invaders far beyond the original ten, pushing Artur and his brother to the tarmac, cuffing them, and dragging them away like slabs of butchered meat.
For context, let us recall that Artur and David’s escaped communist Poland, where the Soviets tried to stamp out Christianity, where the collectivists running the state claimed that there was to be no voluntary interaction unless the government permitted it. In that and other communist-collectivist nations, there was to be no worship of God, because, of course, the worship of God – particularly through Christianity and Judaism – requires free will and recognizes an authority and natural order superior to man’s creation, “the state.”
Hence, as I noted when writing/shooting the free MRC learning series, “College Unbound,” Chinese communists break into private dwellings to “break up unlawful” religious meetings, and one of our guests, broadcaster David Knight, recalled his own experience when his family adopted a young girl from China:
“I could tell when we got into Hong Kong. You know how I could tell? We started seeing crosses. And for the first time, I realized, ‘Ya know, for the last two weeks, we haven’t seen any churches, or any crosses.”
Related: Canadian Pastor Blasts COVID Cops Who Invade Church During Passover Sermon
In "College Unbound," Episode 10, Knight adds, “There’s a very big church, but it’s underground, in China. A very big church. There are probably a lot more Christians in China than there are in America, and they’re a lot more hardcore, because they’re serious about it... There’s real stakes involved there.”
Artur and David Pawlowski saw the stakes in Poland, as well, and, now, collectivism is attacking freedom and free association, free worship, and God, again, this time in Canada, the place to which they fled to escape tyranny.
That would be the place where its state-subsidized “news” network, the CBC, blithely reported:
“On Saturday, Artur and Dawid Pawlowski were charged with organizing an illegal in-person gathering, inciting or inviting others to attend an illegal gathering, as well as promoting and attending the gathering.”
Review that statement and see if any of it comports with a free society.
As I often stress, an invitation to gather in any private place, for any voluntary activity, is, by definition, not an aggressive or violent act. It violates no one’s rights and allows for free will to assess risk and benefit, and to accept or reject the invitation.
It is the state which is involuntary, the state which forces people to pay, which forces people to fund its vaunted construction projects to make “public buildings” and fund gun-toting police. It is the state which redefines what is PRIVATE property and calls it “public” if neighbors, friends, worshippers, or customers enter it. But only that which is supported through tax cash is “public”. It is that realm, the one run by government and politicians, which forces people to pay and associate with each other in direct or indirect ways.
These lessons must be learned. Pastor Lawlowski and his brother suffer at the hands of a government that counts on the populace NOT learning these lessons.
As a man called “Domenic” wrote about this shocking move on Twitter:
“How can anyone tell me that Canada is a free country when the government can yell ‘pandemic’ and justify shutting down your livelihood, place of worship and restrict your mobility while using the full force of police to terrorize you into suppression?”
Amen.