Ezra Levant reports from Lethbridge, Alberta, where Pastor Artur Pavlovsky—facing 97 charges for decades of unpermitted street ministry—was convicted under Jason Kenney’s Critical Infrastructure Defense Act for a 17-minute sermon urging truckers to stay during the 2022 convoy protests. The judge ruled his call to avoid dispersing as "incitement," despite no violence, while Pavlovsky’s 52-day pre-trial solitary confinement and year-long house arrest (12 hours daily) underscore systemic authoritarianism. He launched Solidarity Movement of Alberta, accusing Danielle Smith of breaking amnesty promises and media like CBC/Global of bias, comparing his treatment to China’s political prisoners. Legal challenges continue as Pavlovsky defies convictions, vowing unyielding resistance against what he calls a broken rule of law. [Automatically generated summary]
We're doing the Ezra Levant show on location today.
I'm in beautiful Lethbridge, Alberta.
A glorious spring day.
It makes me nostalgic for growing up in southern Alberta.
Behind me is the court house in Lethbridge.
I'm standing a few blocks, about a half a block away from the main entrance because there's a festive gathering as there always is when Arthur Pavlovsky or the truckers are in trial in this courthouse.
So we just moved a little bit away from that because it's quite noisy.
They have loudspeakers, they have prayers, they have singing, and they have dozens of protesters there in support of today Arthur Pavlovsky.
As you know, Arthur Pavlovsky is a Christian pastor who has been in trouble with the law actually for decades.
You might think he's a career criminal, but he's never been charged or convicted.
Actually, never been convicted of a crime in his life.
He has been charged with a crime, and that's what we're here to hear the results on today.
Arthur Pavlovsky is a thorn in the side of the establishment.
For years, he was prosecuted and I'd say persecuted by busy bodies from City Hall who hated the fact that he would minister to the poor on the streets of the city.
He would feed them, give them hot meals, and preach to them.
I'm not sure what the city elders hated more.
They took him to court nearly 100 times for that.
So it's no surprise that Arthur Pavlovsky was one of the first people that butted against the system when the lockdowns came in.
You'll remember this footage of when Pastor Arthur was feeding the homeless.
I think this is March of 2000 and 2020, very early days during the pandemic.
Look at this and look at that abusive cop.
We are providing necessities of life to those that you and your bosses were accused of providing.
These are you guys allowed to stand back from me a little bit.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
108 feet.
Stand back.
Okay?
Or why?
Do not tell us.
Six feet away for everybody.
That's for everybody.
Well, that's when I reached out to him and said, look, we've got to defend you.
Let us crowdfund a legal team for you.
And our Fight the Fines campaign was born.
He was client number one.
We've gone on, of course, to create the Democracy Fund, an arm's length charity to handle civil liberties litigation for over 2,500 people.
Pastor Arthur was client number one, and he's been the most busy client.
I think today's court hearing marks probably the 20th time during the pandemic alone that Pastor Arthur has been on trial.
There's always a group of people outside supporting him from Calgary and from the local community.
As you may know, I was here a couple months ago for the two-day trial of the criminal charges and a charge under the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act.
The criminal charges and the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act charges emanate from the same activity.
Pastor Arthur came down during the trucker convoy to give, I think it was a 17-minute sermon to the truckers when they were holed up in a saloon one night.
That's what Pastor Arthur does.
He gives inspirational and religious speeches.
In that case, he talked a lot about the solidarity movement back in his home country of Poland and how they believed in peaceful civil disobedience.
I'm going to show you a few minutes of that sermon taken from Arthur Pavlovsky's own Facebook page.
I hope I'm not committing a crime by doing it.
Here, take a look at what this two-day trial was about.
Polish people did it.
This is how they did it.
When they understood how powerful they are in that shipyard, when Led Vowenso and others understood, now they want to listen to us because we have blocked the entire thing.
They started to say, not just those demands.
We want them all.
Here is what I want to tell you how this could work.
Send a message to the government officials with your ultimatum.
You see, for the past two weeks, they have been giving you ultimatums.
They were patting the chest, coming with the guns and telling you, you all are criminals, terrorists, racists, zemo folks, and homophobes and whatever they could take.
They were coming here and they were telling you what to do.
Now, you tell them what to do.
You go to them and you say this.
Mr. Kenny, we're giving you 48 hours until Saturday noon to get rid of every restriction in our beloved province because we are free Canadians.
People, you don't do that.
If you don't do that, you be very careful.
Because you have never seen an angry Albertan yet.
And I'm again not talking about violence.
I'm not talking about swords and guns and all that stuff.
You've got the most powerful wings ever.
Who can move 1,000 trucks?
Who can move 10,000 truckers?
We can't.
With 100,000 supporters.
I am calling right now every Albertan not to go to not to go to Edmonton, but to come here.
Thank you.
Come here.
That's an excerpt.
And you can see it's classic.
Arthur Pavlovsky, he's got some drama.
He has references to Nazism and communism, the two extreme and totalitarian regimes that dominated Poland for much of the 20th century.
And he was talking about taking inspiration from Solidarnosk or Solidarity, the political trade union led by Lech Valenza that helped bring down the Berlin Wall, frankly.
That full 17 or 18 minute video was the only evidence in front of the court for two days.
There were no witnesses.
Arthur Pavlovsky didn't choose to take the stand.
For two days, prosecutors and defense lawyers, and I'm trying to recall, I think there was about seven lawyers all told, haggled over the meaning of individual words and phrases in a Christian pastor's peaceful sermon.
It was actually absurd.
It will be extremely absurd if he's convicted today.
It was absurd that we had this trial at all.
There I was in the court of King's Bench, as it's now called.
And all these clerks and all these police and all these prosecutors and all these lawyers and the jam-packed gallery were there because the government thinks Arthur gave an illegal sermon.
Just stop and turn those words over in your mind.
It's not a phrase we associate with Canada, let alone the freest province in Canada, Alberta, whose motto is literally strong and free.
So today is the day when the judge will release the verdict and he could do anything.
He could convict on all the charges.
He could convict on some but not others.
Or he could acquit all across the board.
These aren't tickets.
The criminal code offenses are actually crimes.
And the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act is a quasi-crime.
It's never been used before.
That's a law that Jason Kenney's administration brought in specifically to defend against eco-terrorism and Greenpeace stunts where they would disrupt critical infrastructure like a pipeline or like an oil sands.
People who would literally go and sabotage millions of dollars worth of equipment and cause tens of millions of dollars worth of damage.
That's the law.
It's never been used before, never been used on Greenpeace, never been used on any extremists like that.
But the government of Alberta is using it against a Christian pastor who himself never blocked a road and never actually mentioned the word blockade in his whole sermon.
Watch it for yourself.
1989, Poland had the first free and democratic election after the Second War.
We don't have elections anymore, friends.
Don't cheat yourself.
You think we've elected our officials?
They're appointed.
We have no say in democracy anymore.
We've lost democracy.
Canada is not a democratic nation anymore.
And if those two years didn't show you that, then you must be blind.
We need our country back.
How are you going to get your country back?
If you're not going to stand up, stand up.
And thousands are coming to help you.
I think it's stunning that that trial happened Now, the judge was acutely aware that this has the attention of the broader community.
But you know, judges, I mean, they'll do what they want to do.
They are often politically immune.
And we want a degree of judicial independence, of course.
We don't want mob justice.
But I really think that it is not in the public interest to have proceeded against Arthur Pavlovsky.
We'll see if the judge agrees or disagrees.
So I'm here early.
We're going to sit in the courthouse at 1.30 mountain time.
I talked to Arthur's lawyers, Sarah Miller and Chad Haggerty, on the way down here today.
They're coming here today too.
The ruling will be read out, probably word for word from the judge.
Arthur's lawyers don't expect it to go that long.
I can't imagine the whole hearing will be more than an hour.
It's not a hearing, actually.
It's just the issuing of the judgment.
I imagine we will be out of there in half an hour.
And I'm frankly a little bit nervous because the judge was asking questions during the trial that indicated he may have been considering acquitting on the criminal charges, but convicting under the Ecoterrorism Act.
That'll be a disgrace if it happens.
By the way, if that happens, the next step will be for Arthur's lawyers to challenge the constitutionality of that critical infrastructure defense act.
There was a big discussion during the trial.
Should the challenges to its constitutionality happen first, or should he be convicted first, and then they challenge the constitutionality.
The judge basically saying, we don't need to inspect the constitutionality of this law if Arthur is not convicted on it.
That seems to be common ground amongst everyone in the court, both the prosecutor and the defense.
So today is sort of step one in the verdict.
If Arthur is acquitted on everything, we're done.
If he's convicted on the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act, then Arthur's lawyers will challenge the constitutionality of that, and he may win on those grounds.
So it's an extremely long, drawn-out process, and that's sort of the point, isn't it?
The process is the punishment.
The prosecutors here, I've seen him in court before.
He's obsessed.
He despises the truckers.
He's a lockdown tyrant.
And he has been tasked by the government of Alberta to hunt down anyone who embarrassed the regime.
What's so insane is that these charges came about under Jason Kenney's regime.
He's been thrown out by voters.
Danielle Smith, the new premier, the new leader of the United Conservative Party, expressly campaigned on throwing out these abusive and harassing charges, but the media party has insisted that they proceed.
We'll see what happens today if there's a conviction.
That's it for me for now.
I'm going to go inside the court now.
I'm going to live tweet the hearings.
And the next you'll see of me is when we hear the result.
I keep calling it a hearing.
It's not a hearing.
It is the issuing of the judgment.
The judge will read it out.
Afterwards, I will talk to Arthur and I'll talk to his lawyers.
So, as of right now, I do not know how this story is going to end.
Coming Back Strong00:14:14
I'll come back in a moment.
One day, the history and God Himself will judge those evil people.
Today, this is my final trial: the verdict for according to them: a horrible crime of standing with the people, standing with the trackers and farmers.
And I want the whole world to know again this time with the truckers and farmers was absolutely incredible.
Not only did I do not regret that I was part of the truck convoy, I cherish it.
It's dear to my heart.
Here is what I saw during that time.
I saw solidarity like I have never seen before in this country of ours.
Solidarity with different colors and different backgrounds, different creeds.
It brought families together.
I saw people loving each other, feeding each other, praying with each other, singing, loving.
That's what Canada was always all about: freedom.
I did not emigrate here for money.
I emigrated here for freedom.
And that very freedom is under attack from the very people that swore to protect our rights and freedoms.
For that, I say, shame on you.
Mayors, MLAs, members of parliament, premiers, and prime ministers, shame on you all.
One day, I hope soon, people will realize that we've lost representation.
That we need you people, not career politicians that care about you only before election, but politicians and men, neighbors just like you and me.
The people of the people, elected by the people.
Well, it is now 2:45 mountain time.
I just got out of the courthouse where for over an hour the judge went through line by line his verdict, and the news is guilty on all three charges.
The first was inciting mischief.
The judge took us through the portions of the speech where he said Arthur Pavlovsky did, in fact, incite men to commit mischief, namely blocking the highway and committing that crime.
The second matter was the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act, an eco-terrorism law brought in by the Kenny administration, designed to stop Greenpeace protesters from blocking pipelines or highways.
The law has never been used before, but it was used today.
And in its first use, the judge again convicted Arthur Pavlovsky under the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act.
The third part was breach of a court order.
Arthur Pavlovsky was out on bail, and one of the conditions on him that he be of good behavior and keep the peace.
And the judge said, well, if you're convicted of a crime and convicted of breaking this serious infrastructure law, by definition, you've broken the order to keep the peace and be of good behavior.
So the prosecution running the boards, winning three out of three matters.
Now, I should say there was an interesting wrinkle.
There's a principle that you can't be charged with multiple offenses for the same act.
And so there was a discussion during the court hearing a few months ago of if the government loses on one, can they have another or drop one?
Because there's a redundancy.
And the fact that the judge convicted on all three, well, and just stay with me here for a second, Arthur's lawyers had indicated that they want to do a constitutional challenge of the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act, that's an anti-ecoterrorism law.
So the judge convicted Arthur on all three.
The prosecution won all three, but now the prosecution jumped up and said, no, We would like to stay the prosecution of the ecoterrorism law.
Please, please, please don't subject it to a constitutional challenge.
I want to stay that prosecution.
At which point, Arthur's lawyer, Chad Haggerty, said, well, it's a bit late to do that, mate.
You prosecuted the case, you won, you were convicted, and now you're worried that you'll lose on appeal.
Now you're worried that the entire law might be thrown out as unconstitutional.
It's a very strange wrinkle.
And I got the feeling that the prosecutor felt like he was in deep trouble.
He was merely supposed to convict this turbulent priest to shut him up to get rid of that pesky Arthur Pavlovsky.
But what he may have done is, in fact, cause one of the pride and joy laws of this province to eventually be thrown out.
We'll see how that goes.
But I could see that the prosecutor had a Pyrrhic victory there in that he got Arthur, but he may have also lost the law.
Here's one more thing.
Arthur was convicted of two criminal offenses, like I say, putting aside the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act.
He was convicted of inciting mischief and convicting of breaking a court order.
Now, sometimes those offenses come with jail time, but since Arthur has already served 52 days in solitary confinement before any substantive trial was held, that amount of time pre-trial would more than set off any sentence he would receive.
In fact, often accused criminals get multiple credits.
So if you serve a week in jail, that's like two weeks after trial.
So Arthur already serving 52 days in prison before a trial.
There's no way that he will be sentenced to any jail time.
He may be fined, but again, that could be set off against the 52 days jail he's already served.
But I say again, all the sentencing is put on hold until this constitutional question about the ecoterrorism law is treated.
So in a way, there's no clarity here.
There would have been clarity if Arthur had won on all cases.
And I actually thought that that was a real possibility.
Because to me, the idea that a Christian sermon could be parsed over days by judges and found to be a crime, I thought that was too absurd even for 2023 woke Canada.
But alas, it was not.
And we sat there for an hour as the judge painstakingly described how Arthur's sermon was in itself a crime.
Let me say what the judge said.
He said that Arthur encouraged the truckers to stay there, not to leave, not to go somewhere else.
And though they were already obstructing the highway before he got there, he encouraged them to continue to do so.
And he specifically said, don't go up to Edmonton.
Stay here.
Hold the line.
And he referred to Arthur's reference of the Polish Solidarity Movement, which was a kind of a general strike.
So the judge said that what Arthur said was actually incitement to commit a crime.
That's what the judge said.
Now, I've got to think that all these matters are legally appealable.
The grab-a-man, the center of what Arthur did, is political and religious commentary.
And to call that a crime, I think, is such a stretch, especially under the criminal law standard of beyond a reasonable doubt.
I think it's a very dark day for freedom of expression.
It's not over yet.
And we'll see what happens next.
Remember, Arthur was convicted of an offense, I think it's two years ago now.
And a judge, if you remember in that case, actually ordered Arthur to read a little card.
Every time Arthur gave a sermon, every time Arthur did a video, did a media interview, Arthur was ordered to renounce his beliefs and read some prescribed statement about how vaccines were good and lockdowns were good.
You might recall that shocking setback.
That was later overturned three to zero by the Court of Appeal.
So just because Arthur lost today doesn't necessarily mean it won't be overturned on appeal.
Now, this judge was very careful in his reasoning, and judges like to defer.
Appeal court judges like to defer to lower court judges.
So I don't know if it'll be as easy to overturn as that egregious case I mentioned before where Justice Adam Germain had this bizarre little handwritten note that Arthur had to read.
So in closing, Arthur Pavlovsky was convicted on all three offenses.
The inciting mischief, the breach of a court order, and violating the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act.
That Critical Infrastructure Defense Act is being held in limbo while its constitutionality is being challenged.
The provinces is afraid of that.
This, in a nutshell, is not going away.
This will be many, many more months before even the matters today are resolved because the judge will not issue a sentence until this constitutional challenge is over.
This could drag on literally for years.
And in fact, it would surprise me if it didn't.
Arthur Pavlovsky has been in and out of courts for more than a decade.
We only started to defend him during the lockdowns, but he had been in court more than 100 times before that for serving food to the homeless on the streets of Calgary without a restaurant permit and things like that.
So another frustrating day in what I will increasingly call not the justice system, but the legal system.
The fact that so many government resources were going to crack down on a man's speech.
Let's call it what it was.
It was a spicy speech.
It was a fiery speech, as many pastors and clergymen are.
But to criminalize that, I think, is a new low for freedom in Canada.
And it'll be interesting to see how the media party covers it.
Looking around, you can see there are dozens of people who are here.
Every one of them, an Arthur Pavlovsky supporter, some from Lethbridge, some came in from other cities, including Calgary.
I met someone here from Red Gear.
So I think this has the attention of Canadians who are worried about freedom.
When I left the courtroom some 10 minutes ago, Arthur was huddled with his lawyers.
Today there was Sarah Miller and Chad Haggerty.
They were obviously planning next steps and what to do.
It's got to be stunning for Arthur to hear what happened.
I think he was hoping that he would be acquitted.
I thought there was a real chance of that.
I'm going to try and buttonhole them on their way out.
Obviously, I don't want to interfere with their conference.
So I'll come back to you one more time if I'm able to buttonhole Arthur or his lawyers.
Free Master!
Free Freedom!
Freedom!
You won't say she's standing here.
You're not going to teach the two family.
You're not going to teach the truth.
You're just a bum boy.
I'm just going to come around here.
Well, thank you so much.
What a joy to have such a friends like you are.
No, no, it's okay.
Guys, guys, can we get this message out, please?
can we can we like can we get this message out please let's uh let's i mean the mainstream media was supposed to be the last bastion of freedom so at least let's allow them to record it Well, I am a very privileged man.
I want to let you know that, that I can be found worthy to stand up and fight for all the Canadians and for the Canadians, for the rights, rights and freedoms.
Again, I'm not ashamed of what I did.
If I had a chance to do it again, I'll do it again gladly.
And I stand beside you.
I stood with the trackers.
I stood with the farmers.
I stood with Canadians.
I am a Canadian.
I'm a proud Canadian.
I love this country.
And I came to this country for freedom.
And that freedom right now has been stolen from us.
So I'm not worried, actually.
I know that sooner or later justice shall prevail.
I have been in a court of appeals multiple times.
I'll do just that.
I keep fighting.
I guess in an interesting way, we are in a fight no matter what.
I was hoping that this ordeal will be over and we can just move on.
I mean, there is no pandemic.
There is no restrictions.
There are no longer mandates.
Why can't we just move on with our lives?
But obviously, this corrupted government doesn't want to move on.
They have intention of stealing, robbing, pillaging.
that's why i am starting a political party because we so what you think is the end i just want to tell you this is just the beginning It's a beginning of a political party that will actually work for the people, will be run by the people, not by globalists, not by corrupted politicians.
The Beginning of a New Political Journey00:13:30
And I'm glad that God is allowing me to forward this to Albertans in this election that we have right now.
Solidarity Movement of Alberta is going to be officially in the books in just a few days.
We have about 40 candidates already.
I have intention, of course, to run in Calgary elbow.
Remember that when you see me door knocking, we're not stopping.
We're moving forward.
And thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to expose the level of corruption that our beloved Alberta has reached.
I mean, you thought, and I thought, and so many other people thought, that we have reached a very low, but it looks like they're still digging.
They're still digging.
And we shall be exposing them every single day.
I just have a word here from Proverbs 29, 7.
And here is what it says.
The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.
This is exactly what we're fighting against.
We're fighting globalist people that have no concern for the little men.
I, on the other hand, I promise you this.
When elected, and one day I will be elected, I will work for the people.
I'll defend Canadian rights and freedoms.
I'll bring a real constitution to my beloved Canada and to this province that I adore.
And I'm going to do it not just for me, but for my children and for your children.
And if you want a man that stood for your rights for the past 24 years, I'm your man.
If you want flip-flopping political pancakes, half-baked like Daniel Smith, or a corrupted pathological liar, an evildoer, I call her the witch of the West.
Rachel Notley, well, you can pick your NDP.
You can have your communism and socialism if you want.
You can have corrupted politicians if you want with so-called conservatives.
Or you can have real Albertans that actually want to represent you.
Not the party line, not the party colors, not the name, but the people that actually elect us.
And that's how it's supposed to be from the very beginning.
So I thank you so much for coming.
Unless you have some questions, I just want to summarize what happened in the court today is the fight is still on.
The fight is still on.
So can you explain just briefly like you're not guilty on all three charges?
Why do you think that happened if you don't agree with me?
Well, of course it happened because they're making an example out of me.
You know that, I know that four and a half million Albertans know that.
They're making an example out of a man, a Polish immigrant that grew up behind the Iron Curtain under the boots of the Soviets.
I've seen this movie before, and unless we change the script, we're going to see the same outcome of this movie.
And I'm telling you, as a survivor of communism and socialism, it does not end well.
So they don't like what I say.
They don't like where I'm coming from, what the expertise I'm bringing, or the knowledge, if you will, growing up in a totalitarian regime.
So that's why.
You mentioned Danielle Smith a couple times there.
Did she break a promise to you today with you not getting nothing at all?
You see, she did not only broke the promise to me, she didn't follow with her promises to all Albertans.
Because before she was elected, she was very precise and very clear.
She said that when elected, when you choose me over another man, I'm going to bring the amnesty.
And she could do it legally with the amnesty bill.
This whole thing would be over and we could move on with our lives.
Obviously, those people have no interest in moving on.
And again, I said that in the morning that the same people that are doing this to us, so the corrupted Justice Minister Tyler Chandra, that was caught red-handed, breaking the same rules and regulations and mandates that I was arrested for.
We're talking about Casey Madhu that came publicly and said this had never anything to do with science or keeping Albertans safe.
Safe, it was all about power control.
It was politically motivated.
We're talking about copying.
Were you promised anything specifically?
Again, I will not talk about my conversation with Danielle Smith.
I told you a week from now, I'm going to tell you the whole story, the full story of what really happened.
Now it's not about my conversation with the Premier or her promises.
This is about a great injustice that is being done, not just to me, but to thousands upon thousands of Albertans.
Because you've got to remember, this is not about me.
I don't represent me, Artopolowski.
I represent hundreds of thousands of people that were subjected to a tyranny that this country has never seen before.
They broke the law, they broke the Constitution, they broke the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Criminal Code of Canada.
When the Gestapo entered my church against section 176, 1, 2, and 3.
All of the law that we thought we had has been thrown out in the past few years.
We are being told to follow the science.
When we do, we are deplatformed by people like you.
When we bring the real science, when we bring real doctors, we are told they're not allowed to speak.
They're not allowed to point their side of the story.
And we've seen this for the past three years over and over again.
And when elected, this government is going to give you the right to see all the facts and all the science, not just government-approved science or Fauci science that came on public and said that the muzzles, as I call them, the mask, never worked and he never forced people to wear one.
Just like that pathological liar, our own domestic terrorist Justin Trudeau Castro, as I call him, he said he never, never forced people to take the deadly injection.
They are liars.
Shame on the politicians.
Shame on the system.
The system is corrupted to the core.
And I promise you, when elected, we are going to change this system.
And we actually will go after those people that have done to us.
And we will make them accountable.
Any message to the Premier?
I've got a question for you.
Well, if I was able to give a message to our Premier, I would say, shame on you for not standing for the little man.
Shame on you for not keeping your promise.
Because when a politician cannot keep his or her words, her promises, that politician is absolutely good for nothing.
I think I have more trust in my dog than I have in the politicians right now.
Can you talk a bit about the constitutional Canadian for the conference?
Well, you see, I have been in the hot waters before, and I have been personally convicted before, of course, ridiculous charges.
Do you know that I am the first Canadian citizen in the history of this country to be convicted in inciting mischief?
And what did I do?
When I came to Kuds, the roads were open.
Not once I said block the roads.
When I left, the roads were open.
I simply said to the Canadians, stand for your rights, God and state-given rights.
Paralyze the system.
It didn't mean block the streets.
It meant do it the solidarity style.
That's what I said.
That's why I was wearing the hoodie.
I was referring to what I saw with my own eyes.
And you know how the solidarity movement won the right?
They just refused to work for the villains.
That's what I was talking about.
That's what I said.
You can interpret whatever you want.
I mean, you, mainstream media, are such a pathological liar.
You said that I was inciting violence, even though three times during my speech I said repeatedly, no guns, no swords.
I'm not advocating violence.
I am against violence.
I have never been charged with violence.
I have never been charged even with assault.
I don't advocate for that, but I do advocate to stand up for God and state-given rights.
Because if we don't have rights to protest, we have no rights whatsoever.
Who has the parental rights or who has the rights over the children?
The parents or the government?
Well, you see, parents, of course, the Bible actually is very clear on the subject.
It says that kids are a gift from God.
So, thank you so much.
I'm going to do some interviews with my dear friend here, with Ezra.
And if there are other people that want to ask me questions, I'm at your service.
Thank you so much for coming.
Be blessed.
And do not lose hope, my friends.
Do not lose hope.
This is just a roadblock.
This is just a hiccup, as you call it.
And we keep plowing, we keep moving.
They're scared.
They're scared because if good people are elected, that means they lie.
The lies are going to be exposed.
That's what the whole thing is all about.
Yes.
Thank you.
Pavlovsky, who was just convicted of three offenses.
Now, the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act is sort of in limbo while the constitutionality is being challenged.
I got to say, I was sort of surprised.
I thought that this was a long shot by the government, but they scored all three.
Are you surprised?
Well, you know, of course, Ezra, I wish that this ordeal would be over.
But hey, we have been doing those rodeos before, and I guess it's another step up.
So as much as I would like this to go away, I'm looking forward to the next step because every step of the way exposes their corruption, exposes how hateful of a people they are, that they don't care about our rights and freedoms.
They don't care about the constitution.
They don't care about the criminal code of Canada.
If a pastor can be convicted criminally for just giving a sermon, encouraging people, hey, stand up for your rights, but do it peacefully.
I mean, you're next, Ezra.
And any politician, now think about it.
This is an election in the province of Alberta.
Now, if a politician goes out there and says something that the government doesn't like, he might be inciting something.
I mean, that's what was odd to me.
We had a two-day trial in February, or a couple months ago, and then we had the judge go through an hour's worth of reasoning, and it all looked very Canadian.
I mean, he's a Canadian judge with the Canadian, with Alberta coat of arms on the wall, and it's the legal system we're familiar with.
But if this were in China or Iran or North Korea, if a Christian pastor was on trial and convicted for a crime, I think we would say that's a political prisoner.
I think we would be shocked by it.
Is your faith in the Canadian system shaken at all?
Well, of course it is, but like I said, this is not my first time that injustice has been done because don't kid yourself.
This is a great injustice.
I've seen this growing up behind the iron curtain under the boots of the Soviets.
So what I'm saying is we must keep plowing.
We have to keep fighting.
We must do it peacefully.
We must use every legal means that we have at our disposal.
But also we have to understand that something shifted.
In the past three years, something changed.
It feels less like a democracy and more like a totalitarian police state.
What interactions have you had with other organizations?
I mean, Rebel News has been covering your case and we've been helping to crowdfund your lawyers.
I see today Global News was here.
I think the CBC was here.
And they certainly got a negative reaction from your supporters here.
What has been the coverage of your case here by the other media?
Have they been fair or have they been in the tank for the prosecution?
No, they sided with the prosecution from the very beginning.
They accused me on the mainstream for months that I was inciting people to commit acts of violence.
As you know, the crown prosecutor compared my peaceful sermon to the truckers on the private property.
I was not in the middle of the highway.
I was not blocking anything.
I was in a private setting on the private property telling people to stand up for their rights.
And he compared that peaceful sermon to Rwanda genocide, to someone that was inciting murder, to commit murder on somebody else.
So the mainstream media is following that rhetorics.
I have been compared to a hateful person, white supremacist, racist, all kinds of different things were thrown at me.
And one of the biggest ones was that I was inciting people, people to commit acts of violence, which of course is such a lie.
Lie from the beginning to the end.
But it looks like they can get away with a murder.
Literally, they can get away with the murder and we cannot expose that murder because if you do, you're the hater.
You're the bad guy.
You know, I was talking to your lawyer, Chad Haggerty, earlier today.
He said that he had a client who's a bank robber and was convicted and literally got probation, which means no jail time.
You've already served, I think, 52 days in jail.
I find that very out of sync, that an actual violent bank robber gets no jail time.
Willing To Serve00:02:34
You've done 52 days.
Not only that, Ezra, I am still on house arrest.
So 12 hours a day for over a year now since I was released in the end of March, since that last year, I'm on a house arrest.
Therefore, I'm still detained from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
That tells you everything.
So I served already like seven, eight months.
Well, I mean, I find it incredible that you have the resilience to put up with this because, I mean, just since we've been helping you, I think you've had close to 20 court appearances and you've had 100 before that.
And you get convicted and then you won on appeal and you were convicted today, but we got the constitutional challenge.
So it just, how do you not give in to the fatigue?
I mean, I'm tired just listening to it.
I mean, I'm not out of steam myself.
I know what motivates me, but I'm not the guy in legal jeopardy here.
How do you find the strength to be defiant, to lean into the hurricane?
Because there's unlimited resources on the government's side.
It's a Goliath.
Now, you've got a lot of Davids chipping in 20 bucks, 50 bucks at savearthur.com.
So you've been able to match Goliath step by step.
But just from a personal point of view, don't you ever get tired?
I'll tell you two things that are keeping me going.
First is my family, my wife and my children.
Think about it.
I'm doing this for them.
What kind of a nation are they going to have tomorrow if a man like me will not stand up and fight?
Especially Amanda have seen this before.
Amanda grew up as a kid under the boots of this totalitarian crazy regime called communism and socialism.
And of course, Ezra is my faith, my God.
He keeps me going.
In the Bible, it says that you have to stand up for what's right, even if it costs you.
So this is my price for humanity, I guess, to pay.
And I'm willing to pay it.
It's tiring.
I would be a liar if I would say to you, yeah, it's a beautiful, nice, rosy ride.
No, they're torn.
But I am willing to do it.
Why?
Because I have three beautiful children.
And I have many more in the church.
People that are suffering, people that are crying, people that have lost hope.
What they need, what Canada needs, what Alberta needs as a courageous man or a woman that was willing to stand up and say, you know what, I will stand against the giants of today.
I will be your David.
God, if you want to use me, I wouldn't use me.
But if you want to use me, here I am, Lord.
Use me.
Give me the smooth stone.
Give me the slingshot.
Give me the stick.
And I'm willing to take down the biggest giant that this country has ever seen.
Well, we'll see how that goes because there's another showdown looming with the constitutional challenge.
Willing to Take Down Giants00:02:10
Listen, nice to see you today.
Thank you so much.
And we'll stay in touch in the months ahead.
And I don't think months, I think this will be years before it's done.
It could be, well, I'm ready.
I said to my lawyers, take this, please, all the way.
Whatever it takes, how long it takes, I am at your disposal.
I'm at your service.
just like I am at the service of Albertans in this election that we are in the middle of.
And we'll keep plowing and see what the future holds.
All right.
Well, we had planned to talk to Arthur's lawyers, Chad Haggerty and Sarah Miller, but given the fact that this matter is very live, that there is at least a constitutional challenge and a sentencing hearing, that this is nowhere near done, Both lawyers said to me they thought it would be inappropriate for them to give political commentary before that's done.
So we're going to skip talking to them, but I have your report that you have instructed them to fight on.
So we'll wrap up our show today.
I'm glad I came to Lethbridge.
I feel like this story is not resolved and we will have many more court appearances left.
It is so clear that the rule of law is damaged when a bank robber can go on probation and you serve 52 days, when truckers get jailed for honking horns, but the public sector union honks horns and they get a billion dollar pay raise.
You know, I just posted something on my Twitter comparing what happened in Ottawa to what is happening in Ottawa at the parliament right now.
I mean, the same thing.
People have flags, they have banners, and they are opposing the government.
We were opposing the government.
We got hammered.
They are getting the race.
It's incredible.
Well, we'll keep telling all these stories and more at RebelNews.com.
And for those of you who want to chip in to Pastor Arthur's legal defense, go to savearthur.com.
And as you know, that defense is being carried out by the Democracy Fund, which is a registered charity at arm's length from Rebel News.
So in fact, you will actually receive a charitable tax receipt for your gift.
That's it for today.
On behalf of all of us at Rebel News, from Lethbridge, Alberta, to you at home.