Thousands urge Congress to condemn imprisonment of Canadian pastor who addressed trucker protest

Thousands have signed a letter to Congress protesting the imprisonment of a Canadian pastor who has spent the past two weeks in solitary confinement after giving a speech to the anti-vaccine mandate Freedom Convoy blockade along the U.S.-Canada border.

Pastor Artur Pawlowski remains jailed in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day at the Calgary Remand Centre after being denied bail twice, prompting outrage from approximately 10,000 people who have so far signed the congressional letter, according to Cindy Chafian, who is the executive director of Firebrand Action and Media, which organized the initiative.

Pawlowski was arrested for the fifth time since the pandemic on Feb. 8, just days after the pastor delivered a 20-minute speech to the truckers in Coutts, Alberta, during which he urged them to “hold the line” against government overreach without resorting to violence.

Pawlowski also recounted to them the parallels he sees between the Freedom Convoy and Poland’s Solidarity movement in the 1980s that ultimately led to the liberation of his native country, despite a crackdown from its communist government.

The pastor was apprehended at his home shortly before he was slated to return to the border to speak to the truckers again and officiate a church service there. – READ MORE