A Polish pastor at a Canadian church booted some six police officers and health officials from his house of worship on Saturday as they were seemingly trying to shut down a Passover service over COVID-19 restrictions.
In the viral video, Artur Pawlowski, who pastors a church in Calgary, Alberta, repeatedly tells the officials to immediately leave the church, and only come back when they have a warrant.
“Get out!” Pawlowski yells, referring to the officials as “Nazis” and the “Gestapo,” the secret police of Nazi Germany. “Immediately get out of this property! I don’t want to hear anything! … Until you get a warrant, out! Immediately go out and don’t come back!”
“And don’t come back without a warrant!” he again warned, as the officials left his church. “Do not come back without a warrant, you understand that? You’re not welcome here. Nazis are not welcomed here. Gestapo is not welcomed here. Do not come back, you Nazi psychopaths.”
As the officials continued to walk toward their vehicles, Pawlowski emphasized that it was “unbelievable” they were “intimidating people in a church during passover.”
“You Gestapo Nazi communist fascists — don’t you dare come in back here,” he yelled.
In an April 3 Facebook post of the incident, Pawlowski wrote, “Police came to disrupt Church gathering! Gestapo came again to intimidate the Church parishioners during the Passover Celebration!!! Unbelievable!”
Calgary Police released a statement on Sunday concerning the incident, confirming the drop-by was due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“The concern was that the people in attendance were not adhering to the government’s COVID-19 public health orders, which are in place to ensure everyone’s safety,” the statement read.
“The organizer of the gathering was uncooperative with the health inspector, and repeatedly raised his voice asking all parties to leave the premises, which they did approximately one minute after entry and in a peaceful manner,” Calgary Police said.
“We understand the pandemic has caused great disruption to all Calgarians in their professional and personal lives. We do not wish to disrupt anyone’s holidays or religious or spiritual events, however we must support our partner agencies when called upon to help ensure everyone can safely celebrate these occasions,” the statement added.
“No tickets were issued at the time and it will be up to our partner agencies to determine subsequent enforcement activity in response to this situation.”
— Calgary Police (@CalgaryPolice) April 4, 2021
As highlighted by The Daily Wire, Canadian pastor James Coates was jailed for more than a month after holding church services in defiance of Alberta’s Public Health Act:
Pastor James Coates, who pastors GraceLife Church in the Edmonton area, was first arrested in February after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) repeatedly flagged his church for not abiding by public health orders that capped attendance at 15 percent capacity. The RCMP later slapped the church with more charges when they continued to hold services while their pastor was imprisoned.
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H/t The Blaze