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crime and punishment First Amendment rights general freedom judiciary Regulating Protest

No Longer Compelled?

In October, Pastor Artur Pawlowski, who had been jailed during the pandemic for holding church services in Calgary, Alberta, was ordered as one condition of his probation to always append a statement of official government doctrine to his own public uttering of opinions about pandemic policy.

According to the October 15 ruling by Alberta Justice Adam Germain, when “exercising [their] right of free speech” to speak against lockdowns and vaccines, Artur Pawlowski, his brother Dawid, and Whistle Stop Café owner Chris Scott must also recite a disclaimer.

It reads, in part: “I am obliged to inform you that the majority of medical experts favour social distancing, mask wearing, and avoiding large crowds to reduce the spread of COVID-​19. Most medical experts also support participation in a vaccination program.”

Pastor Pawlowski told Fox News that he would “not obey this court order” to self-​denounce, and he likened the issuing court’s proceedings to the judicial proceedings of the Soviet Union.

“This crooked judge wants to turn me into a CBC reporter or CNN reporter, that every time that I am in public, every time I’m opening my mouth, I am to pray their mantra to the government.”

On November 25, Justice Jo’Anne Strekaf of Alberta’s Court of Appeal lifted this order compelling specific speech, which Justice Germain pretends is compatible with freedom of speech. Whether this latest ruling is permanent depends on what happens at a June 14, 2022 hearing.

Until then, at least, the creepy order has been suspended.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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1 reply on “No Longer Compelled?”

Thomas Szasz’s warnings about the rise of a “therapeutic state” have come true. We are all sick (or at least MIGHT be sick, which is even scarier!) and we are all in danger of spreading our sickness to the rest of the populace, resulting in widespread death and the collapse of society. Any measures the government feels it needs to take to save us from disaster are justified! Even noble, heroic! That it’s all a pile of steaming BS from several perspectives must never be broadcast.

The Pawlowski brothers ran into this in a major way, and Canada is revealed to be a totalitarian nation. Alas, that same madness has, to one degree or another, spread to every part of the world. History books will not be kind.

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