Last June, Missouri Republican Josh Hawley asked the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to consider putting Canada on its special watch list, over the arrests of Alberta pastors James Coates and Tim Stephens.
Hawley stated:
“I am troubled that our Canadian neighbours are effectively being forced to gather in secret, undisclosed locations to exercise their basic freedom to worship…..Frankly, I would expect this sort of religious crackdown in Communist China, not in a prominent western nation like Canada.”
There should be grave concern. No other group has been hunted down and monitored as Christians have during the government’s imposed COVID mandates.
Now, state legislators have just introduced a resolution in the Ohio House of Representatives “urging the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to add Canada to its special watch list as a Canadian pastor remains jailed.”
To view the viral videos of Pastor Artur Pawlowski intentionally targeted, dragged to jail and mistreated on more than one occasion was sickening, to say the least. For full reports about the ongoing deplorable treatment of Pastor Artur Pawlowski, click HERE. It was frequently stated that this was a scene out of China or Iran. And authorities didn’t dare attempt to treat imams or leaders of any other religious group who violated COVID rules in such a brutal manner; nor should they have done so. They only took aim at Christians.
It is an embarrassment that Canada would be even considered as a country of concern for religious freedom, but it is. Canada’s primary focus has been exclusively on “Islamophobia,” not human rights for all.
Under the Conservative Stephen Harper government, Canada’s Office of Religious Freedom was established in 2013, but it was shut down after Justin Trudeau came to power in 2015.
A representative of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations raised concerns as to whether the office was too Christian focused, since the person appointed to lead it was a Catholic.
CAIR-CAN changed its name to the National Council of Canadian Muslims, and is well recognized for its aggressive push of the “Islamophobia” canard Canada-wide on the taxpayer dollar, while promoting the aggressive pro-Palestinian lobby.
Conservative MPs Garnett Genuis and Candice Bergen (who is now serving as interim leader of the Conservative Party of Canada after the ouster of Erin O’Toole) called on the Trudeau government to re-establish the Office of Religious Freedom last March, of no avail. It is also noteworthy that the former Ambassador Andrew Bennett for Canada’s Office of Religious Freedom called out the Trudeau government for “displaying ‘totalitarian’ tendencies” in its summer job program that excluded any workplace that did not support abortion. The government revoked the requirement after an outcry.
“Resolution introduced in Ohio legislature urges Canada to be placed on religious liberty watch list,” by Jon Brown, Fox News, March 4, 2022:
State legislators introduced a resolution in the Ohio House of Representatives on Tuesday urging the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to add Canada to its special watch list as a Canadian pastor remains jailed.
The resolution, which was introduced by Republican state Reps. Reggie Stoltzfus and Timothy Ginter, was cosponsored by 11 of their colleagues and appealed to the historic legacy of religious liberty in Canada, the United States and Ohio as the basis for their condemnation of how Canadian clergy have recently been treated by authorities.
Since the pandemic, churches throughout Canada have faced imprisoned pastors, locked facilities, steep fines and continued interference from government officials.
“We, the members of the House of Representatives of the 134th General Assembly of the State of Ohio, have taken note of the abuses of religious liberty that have gone on throughout the Provinces of Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the resolution reads.
The resolution singled out the ongoing treatment of Pastor Artur Pawlowski, who has been confined at the Calgary Remand Centre for the past three weeks after addressing the anti-vaccine mandate Freedom Convoy blockade along the U.S.-Canada border. Pawlowski’s brother, Dawid Pawlowski, was also arrested on Wednesday for allegedly breaching his bail conditions, according to Rebel News.
The Pawlowski brothers have been repeatedly arrested after Artur Pawlowski refused to limit church attendance in accordance with a court order.
The resolution also pinpointed the treatment of Pastor James Coates of Edmonton, Alberta, who was the first Canadian clergyman to be jailed in the name of public health when he was imprisoned for more than a month last year after keeping his church open.
The resolution also referred to Pastor Tobias Tissen of rural Steinbach, Manitoba, who was arrested in October after holding church services in violation of a provincial public health order banning outdoor gatherings of more than five people, according to the CBC.
The resolution went on to denounce Canada’s Bill C-4, which prompted protest from approximately 5,000 Canadian and American churches, whose pastors devoted their sermons on Jan. 16 to condemning the legislation, which carries a potential five-year jail sentence for counseling that does not affirm homosexuality and transgender identity…..
Jeff Jones says
We can’t treat this Biden Administration any other way but criminal and treasonous.
somehistory says
5 tears in prison for telling the Truth and making an attempt to help the mentally ill. Wow. Those people.. the “leaders”… in canada really know how to ruin a country.
Walter Sieruk says
The politicians of Ohio and the government authorities of Canada should blame this tragic deadly plague of the coronavirus of their god, meaning the god of Islam Allah.
By the reading of the teachings of the Qu’ran it’s very obvious Allah is responsible for that starting and continuing the plague of coronavirus.
What a cruel and vicious god, Allah is.
For when getting down to basic Qu’ran theology which is the Qu’ran based worldview the one who is really to blame and is responsible for the coronavirus plague is the god of Islam ,Allah. For according to the Qu’ran Allah had sent cruel disaster of coronavirus on human beings .
This means then the god of Islam, as if he really does is a destructive and malicious god. For the Qu’ran teaches in Surah 57:22. “No misfortune [disaster] can happen on earth or in your souls but is recorded in a decree [Quran ] before [in eternity ] We [Allah] bring it into existence: that is easy for Allah.”
ting people with coronavirus What a cruel vicious, malicious god Allah must be. So Allah is than a very unloving malice –filled god.
Nevertheless, all Christians and Jews need not lose faith and heart in the God of the Bible as vicious by sending coronavirus on people for He is not the god of Islam.
This is because the god of Islam is should be made clear that the God of the Bible is not really Allah the god of Islam. To explain, through the passing of time it has become widely accepted that the word “Allah” is just the Arabic word for God. This started when truth compromising Bible “translators” substituted the word Allah where the word God should have had been uses in the Arabic translation of the Bible. Furthermore, in the glossary in the book ASSASSINS! By Dr. Haha Lung it defines Allah as the “Pre-Islamic Lunar god : the god of Islam. “
Likewise, in the book entitled INSIDE ISLAM by a former Muslim who is now a Christian, Reza F. Safa on pages 22, 23 it reads “In pre-Islamic times both Allah –worship and Baal-worship involved the worship of the sun, the moon and the stars which h defines them as astral religions. [Which are condemned in the Bible, Second Kings 23:5] The crescent moon, which was the symbol of moon worship, is also the symbol of Islam.”
ontheridge says
Trudeau is a Muslim. Totally evil. He’s the one that should be in jail. I haven’t been to church since this started because my church is on the government’s side. Social distancing and masks. Most are shot with the clot shot “vax”. I felt that the Lord was warning me against getting this stuff injected into me right from the beginning and I won’t get it. I was horrified when I saw the pastor dragged from his car, arrested and jailed and again when he left his house to speak to the freedom truckers and pray with them, he was arrested as he left his house by 5 cops and dragged off to jail again. I will NEVER EVER trust the stupid evil cops again! EVER!
somehistory says
I believe it was in the State of Georgia where church members were in their cars in the lot, windows up and listening to a sermon on their radios. They were all fined $500 each and spikes were put in the lot to flatten tires if anyone tried it again.
It may have been in a different state, but that is what the LE did because they were told that pastors and their congregations had to stay home…even as places to gamble, drink alcohol and buy pot were open and free to associate.
gravenimage says
Ohio legislature intros bill to put Canada on ‘special watch list’ over jailed pastors
……………….
So awful that Canada–once one of the freest nations on earth–should be doing this.
Kuros to the Ohio Legislature and Missouri Republican Josh Hawley for calling them out, though. Christians have been targeted like no other group.