Nathanial Pawlowski says he was trained from the age of six for a moment such as this. Over the past two decades, his father, Pastor Artur Pawlowski, a Polish immigrant who lived behind the Iron Curtain, has been arrested more than a dozen times by Canadian police for the “crimes” of feeding the homeless and preaching in a public park.
Today, Pastor Artur sits in a filthy jail cell for 23 hours a day. He has been imprisoned for nearly a month, following his fifth arrest since COVID restrictions took effect in the province of Alberta less than two years ago. The latest dramatic takedown of Artur took place at his home in Calgary following a fiery speech he gave to a group of protestors at the Coutts border on February 3. Nathanial explains that his father went to the border “to deliver a sermon, the Lord’s Supper, and to pray with them.”
Denied bail and charged with mischief, interrupting operations of essential infrastructure, and breaching his conditions of not keeping the peace, Artur remains behind bars at the Calgary Remand Centre. He has spoken from jail, and it is clear he is suffering, though he is standing strong in his faith and continues to speak truth and defend liberty as his attorneys work around the clock to get him out.
Nathanial and his siblings are doing everything they possibly can to support their father. “My father will grow in notoriety,” says Nathanial. “He will never back down. They might as well lock him up and throw away the key or put a bullet in him because he’s never going to back down.”
Artur has not been found guilty of any crimes, yet he is treated as a dangerous criminal because he refuses to bow to government tyranny. The Christian pastor may be the most persecuted man in Canada, yet he is also a symbol of hope to people around the world during this unprecedented time of global government crackdown on basic rights.
For information about Artur and his ministry and how to participate in prayer vigils and peaceful protests in support of him, please visit www.streetchurch.ca or www.freepastorart.com
Pastor Pawlowski can be reached directly at [email protected].
