EDMONTON – A cell phone video leaked to Alberta’s NDP reveals the true extent of Danielle Smith’s coordinated political interference in the justice system on behalf of those charged following the Coutts blockade.
The video was leaked to the Alberta NDP late last week, and appears to capture a January 2023 video call between Danielle Smith and street pastor Artur Pawlowski, who faces charges of breaching a release order and mischief for inciting people to block public property at the border crossing at Coutts in January 2022.
“For freedom to be preserved, people must be willing to sacrifice their lives,” Pawlowski told a crowd. “This is our time. If this is our Alamo then so be it.” Prosecutors called Pawlowski’s actions “an overt threat to violence.”
Pawlowski was also arrested for protesting outside of Health Minister Jason Copping’s home.
In the video, Smith reassures Pawlowski that she continues to ask the Crown Prosecution Service if there is a reasonable likelihood of conviction and if the charges are in the public interest.
“I can assure you, I have asked them that almost weekly ever since I got started here,” says Smith.
Pawlowski tells Smith he believes his prosecution is politically motivated.
“I doubt very much that this is being driven by the Minister,” responds Smith.
“But I have also raised this with the Deputy Minister to let him know my dissatisfaction with the tactics so can you just leave this with me and I’ll make that request one more time? My Principal Policy Advisor Rob Anderson has been doing most of my work with Justice in pushing this along.”
Smith also tells Pawlowski that his case may still be dropped.
“I’m watching to see evidence that they’re going to come to the judgment that many of these cases are unwinnable and not in the public interest… If I can just maybe make that inquiry one more time, I’ll need until next week to do that.”
“I’m very sympathetic,” Smith tells Pawlowski at one point during the call. “I am sorry to hear what they are putting you through… Just give me a few days to circle back on this.”
In the video, Smith tells Pawlowski that she’s been “watching your public advocacy for many years.”
Pawlowski’s “advocacy” includes multiple legal breaches, repeat run-ins with bylaw officers and City of Calgary officials, and ongoing homophobic campaigns against LGBTQ2S+ Albertans. Pawloski once stated that the 2013 floods were God’s response to homosexuality and abortion.
Alberta NDP Justice Critic Irfan Sabir said the video raises more questions about the extent of political interference in the Justice system by both Smith and Anderson.
“The fact that someone accused of encouraging violence against police can get the Premier on the phone at all is extraordinary. That she greets him with such admiration says a lot about who Danielle Smith is,” said Sabir. “It’s clear that interfering in Pawlowski’s case, and the cases of the other accused Coutts blockaders is a priority for Danielle Smith and the UCP.”
Any contact with Crown Prosecutors or the Deputy Attorney General around the direction of individual cases in the justice system is political interference.
“I wrote to Attorney General Tyler Shandro on January 17 and called for him to launch an independent investigation similar to the one conducted by Justice Adèle Kent into the behaviour of Kaycee Madu,” Sabir said. “Justice Kent concluded that investigation in 33 days. I have never received a reply from Tyler Shandro. If he had done the right thing and launched the investigation, Albertans would already know the truth, one way or the other.
“Shandro is clearly aware of the Premier’s actions, and he has failed in his duty to uphold the justice system. Smith lied to Albertans when she said she had never contacted prosecutors, and when she said no-one in her office had contacted prosecutors. She is unfit to be Premier,” Sabir said.
Leave a Reply