Unfortunately, persecution against pastors is becoming the norm in Canada.
Pastor Artur Pawlowski, jailed repeatedly for non-compliance with COVID protocols during the pandemic, was recently released from prison after 51 days in solitary confinement says he has lost count of the criminal charges the Canadian government has brought against him.
And now 36-year-old Rev. Derek Reimer was arrested last week on outstanding warrants for protesting near a drag queen story-time event. He spent Resurrection Sunday in jail and now faces eight new charges, including criminal harassment (against the LGBTQ community), causing a disturbance and breaching his release conditions.
The pastor of the street church ministry Mission 7, Reimer was first arrested on Feb. 25 in which “several men physically tossed him out of Seton Library in Calgary for protesting a Reading with Royalty event,” Fox News Digital reported. The event featured local drag queen performers reading to children.
Pawlowski told Fox News Digital that Reimer’s arrests indicate the government’s “open hatred toward Christianity.”
Fox News Digital reported that Reimer was arrested a second time in a parking lot across the street from Signal Hill Library in Canada, and a video shows police handcuffing him and dragging him across the asphalt before taking him away.
Reimer was “charged with breaching a release order that prohibited him from communicating with self-identified LGBTQ people or being with 200 meters of events involving the LGBTQ community.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says the existing laws “are not strong enough” to charge demonstrators who spread vile lies and hatred in public. “I’ll be pushing for more. No more excuses.”
Evangelist Franklin Graham, however, says Reimer was simply following his kingdom calling in protesting the events:
“Pastor Reimer feels that God was calling him to expose and stand up against these events that endanger and seek to indoctrinate children. It’s just wrong to expose children to sexualized, agenda-driven programs like this. Another Canadian pastor, Artur Pawlowski, who was jailed for refusing to go along with what he felt was government overreach in his church related to COVID restrictions and closings during the pandemic, said something we should pay heed to:
“‘I’ve warned Canadians for a very long time—and I’m warning Americans as well—that you will be ruled by what you tolerate. If you tolerate corruption, you will be ruled by corruption. If you tolerate perversion, you will eventually be ruled by perversion.’ These are true and wise words of warning for all of us.”
This video by CTV News espouses what appears to be yet another anti-Christian view by the secular media.
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
