Anti-COVID-19 vaccine mandate demonstrators gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway at the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alta., Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. A Calgary pastor is expected to learn today whether he will be found guilty for his participation in a convoy protest last year that blocked Alberta's main border crossing into the United States. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – A Calgary pastor is expected to learn today whether he will be found guilty for his participation in a convoy protest last year that blocked Alberta’s main border crossing into the United States.
Crown prosecutors say Artur Pawlowski’s impassioned speech to the truckers in Coutts, Alta., in February 2022 fanned the flames of unrest and convinced them to stay at the border crossing for another two weeks.
The blockade began in late January 2022 to protest COVID-19 health restrictions.
It paralyzed the border crossing for more than two weeks.
Pawlowski has pleaded not guilty to mischief and breaching a release order, as well as a charge under the Alberta Critical Infrastructure Defence Act of wilfully damaging or destroying essential infrastructure.
Separately, several people were also charged after RCMP found a cache of guns, body armour and ammunition in three trailers during the blockade, with four men facing counts of conspiracy to commit murder.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2023.
