{"id":1721310,"date":"2022-11-02T10:47:59","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T14:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1721310"},"modified":"2022-11-02T10:48:05","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T14:48:05","slug":"all-glory-to-god-canadian-pastor-jailed-for-opening-his-church-during-lockdowns-acquitted-by-top-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/all-glory-to-god-canadian-pastor-jailed-for-opening-his-church-during-lockdowns-acquitted-by-top-court\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018All Glory To God\u2019: Canadian Pastor Jailed For Opening His Church During Lockdowns Acquitted By Top Court"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fall-glory-to-god-canadian-pastor-jailed-for-opening-his-church-during-lockdowns-acquitted-by-top-court%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1721310&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Pastor Tim Stephens of Fairview Baptist Church in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/alberta\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alberta<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/dailywire.com\/topic\/canada\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Canada<\/a>, was acquitted by the province\u2019s criminal court after he was charged with breaches of public health orders for opening his church despite government <a href=\"http:\/\/dailywire.com\/topic\/lockdowns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lockdowns<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Footage of police officers taking Stephens away from his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/give-unto-caesar-alberta-pastor-jailed-again-after-police-helicopter-finds-secret-church-gathering-officer-quotes-jesus-to-justify-arrest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sobbing children<\/a> went viral last summer as Canadian authorities made headlines for enforcing strict restrictions against public gatherings. Law enforcement at one point used a police helicopter to discover where his church had been secretly meeting after officers padlocked their building.<\/p>\n<p>Stephens spent 21 days in jail and was served six provincial tickets for his alleged breach of public health orders. Four of the tickets had been dropped. The Provincial Court of Alberta cleared Stephens of the remaining tickets on Tuesday, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jccf.ca\/pastor-tim-stephens-acquitted-today-on-charges-of-breach-of-public-health-orders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a> from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is vindication, not only for me, but vindication that the government grossly abused their power,\u201d Stephens <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tim__stephens\/status\/1587504757337632768\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">remarked<\/a> on social media. \u201cIn all of this, I rejoice since the gospel of Jesus Christ went forth in power, and Christ built his church. All glory to God!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stephens told The Daily Wire that all charges against him personally have now been nixed. However, one charge remains against Fairview Baptist Church, which the congregation intends to adjudicate. Lawyers from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms filed a lawsuit against Calgary Police Service and Alberta Health Services for Stephens\u2019 arrest in May 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile God has given me joy through this time and has poured out abundant blessings, it is important that government is held to account for its actions for the sake of everyone in our province and country,\u201d Stephens commented.<\/p>\n<p>Former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was forced to resign since \u201cputting pastors in jail turned out to be a terrible move,\u201d according to Stephens. Premier Danielle Smith, who succeeded Kenney last month, has since <a href=\"https:\/\/edmonton.ctvnews.ca\/alberta-premier-exploring-pardons-for-covid-19-related-fines-and-arrests-1.6120925\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">apologized<\/a> for the province\u2019s violations of constitutional liberties and announced that she is accepting legal advice on pardoning those who were charged with violating lockdown orders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur provincial government has certainly changed course,\u201d Stephens continued. \u201cOur federal government and other provincial governments still seem to have the appetite for mandates. Power can be hard to give up so it takes people of courage and conviction to do what is right in the face of coercion. That\u2019s what we saw in Alberta. It became clear the restrictions were more based on political science than medical science. It is my hope that the church in Canada would be strengthened, and do the right thing before God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers in the United States have expressed concern over the Canadian government\u2019s actions toward pastors and congregants. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) mentioned Stephens in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/i-am-troubled-sen-hawley-asks-u-s-commission-on-international-religious-freedom-to-add-canada-to-watch-list\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">letter<\/a> to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom asking the agency to consider adding Canada to its watchlist. He noted that Canadian believers were \u201cforced to gather in secret, undisclosed locations to exercise their basic freedom to worship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There have been similar legal victories in the aftermath of lockdown policies by American pastors who defied the mandates. Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, settled last year with local and state authorities, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/l-a-county-to-pay-400000-to-john-macarthurs-grace-community-church\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">agreed to pay<\/a> the congregation a total of $800,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pastor Tim Stephens of Fairview Baptist Church in Alberta, Canada, was acquitted by the province\u2019s criminal court after he was charged with breaches of public health orders for opening his church despite government lockdowns. Footage of police officers taking Stephens away from his sobbing children went viral last summer as Canadian authorities made headlines for &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":1218857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1721310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1721310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1721310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1721310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1218857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1721310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1721310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1721310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}