Stephens made the comments to The Epoch Times in an interview the day Alberta Provincial Court Judge Allen A. Fradsham declared the pastor of Calgary’s Fairview Baptist Church not guilty of “failing to comply with an order of a medical officer of health.”
The two charges were for failing to maintain two metres of social distancing as decreed by public health orders during the pandemic.
The pastor says he was issued a grand total of seven tickets in 2021, of which five were COVID-related, one was a criminal charge, and one was a contempt of court charge. All charges were withdrawn. His lawyers, Leighton Grey, and Stephen Whitehead, were funded by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
The married pastor and homeschooling father of eight spent a total of 21 days in jail.
“All that [the authorities] wanted me to do was comply, or plead guilty. They wanted a win,” says Stephens.
“I don’t think they understood that Pastor James Coates and myself are men of deep principle and conviction. We were not going to trade our conscience and religious beliefs, even on threats of fines or jail,” he says.
‘It Was All Taken From Me’
Stephens said jail stole from him.“My life is devoted to serving people and being a father and husband. I was removed from all of that. I had no ability to comfort my kids, hug my wife and tell her it was going to be ok,” he explains.
“It was all taken from me.”
“When I got out of jail, I was crying on the way home, and my kids had never seen me like that,” he says.
One ticket issued to the church remains outstanding. Other tickets, for exceeding capacity rules during COVID, were withdrawn. It turns out Fairview Baptist has no official fire code capacity.
Ironically, Stephens’ arrest for people attending church, caused attendance to soar. Before COVID, the church typically filled 150 seats. After the pastor’s arrest, church attendance tripled.
First Arrest
Pastor Stephens’ first arrest on May 16, 2021, made headlines. He was charged with contempt of court, for violating what was called the “Whistle Stop Cafe Injunction,” an injunction that did not apply to him, and which he maintains he was never served notice of.He spent three days jailed in the Calgary Remand Centre.
“The first time I was arrested, it was in the church parking lot, in front of my wife and kids. It was so hard on them, especially for the kids.”
The arrest was traumatic, but so was his jail time. “Those first three days in jail were harder than the 18 days in jail.” He said the first time, he “didn’t know what to expect and it was like a bad case of culture shock.”
“I was in a place where I didn’t fit in at all. I was in a small cell, kept with guys coming off meth or fentanyl in a bit of a mess, locked in room with them. It was scary,” Stephens remembers.
Before COVID, Fairview Baptist was a small, close-knit church.
“We really are a family.” he says. “We would gather for worship, and most Sundays have a meal together, spending most of the day together.
When COVID-19 first hit the news, the church shut down for a few weeks. “Like everyone else, we thought the apocalypse was coming, and it was reasonable to stay home,” says Stephens.
The church had no online worship service set up then. Stephens figured out how to stream church services from his basement.
“A few weeks into lockdowns, the congregation felt things weren’t right. We needed to worship together. It was supposed to be two weeks to flatten the curve—already, the government goalposts were starting to move,” he said.
Fairview Baptist Church then reopened.
“We put signs up and emailed or told our members about public health orders. We continued to stream [online] for those not comfortable coming in person,” says Stephens.
Second Arrest
Stephens was arrested a second time on June 14, 2021, for officiating at an outdoor church worship service the day before. About 200 congregants attended. Two weeks before, AHS officials had locked the congregants out of their church, so services moved outdoors for two weeks. Stephens says helicopters spotted the small outdoor gathering.He was arrested outside his Calgary home, as his distraught wife and eight children (presently aged one to 14) cried and clung to their father. He spent 18 “very long days” in jail, in a tiny cell with a stranger.
He soon found that his jail mates treated him well. “People called me pastor, they shared food, they shared pillows, they were very kind to me. They didn’t see me as a threat or enemy.”
Ironically, says Stephens, “I was seen as being in there for defying the government—that put me in their good books.”
The hardest part about being jailed he says, was how hard it was for his family.
“It was hard to keep myself composed talking to my kids, it was very traumatic for my family to have me gone, but the church family cooked for my wife and kids, and lavished them with love and support.”
Stephens never knew how long he would be in jail. “I would not sign the paper saying I would comply and stop leading church,” he said.
Acquittal
Judge Fradsham, in issuing his written ruling, said the government responses to COVID-19 “result in the imposition of restrictions on several freedoms” previously “taken for granted by the Canadian public,” and acknowledged it caused “much heated debate.”Fradsham noted the tickets were personally issued to Stephens for not social distancing, and said the Crown must prove that Stephens was not two metres away from others at church. The judge concluded that most of the evidence focused on whether Stephens forced church people to comply with the two-metre requirement.
“With respect, that question is not legally relevant to the issues before me,” said Fradsham. He ruled that no provisions in public health orders forced a legal obligation on Stephens “to ensure, compel, or encourage compliance by those attending the religious service he was conducting.”
In fact, the evidence provided to the Judge that ultimately resulted in Stephen’s aquittal on all charges, was that the pastor was at the front of the church behind the pulpit, by himself.
