EDMONTON—Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has responded to a leaked telephone conversation she had with Calgary pastor Artur Pawlowski in January 2022, reiterating that she has never spoken to anyone with the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service.
Pawlowski faced multiple charges during COVID lockdowns, and has a charge outstanding for criminal mischief in relation to a speech he gave at the Coutts border protest in January 2022.
The premier’s statement said she previously mentioned, during a live press conference on Feb. 9, that she had in the past had a conversation with Pawlowski. She told the news conference the pastor had “expressed his frustration to me with pandemic-related public health orders.”
Smith said on March 29 that the conversation was no surprise, as she spent time before and during her leadership campaign talking to hundreds of Albertans about COVID public health orders and violations.
At issue is whether the premier talked to prosecutors about COVID violation cases, and whether that amounts to interfere with prosecution proceedings.
“At no time have I spoken with the anyone from the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service, nor to my knowledge have any of my office’s staff,” she said.
During Smith’s conversation with Pawlowski, he asks the premier about her campaign promise of seeking to drop COVID violation charges. Smith says that she has since learned that unlike the United States, premiers don’t have the power of clemency.
“Once the process is under way, I can ask our prosecutors, ‘Is there a reasonable likelihood of conviction and if it is in the public interest?’ And I assure you, I have asked them that almost weekly ever since I got started here,” Smith said.
The premier had stated previously that she misspoke in saying she spoke with “prosecutors” about COVID cases, clarifying that she was referring to the attorney general and justice minister, and deputy minister of justice.
“While my language may have been imprecise in these instances, I was referring to the process and discussions above and the advice I received from the attorney general and the deputy attorney general,” Smith said in a Jan. 13 statement.
Recording
In the recording, Pawlowski can be heard telling the premier he is on house arrest, facing a more than 10-year imprisonment for his speech. He said, “I thank you so much for taking this time and listening to what is happening.”Smith said that while she was sympathetic, once a court case is underway “prosecutors have to be independent,” and that she can only ask two questions—if there is a reasonable likelihood of conviction, and if the charges are in the public interest.
Smith said that she had discovered the Canadian justice system is not like the U.S. system, where a U.S. president or governor has the power of clemency.
She said, “I didn’t understand the limitations. I thought we'd probably have the same power of clemency as the U.S.”
Pawlowski accused Tyler Shandro, the minister of justice, of “playing a game here trying to cause us more harm and more grief ” and suggested the crown prosecutor is following his directions. He said his lawyers were dumped with over a thousand pages of documents and “hundreds of hours” of testimony.
Smith responded, “Let me check on that because I don’t think it would be from the minister.” She said once the ball is rolling—the case is in court—crown prosecutors are “very independent.”
“So I don’t think this is being driven by the minister,” said Smith. “But I have also raised it with the deputy minister and let him know my dissatisfaction with the tactics. So can you just leave this with me and I will make that request one more time.”
The premier said she relied on her principal policy adviser, lawyer Rob Anderson, to work with the justice department, and she wanted to consult him on any legal matters. Smith said that she had just been told about a large case where it was abandoned one day before trial. “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.”
She stated it was “frustrating” to be dealing with a bunch of charges while everyone had moved on from COVID.
“The thing I find very frustrating is that they were opposed to the political decision that initiated this. But it can’t be a political decision to end it,” Smith told Pawlowski.
The premier noted that a number of cases had been abandoned at the last minute, but that there was not “a mechanism for me to order them to drop cases.”
“That’s just the way our legal system works, I’m afraid,” she said.
In January, the CBC alleged staff in the premier’s office sent emails to the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service to try and get them to drop cases. However, CBC later said it had not personally viewed the emails. A subsequent investigation was carried out, which found no such emails in government records.
