Danielle Smith discussed COVID charges 'almost weekly' with justice officials, according to leaked call
CBC
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith spoke to a pastor just weeks before his criminal trial on pandemic-related charges, promising she would again discuss his case with justice officials, beyond the earlier pleas she had already made on COVID-related prosecutions.
The phone conversation between Smith and Artur Pawlowski, a controversial Calgary street pastor, happened in early January, just weeks before his trial in Lethbridge on Feb. 2.
Pawlowski faces charges of criminal mischief and an offence under Alberta's Critical Infrastructure Defence Act related to last year's Coutts, Alta., border blockade. A judge is set to deliver a verdict in early May.
CBC News has obtained a full copy of the recorded conversation and has verified it.
The call reveals that her conversations with top Alberta Justice officials about pandemic-related prosecutions were more frequent and specific than she has admitted publicly.
In the recording, Smith divulged she had already been having "almost weekly" communication with justice department officials, but said rules confine her to only questioning two things: the reasonable likelihood the pandemic-related prosecutions would result in convictions and whether proceeding would be in the public interest.
The government had previously said the premier asked for and received briefings from the justice minister to get up to speed on files after taking office.
In the recording, Smith assured Pawlowski she would continue to push his case internally.
"Can you just leave this with me and I will make that request one more time?"
"I'm very sympathetic," she added on the recording. "It was a political decision that initiated this but it can't be a political decision to end it. That's what I'm finding very frustrating."
During the conversation with Pawlowski, Smith says she spoke to the deputy minister of justice and "let him know my dissatisfaction with the tactics" the Crown prosecutors were using to pursue COVID-related charges. Specifically, she mentioned she'd protested the size and timing of prosecutors' document disclosures.
The premier has said Justice Minister Tyler Shandro advised her she couldn't grant the amnesty she had previously promised to seek for those prosecuted under pandemic rules, and had no sway over charges or the path of prosecutions.
"It's unfortunate that I didn't understand the limitations," she said in the phone call. "I thought we had the same power of clemency we had in the U.S."
She has said that legal advice came shortly after she became premier, months before the Pawlowski call.
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