Online video between Danielle Smith and Artur Pawlowski raises questions over interference
CTV
In an online video, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is heard speaking with outspoken Calgary pastor Artur Pawlowski, creating questions about her influence on Alberta court cases.
In an online video, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is heard speaking with outspoken Calgary pastor Artur Pawlowski, creating questions about her influence on Alberta court cases.
On previous occasions, Smith has denied that she or a member of her staff made direct contact with Crown prosecutors in order to influence their decisions on cases involving COVID charges.
However, the video, recorded by Pawlowski – who faces charges of inciting the Coutts border dispute in early 2022 – involved a conversation between himself and Smith. Critics say it's evidence that the Alberta premier has been interfering with the justice system.
"As you are aware, I am still on house arrest, facing 10 and a half years imprisonment for my speech in Coutts," Pawlowski said, adding that he reached out to her "because of the promises that were never fulfilled."
Smith told him that she didn't have the same power of clemency that the U.S. president or U.S. governors have, but said she could "ask prosecutors (if) there is a reasonable likelihood of conviction."
"I assure you that I have asked them that, almost weekly, ever since I got started here," Smith said in the recording.
"There have been a number of cases that have been abandoned as they have gone through that assessment and I'm very hopeful that will be the case for more cases but there really isn't a mechanism for me to get them to drop cases."
