On Sunday, hundreds of Canadian Christians gathered at the GraceLife Church in Edmonton, Alberta, to protest what the government was doing to them.
Alberta Health Services (AHS) authorities shut down the church for supposedly violating public COVID-19 health orders. Authorities built a chain-link fence to keep the house of worship closed last week. The Trudeau government has gone totalitarian using COVID to get there in the same manner as the leftists in the United States.
Earlier last week, news cameras caught shocking footage of fences being put up around GraceLife Church Wednesday morning as police and health officials shut it down for failure to comply with COVID-19 mandates, Global News reported.
“Alberta Health Services physically closed GraceLife Church and has prevented access to the building until GLC can demonstrate the ability to comply with Alberta’s chief medical officer of health’s restrictions,” AHS said in a statement according to the outlet.
Fences went up around GraceLife Church Wednesday morning as AHS physically closed the building west of Edmonton for flouting the province's COVID-19 health restrictions. @Kim_SmithTV reports live at noon with the latest. #YEG
READ MORE: https://t.co/xVKqIxi5an pic.twitter.com/mEB3ZZcVw3— Global Edmonton (@GlobalEdmonton) April 7, 2021
Canadian Health Minister Tyler Shandro told the outlet that it got pretty heated back in December when AHS started enforcement at the church.
The public health orders demand that wearing face masks is mandatory and that churches are restricted to 15 percent of whatever their fire code capacity is, the outlet said. But, when police and AHS inspectors went to the church several times during services to make sure the Christians were following the draconian rules of zee Fuhrer – Heil Justin! – were being followed, officers said, “the church did not comply with the restrictions,” Global News said.
On top of that, GraceLife’s parking lot was full on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the outlet added. And why not? Those are two very important holy days for Christians.
“The prosecutors, the public health inspectors, and the police who were involved showed a great amount of patience and trying to work with the community as a first response to get them to comply,” Shandro told Global News. There is no restraint involved when you are trying to force people to behave the way you want them to behave.
GaceLife’s pastor, James Coates’ attorney, John Carpay said to CBC News that the government’s shutting down the church is over the top.
“I’m very disappointed to see this kind of draconian and aggressive enforcement of health orders when these health orders themselves are being challenged in court,” Carpay noted to the network. “It shows a very aggressive government that is not answering questions about its policies, but wants to push its weight around and try and make an example out of GraceLife Church.”
Carpay told CBC that he hadn’t yet spoken to the pastor and as he’s unsure what is going to happen on Sunday, he assumes a service would be held somewhere else.
AHS told CBC News that it received over one hundred complaints from the public about the church between July and Tuesday last week. Canadian snitches, eh? They’re just trying to help people doncha know?
The health service said during 18 inspections that made of the site during that timeframe they witnessed violations each visit.
Apparently, the members of the church have had enough.
On Sunday, worshippers ripped down the barricade, and they were quickly met by a large number of riot cops. Can you imagine that police are going after Christians who think their rights have been violated by the government shutting down their church even though other businesses are open?
AHS physically shut down the church, preventing access to it. AHS said the church would stay closed until the GraceLife Church “can demonstrate the ability to comply with Alberta’s chief medical officer of health’s restrictions.” The Royal Canadian Mounted Police shut down access to roads in front of the church to the public.
Fences went up around GraceLife Church Wednesday morning as AHS physically closed the building west of Edmonton for flouting the province's COVID-19 health restrictions. @Kim_SmithTV reports live at noon with the latest. #YEG
READ MORE: https://t.co/xVKqIxi5an pic.twitter.com/mEB3ZZcVw3— Global Edmonton (@GlobalEdmonton) April 7, 2021
RCMP are controlling traffic at every entrance near GraceLife Church this morning. The north entrance is completely blocked off #yeg #abpoli #covid19ab pic.twitter.com/0BL3k9RJP1
— Laura Krause (@LauraKrauseNews) April 11, 2021
On Sunday, roughly 400 people gathered together outside the church, according to another news outlet, the Edmonton Journal. The worshippers were not able to get inside the church, so they sang hymns and listened to Bible readings outside the building.
The crowd at GraceLife Church has nearly doubled in size in less than an hour. A new group walked up with music and a large wooden cross #GraceLife #covid19ab #abpoli pic.twitter.com/Td6IfOJens
— Laura Krause (@LauraKrauseNews) April 11, 2021
“Organizers say people not associated with the peaceful protest are trying to tear down the fences at GraceLife church in Spruce Grove, AB. They are yelling “Leave the fence alone!” #gracelifechurch #ABpoli“
Organizers say people not associated with the peaceful protest are trying to tear down the fences at GraceLife church in Spruce Grove, AB. They are yelling “Leave the fence alone!” #gracelifechurch #ABpoli pic.twitter.com/W09Wf2J6E1
— Hal Roberts ???????? (@Hal__Roberts) April 11, 2021
Video journalist Laura Krause took to social media to show some footage of worshippers taking down the fence.
“The fence is coming down”
The fence is coming down pic.twitter.com/gFCroOuhin
— Laura Krause (@LauraKrauseNews) April 11, 2021
And then some of the protesters helped police fix the fence, showing they were there just to protest, not cause trouble.
“The scene quickly de-escalated and some protesters helped police repair the fence.”
The scene quickly de-escalated and some protesters helped police repair the fence. pic.twitter.com/yFU6DWwxRS
— Laura Krause (@LauraKrauseNews) April 11, 2021
A convoy of supporters drove from Calgary to Red Deer then onto Spruce Grove, AB this morning showing support for Pastor James Coates and GraceLife church. GraceLife was shut down by AHS for not adhering to public health orders. #gracelifechurch #abpoli pic.twitter.com/Kqa9iOpABn
— Hal Roberts ???????? (@Hal__Roberts) April 11, 2021
A church in Edmonton, Canada wouldn’t obey politicians and lock its doors. So they jailed the pastor for 35 days. The church still wouldn’t close. So police raided it, turned it into an armed garrison & occupied it. And still the Christians come. pic.twitter.com/yNZRUXXudl
— Ezra Levant ???? (@ezralevant) April 11, 2021
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Rich is a conservative syndicated opinion writer and runs Maga-Chat.com. He writes about politics, culture, liberty, and faith.
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Maybe the Canucks are growing some nads.
The Christian Worshippers had service somewhere else on Sun morn … then came to the church to minister or sing for those protesters gathered… You have thos backwards.. the protesters (never let a crisis go to waste) tore down the fence n the worshipers stopped them n helped put it back up. See Rebel News for truth…
The Christian Worshippers had service somewhere else on Sun morn … then came to the church to minister or sing for those protesters gathered… You have this backwards.. the protesters (never let a crisis go to waste) tore down the fence n the worshipers stopped them n helped put it back up. See Rebel News for truth… also you have disgusting Ads in here – thumbs down. David J Harris Jr. would not like this at all.