Pastor Punished For Feeding the Homeless

Yesterday outside of Calgary’s City Hall the members of Street Church were preparing for an all too familiar fight against the will of the city’s public officials.  

The leader of Street Church, Artur Pawlowski, has been providing the necessities of life for the most vulnerable in Calgary for over 21 years. During this time the Polish immigrant and Christian Pastor has touched many lives but he has also received over 150 fines from the city, been arrested 10 times and the city of Calgary has spent over $2 million dollars to prosecute him. His offence? Feeding the homeless.

“I can’t recognize my beloved Canada… In the letter I am being warned not to feed the poor.”

Artur Pawlowski reads part of the letter he received from Calgary City officials (the other quote below is from this video)

Being arrested and being issued fines and warning letters from the City is nothing new for Artur, however this past week the warning is under the new COVID Lockdown regulations in Calgary limiting outdoor gatherings to 10 people. Apparently the City of Calgary will not make an exception to this rule when feeding the poor. It is hard to understand how this decision could possibly fall under Calgary’s COVID measures with its Hallmark mantra of “Health and Safety” when Artur is providing essentials for survival like food and clothing to the most vulnerable. 

Calgary’s is estimated to have a homeless population of 3,000 people as it enters the harsh winter months so it is nothing short of baffling that public servants in Calgary would discourage Artur’s freely provided philanthropic service

But as they saying goes, ‘No good deed go unpunished.’

Artur has a number of detractors who will obsessively focus on Pawlowski being a critic of Islam and his vocal opposition against the normalization of homosexuality in Canadian society. For his detractors, the fact that Artur uses his time and resources to feed and clothe the most vulnerable in the city is irrelevant. It’s like it never happened. Aside from some of his more fundamentalist views, the Christian pastor does not discriminate against any individual and will feed any one who chooses to line up for his food being served. The only catch is listening to him preach the gospel. Pretty sweet deal if you haven’t eaten in days and have nowhere to go on a frigid Calgary day.

“I am providing necessities of life to the most vulnerable people… This should be supported by the premier (and) elected officials but it is not.”

Unfortunately, the majority of people who do only surface level research of Artur would come to a similar conclusion instead of learning that his Church Street operation of feeding the poor in Calgary likely rivals the annual output of any soup kitchen at 200,000 meals a year.  Despite these inspiring feats, from CBC, Local News, Wikipedia, to Google search results you will find Artur primarily characterized as an “Anti-LGBTQ critic”, Islamaphobe or peddler of hate before being recognized for his charity, spanning decades. 

After immigrating from Poland and growing a successful business in the construction industry Artur abruptly quit his job to dedicate his life to God and help the less fortunate.  Although it is a story that could make any Canadian beam with pride, there is a good chance that the majority of Canadians have never heard about the good deeds of Artur Pawlowski. 

In contrast, every foreign spending decision made by Justin Trudeau (even if completely ill-advised) is broadcasted into the eyes and ears of people across Canada complete with a sanctimonious press conference framing our Prime Minister as an icon of charity and virtue. But when it comes to one charitable Christian Canadian feeding and clothing homeless Canadians on his own dime in Calgary, it is has been consistently deemed a finable offence by the City of Calgary and not of note for our Canadian news media.

As our country wades into the uncertainty of more COVID lockdowns our homeless populations are sure to face some of the biggest challenges across the country this winter.  One can only hope that there are more people aside from Artur Pawlowski (perhaps our Public Officials?) that will also make the Health and Safety of our most vulnerable a priority instead of deeming it “Non-Essential”.

To learn more about Artur Pawlowski you can watch the documentary “Street Advocate” on youtube.