Church pastor tells court it wasn't his duty to police congregation
The pastor of a southeast Calgary church said it wasn't his role to ensure members of his congregation followed social distancing measures during the height of the pandemic.
Tim Stephens told a Calgary court Thursday he ensured his followers at Fairview Baptist Church were aware of public health measures, but it wasn't his job to police them.
“The health orders continued to change, so with each new published health order we would either send that out by email or verbally tell our congregation, `here are the latest rules and requirements and regulations,'” Stephens told defence lawyer Stephen Whitehead.
“We did post signage on our front door,” he said.
“We sought to keep on top of things.”
Stephens faces two tickets for failing to follow social distancing measures during services in February and March, 2021.
Under cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Steven Johnston, Stephens said it wasn't his role to enforce the orders of chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw designed to combat the coronavirus.
“What we did was let the people know what the rules were, and I didn't feel it was due diligence for me then to walk around and to see `are you part of a cohort or family?' and seek to enforce those rules,” Stephens said.
Johnston suggested the pastor never took steps to ensure members of his flock were complying with the regulations while attending his services.
“On no occasion did you ever tell the congregation, `we are well past the COVID rules here, folks, we can't do church like this,'” the prosecutor said.
“No, I did not say that,” Stephens acknowledged.
“You would never have actually seen that as your role?” Johnston asked.
“No, I could not have seen that as being my role as a COVID enforcer.”
Stephens did agree he believed some of the measures infringed on the religious rights of his flock, which the government wasn't entitled to do.
He said practices such as communion or baptisms are deemed necessary by the church, and if governments introduce measures limiting those it amounts to tyranny.
“Those ordinances belong to the church, so if you understand tyranny to be someone stepping beyond their jurisdiction, that would be an example,” the pastor said.
“The provincial government has no right to regulate those aspects of the church.”
He acknowledged he also posted on Twitter a suggestion that there were religious grounds to refuse vaccinations against the disease.
“My argument is that there is religious grounds to say no to the current COVID-19 vaccination,” Stephens said.
Despite his lack of policing his congregants, provincial court Judge Allan Fradsham must only decide whether Stephens breached the distancing rules in place at the time. A date for his decision will be set next week.