Court proceedings against Calgary pastor Tim Stephens dropped by AHS

The Alberta Health Services Contempt of Court Application filed against Calgary pastor Tim Stephens has been dropped by AHS and will not be going to a hearing, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announced Friday.

Justice Centre lawyers Leighton B.U. Grey Q.C. and James S. M. Kitchen brought an Application to Strike the Contempt Application after they discovered that the AHS never served Pastor Stephens the necessary documents surrounding the violation he was accused of.

"Faced with this undeniable evidence, AHS has conceded that continued prosecution and attempts to have Pastor Stephens found in contempt of court are hopeless. This drops the case against Pastor Stephens completely," the Justice Centre states.

Pastor Stephens was arrested on May 16, 2021 after leading a church service at Fairview Baptist Church. He was allegedly in violation of the terms set forth by a May 6 court injunction against Whistle Stop Cafe in Mirror, Alberta, and "certain affiliated individuals."

"The injunction order allowed AHS to instruct police to arrest Whistle Stop owners and other citizens upon notice of the order if they dared to continue exercising their Charter rights and freedoms contrary to public health orders," writes the Justice Centre.

The Justice Centre goes on to state that his arrest was unlawful for two reasons: an. Amendment to the injunction made days prior to his arrest, and the fact that Stephens was never served a copy of the court injunction he was in violation of.

"The arrest and confinement of Pastor Stephens was unlawful for two reasons. First, the Thursday, May 6, 2021 injunction, which originally applied to all Albertans who had notice of its terms, was amended by Associate Chief Justice Rooke on May 13 to only apply to Whistle Stop Café and individuals operating in concert with or under the direction of Whistle Stop Café or its proprietor. Pastor Stephens has no connection to either party," The Justice Centre states.

"Second, Pastor Stephens was never served with a copy of the court injunction, a prerequisite for the enforcement of an injunction. On May 9, 2021, Calgary Police Service (CPS) officers erroneously served a copy of the injunction upon another individual who is not Pastor Stephens. At no time did CPS ever serve the injunction upon Pastor Stephens," they continued.

The May 6 injunction order was originally worded in a way that applied to all Albertans that had notice of the injunction, not just the Whistle Stop Cafe and certain activists it was meant for, allowing police to jail those outside in groups larger than 5 immediately.

"An injunction that applies to the entire population departs radically from precedents that require injunctions to be limited only to named individuals, or to a very narrow category of citizens who can be identified by way of a specific description," said the Justice Centre.

An amendment was made to the injunction on May 13, with it now only applying to names respondents and those acting in concert with them.

"After the amendment, the Justice Centre informed the Calgary Police Service and other police forces in Alberta that the order no longer applied to the public at large, but only to certain individuals affiliated with Whistle Stop Café," the Justice Centre said. "The police continued to make arrests even after being informed of this court order amendment, presumably on the instruction of AHS."

The Justice Centre is also representing Stephens in the additional tickets he has received for allegedly breaching Dr. Deena Hinshaw's public health orders.