Artur Pawlowski receives ‘Free Speech Award’

June 7, 2012 Artur Pawlowski

Just a few weeks after Artur Pawlowski receives the honorary Chaplain position for the province of Alberta from the prestigious Israeli humanitarian organization, The Magen David Adom, there comes another surprise.

Artur Pawlowski receives the ‘Free Speech Award’ for his 7 years of on going defence towards the Canadian constitutional rights and freedoms. During those seven years the Pastor has been arrested 9 times and stood over 70 times before different courts, civil, criminal and provincial for his ‘crimes’ of defending the rights of citizens in the public square and for assisting the needs of thousands of less fortunate people in Canadian society. During these years he has been threatened and intimidated by the local authorities who were trying to force him to quit his advocacy work. He was repeatedly told that his humanitarian work brings too much attention to the crisis of homelessness in Alberta. In other words, the exposure he brings shows the local governments inability to deal with the problem of poverty. He received over a hundred citations and tickets but has never been criminally convicted proving over and over again their anti-Christian agenda.

The recognition of this award came from the organization called (PGIB) The Progressive Group for Independent Business and it is worth mentioning that Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper also belongs to this organization.

Artur Pawlowski was invited along with his wife Marzena to a gala dinner to receive this award. In over 20 years of PGIB’s existence there has only been 2 other men that received such recognition. One was a Catholic Bishop named Fred Henry, and the other was a Jewish reporter named Ezra Levant, both are well known advocates for freedoms in Canada.

Before the dinner Artur Pawlowski was asked by Ric McIver (Minister of Transportation) to give a prayer and a blessing for the food along with a short speech about honouring the veterans that fought for the freedoms that we enjoy today. During the dinner some citizens along with veterans were also honoured with The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for their outstanding commitments in helping veterans across Canada.

Pawlowski was given the opportunity to share his experiences of his childhood, growing up in the shadow of a country that was so brutally attacked by Germany and Russia in 1939, and the devastation that this war brought upon Poland and Europe. He then thanked the Canadian Veterans for their enormous support and sacrifices that many of them made towards enabling our freedoms not only in Poland but around the world. Pawlowski said, “I want to thank the Canadian Veterans for their willingness to fight for our countries. Thank you for the sacrifices that you made. Perhaps because of you I was able to grow up and enjoy the freedoms that we have today.”

The Pastor was presented with the award in front of the people from the business community and Canadian veterans along with politicians such as Jonathan Denis (Minister of Justice and Solicitor General) and Ric McIver (Minister of Transportation) also some city aldermen were present.

About receiving this award Artur Pawlowski stated, “It is a great honour to be counted among men that stood for something noble and in order to do the right thing they were passionate enough to die for it. Those men paved the way and showed us that there are moments in everyone’s life when we have a choice simply to do what is necessary to defend the weak, to stand for the oppressed, to become a voice for those that cannot speak, and if needed, to pay the price to ensure that future generations can enjoy the freedoms that every man has been granted by Almighty God.”

Pictures from the gala event:

Ric McIver (Minister of Transportation) inviting Artur Pawlowski to speak