GraceLife pastor held in custody for refusing to comply with bail conditions

The pastor of an Edmonton-area church remains in police custody one day afterhis arrestontwo counts ofcontraveningthe Public Health Act and on one criminal charge for failing to comply with a condition of anundertaking.

On Sunday, members of the RCMPand Alberta HealthService went to the GraceLife Church in Parkland County west of Edmontonto assess compliance in relation to conditions issued to Pastor James Coatesearlier in the week, police said in a news release Wednesday.

Officers determinedthe church was again ignoringpublic health restrictions, which call for attendance to be capped at15 per cent of capacity and congregants to practise physical distancing and wear masks.

Coates turned himself in Tuesday at the RCMPParklandDetachment,where he was charged and attended a bail hearing before a justice of the peace.

Coates was to be released but refused to agree to the conditions attached to his release.

He stayedin RCMP custody overnight and attendedStony Plain provincial court, where he continued to refuse to agree tothe conditions.

A judge's order was issued compelling Coatesto attend court on Wednesday, Feb. 24.

"We've been consistent in our approach of escalated levels of enforcement with Pastor Coates, and we were hopeful to resolve this issue in a different manner," Insp.Mike Lokken said in the news release.

"The pastor's actionsand the subsequent effects those actions could have on the health and safety of citizensdictated our response in this situation."

• Police 'furthering investigation' after GraceLife Church defies health restrictions again

In an interview Wednesday evening, Coates' lawyer James Kitchen said the pastor never agreed to a Feb. 7 undertaking issued by the RCMP that required Coates to comply with public health orders. He said the RCMP subsequently did not take Coates before a justice of the peaceto deal with the issue as they should have.

Kitchen said the stanceof Coates and hischurch "is not about just wantonly rebelling.

"It is about doing what is intelligent to them and what maintains their freedoms, but most importantly what is ultimately honouring to their god that they believe in," he said.

"And they are not going to cease worshipping God as they believe they have been commanded to do, simply because the government says so."

He said GraceLife's perspective is that lockdowns are causing "exponentially more harm" to the community than gathering in groups, saying"nobody has died of COVID at Pastor Coates' church."

Kitchen's employer, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, has asked Premier Jason Kenney to release Coates from custody and rescind Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw's "tyrannical orders against Alberta's churches."

Coates has flouted pandemic restrictions since December.

He was issued a $1,200 ticket that month for contravening orders of Alberta's chief medical officer of health, after inspectors saw that the church was far exceeding capacity limits, that staff, volunteers and congregants were going unmasked and were not social distancing.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19pandemic last March, 1,798Albertans have died due to COVID-19.