Tue May 2, 2023 – 5:17 pm EDT
RED DEER, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) –– Canadian Christian pastor James Coates, who made international headlines in 2021 after being jailed because he kept his church open contrary to COVID-19 health rules, has revealed new details of his arrest, including how at one point he was shackled in the dead of night.
Coates, who served as pastor of GraceLife church in Edmonton, made the revelations last Friday during testimony before the National Citizens Inquiry (NCI), which was in Red Deer, Alberta this past week as part of its Canada-wide inquiry. The NCI is a citizen-led and citizen-funded independent initiative investigating the government’s response to the COVID so-called pandemic.
Coates noted that all he was doing during the COVID shutdown, which the government deemed illegal, was “opening our doors” for worshippers as “Christ” commands.
“We knew in our obedience to Christ that we could not capitulate,” he testified, adding that as “shepherds of Christ were not going to tell people they can’t come to a gathering, and we knew at that point in time that the virus was not nearly as serious as they were making it out to
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