PASTOR JAMES COATES TRIAL
HER CONCLUDING APPEAL TO THE QUEEN'S BENCH OF ALBERTA, UNDER HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN: "James I and I believe that the condition of release violates his Charter-protected right to freedom of conscience and religion, is unjustified, and overly onerous, and that he should be released with only a promise to appear for his trial and no conditions that restrict his ability to adhere to his religious beliefs."Ĭlick here for more on that story. The appeal for release until trial included the following statements from Erin Coates about her husband James Coates: Where is justice when a pastor is denied release as a threat to public safety, for lovingly ministering to more than a 15% fraction of his congregation? This is a sad day, let's not case to pray! Unless a higher court accepts the appeal later this month, here is where apparently James will be at least 2 more months awaiting a trial:
This was the same week that a repeat sex offender from the same jail was released (Clye Larsen on 3/1) with warnings from police to the community that Clyde will likely commit crimes with minors (as he did when they released him in 20). PRAYER UPDATE: On Friday 3/5 the Judge denied the appeal to allow James Coates bail to be released till his trial (which is not even for an imprisonable "crime" per below, but he must stay behind bars). Be sure to scroll down to read the appeal of Erin Coates for her husband where she explains his convictions and the impact on her and their family. He told worshippers that governments exist as instruments of God and there should be unfettered freedom of worship.Here is a follow up to this earlier post about my former classmate at Masters Seminary now in jail for leading and meeting with his church according to his conscience and convictions from God's Word. Last week, the church itself was charged.Ĭoates had been addressing the province’s health restrictions in his sermons. GraceLife has continued to hold weekend services while Coates has been in jail.
PASTOR JAMES COATES FREE
“We look forward to appearing in court in May and demanding the government provide evidence that public health restrictions that violate the freedoms of religion, peaceful assembly, expression and association are scientific and are justifiable in a free and democratic country.” “The condition that Pastor Coates effectively stop doing his job as a pastor by adhering to unscientific and unconstitutional public health restrictions should never have been imposed on him by the RCMP, or by the court,” Justice Centre president John Carpay said in a news release Wednesday. The judge ruled that Coates remain behind bars until his trial in May. In early March, his lawyers appealed with the argument that it would go against the pastor’s conscience before God not to lead worshippers.Ī public health prosecutor argued that the pastor’s release would be a danger to the public. And now that charge has been withdrawn and we think that’s correct,” Cameron said.Īfter he was charged, Coates was jailed when he continued to hold services in defiance of a bail order not to do so. “Instead he was released on not a valid undertaking because he never gave one.
7 and imposed a condition on the pastor that he only hold church services that followed public-health orders.Ĭoates refused to follow the condition, said Cameron, who added the RCMP should have taken the pastor before a justice of the peace but instead left the church. Jay Cameron, a lawyer with the Justice Center, said two RCMP officers met with Coates after a service Feb. In an email, Alberta Crown Prosecution Service said it was not appropriate for prosecutors to comment on an ongoing case.Ĭoates, who preaches at GraceLife Church west of Edmonton, has been in jail for a month for allegedly holding services that violated public health rules on the size of gatherings. A group that supports an Alberta pastor jailed after being charged with violating COVID-19 public-health orders says it expects him to be released in the coming days.Ĭrown prosecutors have dropped all but one charge against James Coates and have agreed to his release without bail conditions, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms said Wednesday
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