No, not in China, in Alberta.

Pastor Artur Pawlowski has been arrested for inciting people to attend church.

It took a heavily armed squad of brave police officers to subdue the dangerous ecclesiastical criminal who can be seen in the video below in his Sunday best being made to kneel on a wet motorway.

Luckily, the constabulary was fully masked up – as North Americans like to say just to irritate me – to protect themselves from any deadly projectile sneezing that the unmasked pastor may have secretly weaponised. It goes without saying that if the pastor had had the forethought to wield a Black Lives Matter placard, it would be the police who would be kneeling on the wet tarmac.

Prior to this, Pastor Artur had not endeared himself to the local constabulary. He tossed them out of his church, hurling the epithet “gestapo” at them. Not at all inclusive but, then, they were trying to shut down his church service and only the most intrepid or foolhardy will interrupt a preacher when he is in full swing.

I make no claim that the Pastor was right to continue church services in person – my church isn’t – but the police cannot imagine that this episode will do anything but heap ridicule and derision on any attempt to maintain the illusion that their job is to serve and protect. As PR people like to say: “the optics are bad.”