A recording is released of an early-January call between Danielle Smith and criminally-charged pastor Artur Pawlowski (taken by Pawlowski) where Smith says she
- discussed COVID charges ‘almost weekly’ with justice officials
- had let deputy minister of justice (Susanne Stushnoff) know of her “dissatisfaction”
- and said
- “Can you just leave this with me and I will make that request one more time?”
Regarding the lack of pardoning ability of the Alberta premier, she also said “It’s unfortunate that I didn’t understand the limitations, […] I thought we had the same power of clemency we had in the U.S.”)