A Christian pastor in Edmonton, Alberta Canada has been thrown in jail for violating the province’s COVID lockdown restrictions.

Breitbart reports:

A Christian pastor from Edmonton, Canada, has been jailed for breaking Alberta’s Public Health Act by continuing to hold church services when ordered to stop.

Rev. James Coates of GraceLife Church of Edmonton turned himself in to police on Tuesday, two days after officials attended his Sunday service to assess compliance with conditions issued to the pastor, police said in a news release Wednesday.

Authorities from Alberta Health Services and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) determined that Pastor Coates “was not complying with his Undertaking release conditions” issued by authorities.

READ: Christian Pastor Jailed for Holding Church Services in Canada

In a statement on its website, the church explained their rationale for reopening, stating in part:

Consider the following statistics. It is alleged that 129,075 Albertans have tested positive for the virus. That works out to just less than 3% of the population. However, it needs to be pointed out that the PCR test being used to test for COVID-19 is fraught with false positives. This is especially true, since at least until recently, Alberta was running the PCR test at 40 amplifications. As such, the number of Albertans who have actually contracted the virus is likely significantly less. It is also vital to highlight that more than 99% of those who contract the virus will fully recover.

Alberta is currently reporting 1,782 COVID-related deaths. It is critically important to articulate it this way. There is a big difference between dying from COVID and dying with COVID. But it is also critical to note that these COVID-related deaths, as tragic as they are, have not resulted in a statistically significant increase in excess deaths (and the average age of those who have died related to COVID-19 is 82, consistent with life expectancy in Alberta). Sadly, most of these individuals would have likely died due to various other lethal co-morbidities (and it immensely grieves us that in many cases they were forced to die apart from their family unnecessarily). In addition, experts estimate that deaths, in the long run, resulting from government lockdown measures will surpass COVID-related deaths 10 to 1 (e.g. premature deaths resulting from not receiving necessary health care, suicides, drug overdoses, addictions, the development of chronic health conditions, total loss of income, family breakdown, etc.). In fact, it would seem that COVID-related deaths are being treated as though they are somehow more tragic than any and all other deaths.

For the church’s full public statement. READ: Public Statement