EDMONTON—Alberta Premier Danielle Smith will face an ethics investigation over a phone call with a controversial street pastor just weeks before he was to face a criminal trial.

“The premier was recently contacted by the ethics commissioner, who is undertaking an investigation into whether or not the premier has interfered with the administration of justice in relation to a COVID prosecution,” her office said in a statement Monday.

“The premier welcomes this investigation, is fully cooperating with the commissioner, and is confident this examination will confirm there has been no such interference.”

The Alberta NDP released a recording of the phone call late last month. In it, Smith and Art Pawlowski discuss his case.

Pawlowski faces several charges, including mischief for allegedly inciting people to block public property during the Coutts, Alta., border blockade, where protesters decried COVID-19 restrictions and snarled cross-border traffic for days last year. The trial is over but the judge hasn’t delivered a verdict.

The 11-minute call — which happened in January, just weeks before Pawlowski’s criminal trial — has been slammed by critics who say a sitting premier should not be talking to individuals about their criminal cases.

Pawlowski was also charged with breaching a release order and with willfully damaging or destroying essential infrastructure — an offence under the Alberta Critical Infrastructure Defence Act.

In her phone call with the Calgary pastor — who has protested against the LGBTQ community and was a loud critic of COVID restrictions — Smith tells him she’s talking to justice officials “almost weekly” about COVID-related cases.

She maintains throughout the call that it is inappropriate for her to intervene in cases before the courts, but pledges to make inquiries on his behalf regarding Crown strategy in the case.

When Pawlowski complains of a “document dump” he was subjected to in the case, Smith commisserates with him.

Ethics probes in Canada can take weeks or months and Albertans are set to go to the polls in a general election on May 29.

More to come…

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