One irony is that extremist pastor Artur Pawlowski, the cause of her current troubles, condemned Smith in 2012. He said she was too tolerant.

Pawlowski spotted a photo of Smith at a Hindu ceremony, wearing traditional clothes and asking the gods for a blessing. This was standard campaign behaviour, but Pawlowski exploded.

He wouldn’t vote for Smith, he said, “because she crossed the line from being tolerant of other people and their beliefs to actively participating in their idolatrous practices.”

Now she takes a cheery call from that very pastor about his court charges. The same guy she once blasted for extremism.

Wildrose was coasting to victory for the first two weeks of that 2012 campaign. Voters annoyed at Alison Redford’s PCs beat them up furiously in the polls.

But when it seemed Wildrose might actually win, all eyes turned to Smith. And people saw a leader so stuck in her libertarianism that she would allow her candidates to say pretty much anything.

The most stunning example came from Allan Hunsperger, another pastor, who was an Edmonton Wildrose candidate.

In a video rooted out by PC scandal-seekers, he said gays “who live the way you were born, and die the way you were born, will suffer the rest of eternity in a lake of fire, hell, a place of eternal suffering.”

Lake of Fire — capitalized — instantly became part of Alberta’s political vocabulary.

Smith’s senior campaigners almost begged her to fire Hunsperger, and also Ron Leech, a Calgary candidate who had said he was best able to mediate among ethnic groups in his riding.

Smith’s senior campaigners almost begged her to fire Hunsperger, and also Ron Leech, a Calgary candidate who had said he was best able to mediate among ethnic groups in his riding.

Smith’s senior campaigners almost begged her to fire Hunsperger, and also Ron Leech, a Calgary candidate who had said he was best able to mediate among ethnic groups in his riding.

When then-interim PC leader Ric McIver participated in Pawlowski’s anti-gay March for Jesus, Smith condemned him in 2014.

“It’s beyond the pale,” she said. “It’s extreme. I think Albertans expect that political leaders will stand up against this intolerance.”

Pawlowski’s rhetoric was as vile then as it is now. He said LGBTQ+ people “openly proclaim and manifest that they are not ashamed to declare the name of their master (Satan)”

The great 2013 flood in Calgary and southern Alberta, he said, was caused by “Jesus weeping for the perversions of homosexuality, which includes the walking out the pride of their abominations in the streets of our cities.” He also blamed abortion.

Despite all this, and far more words and actions in Pawlowski’s history, the premier and the pastor chatted about the charges against him for his activities at the Coutts border crossing, and his desire to get them dropped.

The premier was sympathetic while saying she no longer believed she has the power to do anything.

Smith even said she had been aware of Pawlowski’s “advocacy” for years. She didn’t imply anything negative about it.

The political side of this may no longer be the claims that Smith talked to prosecutors, which she denies to the point of a lawsuit threat against the CBC.

Rather, it’s her chronic lack of judgment, now magnified by the fact that she is the premier.

Smith is ideologically stuck on her view that charges against protesters are unfair and illegitimate. She seems blinkered to the record of this person she considers a victim.

Since the video came out she hasn’t voiced a word about Pawlowski’s views, or said she should not have taken that call.

Artur Pawlowski could prove to be Lake of Fire 2.0. And once again, Danielle Smith wades right in.

In the conversation, shared in a video posted to the Artur Pawlowski TV YouTube account as an unlisted post, later made private, the premier promised to discuss his case internally and claimed she spoke regularly with prosecutors about such cases.

During the call, Smith said she was frustrated with COVID-related charges. “It was a political decision that initiated this, but it can’t be a political decision to end it,” she said.

She added that her office’s executive director, Rob Anderson, was leading correspondence with the Justice Ministry, “pushing this along.”

Another instance of ‘imprecise language’: premier’s office

In a subsequent statement to Postmedia Wednesday, the premier’s press secretary Becca Polak said “there is absolutely no new information contained in the video,” but did not directly answer questions posed by Postmedia.

While Smith has publicly stated she asked Crown prosecutors “on a regular basis” about COVID-related court cases, she has subsequently walked that back, saying she used “imprecise language,” and had instead spoken with Justice Minister Tyler Shandro and his deputy attorney general.

Polak said Wednesday the same explanation applies to her comments made to Pawlowski.

The video comes after Smith confirmed in February she spoke with Pawlowski, saying at the time she had talked to everyone who had concerns about pandemic public health restriction enforcement orders.

Before CBC News first reported on the contents of the video Wednesday, Smith took aim at the public broadcaster in a statement, calling its story part of a “campaign of defamatory attacks” against her and her office staff. She has previously said that she has been advised by the Justice Ministry not to pursue granting legal amnesty to those charged with non-violent COVID-related charges.

“I have followed that advice. At no time have I spoken with anyone from the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service, nor to my knowledge have any of my office’s staff. Allegations to the contrary are defamatory and will be dealt with accordingly,” Smith said.

Anderson, in a series of tweets Wednesday, also called CBC’s reporting defamatory, and said he had not contacted the Crown prosecution service on the matter, nor did he recall speaking with anyone charged with ongoing COVID-related offences.

Chuck Thompson, head of public affairs for CBC, sent Postmedia a statement in response.

“We reported factually on a conversation everyone can read about or listen to themselves on our site. Our journalism speaks for itself,” he wrote.

Smith has repeatedly said that neither she nor her staff have ever communicated with Crown prosecutors, and that she has only had discussions with the attorney general and deputy attorney general about outstanding COVID-related cases.

“They advised me the Crown prosecutors would independently make their decisions on whether or not to carry on with COVID-related cases based on their assessment of whether there was a reasonable chance of conviction and whether it was in the public interest,” said Smith in January.

“I respect that independent process.”

The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service has previously told Postmedia the Crown prosecutor involved in the Coutts files did not have any recollection of receiving any emails from the premier’s office.

Premier critiques ‘tactics’ of Crown prosecutors

During her UCP leadership campaign, Smith promised to have charges related to COVID-19 violations dropped, but since taking office said she has learned she doesn’t have that clemency power.

At one point during the phone call, Pawlowski raised concerns that the Crown prosecutor in his case had dumped more than 1,000 pages of documents and hundreds of hours of testimony, forcing Pawlowski to hire an expensive legal team to comb through it all. Smith dismissed Pawlowski’s suggestion Shandro was behind the move.

“But, I have also raised it with the deputy minister, and let him know my dissatisfaction with the tactics. So, can you just leave this with me and I will make that request one more time?”

‘Deeply inappropriate’

At a news conference Wednesday, NDP Opposition justice critic Irfan Sabir said the recorded conversation raises further questions about interference in the justice system by the premier or her office, and reiterated his party’s call for an independent investigation.