Calls to cancel concerts risk elevating U.S. Christian singer into MAGA martyr, say advocates

Several Conservative MPs have taken to social media to offer solidarity and condemn what they view as 'government censorship' and violations of Charter rights.
Sean Feucht, centre, poses with members of his security detail, including members of the Proud Boys, ahead of a 2021 'Let Us Worship' concert in Portland, Ore., on the first anniversary of a series of concerts he organized across the United States to defy public health restrictions and protest COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

As the political backlash—and the backlash to the backlash—over a MAGA-affiliated Christian singer’s tour of Eastern Canada begins to roil the West Coast ahead of his return later this month, civil rights and LGBTQ advocates are warning that attempts to cancel his performances have only provided him with a bigger stage and played into a false persecution narrative.

With two weeks before Christian singer and “MAGA superstar” Sean Feucht returns to Canada for the Western leg of his “Revive in 2025” tour—part of an evolving series of protest concerts which began in opposition to COVID-19 health restrictions—municipalities with scheduled tour dates have already begun cancelling permits or publicly expressing concerns over potential disruptions to public safety. 

During Feucht’s tour of Eastern and Central Canada from July 23-27, all six of his performances were cancelled or forced to relocate after municipal officials and federal authorities in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec withheld permits for his concerts.

Many of those performances were rescheduled at other private venues, including Feucht’s July 26 performance in Alfred, Ont., after the National Capital Commission declined to issue a permit for his planned performance at Jacques-Cartier Park due to concerns over “public safety and security.” 

Feucht still went ahead with his scheduled performance inside Montreal’s Ministerios Restauración Church after city hall declined to grant a permit, for which the church is now facing a $2,500 fine for hosting the performance.

Free speech and civil liberty advocates like the Canadian Constitution Foundation and the Centre for Free Expression have denounced the cancellations and permit refusals as a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and attendees’ freedom of religion and expression.

Yet, as Feucht returns to the U.S., the finale of his Canadian tour is already in jeopardy. 

The city of Winnipeg—where Feucht plans to kick off the final leg of his tour on Aug. 20—announced on July 29 that it had denied his permit to perform over “operational challenges,” and on July 30, the city of Abbotsford, B.C., where Feucht is scheduled to perform his final Canadian show on Aug. 24, said it would not issue a permit for his concert at a local park over the potential for protests and counter-protests.

In response, Conservative MP Sukhman Gill (Abbotsford–South Langley, B.C.) released a statement indicating his disappointment in the cancellation, adding that preventing the concert undermines “fundamental rights and sets a troubling precedent.” 

Feucht’s other performance in the province on Aug. 23 in West Kelowna is also being reviewed by the RCMP over “increased concerns” for public safety and the limited information provided at the time of the permit application.

However, the city of Saskatoon—where Feucht has a scheduled performance on Aug. 21—has already issued his permit at a local park, and officials in Alberta have said they were working with the singer to complete the permit application for a performance at the provincial legislature on Aug. 22.

While the majority of federal politicians have so far avoided commenting on either side of the issue, several other Conservative MPs have taken to social media to offer solidarity with Feucht and condemn what they view as “government censorship” and violations of Charter rights to freedom of religion, expression, and peaceful assembly. However, the majority of those statements either ignore or claim ignorance of Feucht or the controversy surrounding him.

On July 26, Conservative MP Andrew Lawton (Elgin–St. Thomas–London South, Ont.) condemned Montreal’s decision to revoke Feucht’s permit and issue a fine for the church that hosted his performance.

“The city is making a values judgment, which anyone is entitled to do, about artistic and political expression. Except they tried to shut it down altogether,” Lawton wrote on social media. “This is a violation of freedom of expression and freedom of religion. I will always stand up for both.” 

In a three-minute social media video, Conservative MP Roman Baber (York Centre, Ont.) said “Charter rights are under assault,” and questioned Montreal police entering the church during Feucht’s performance, noting Feucht had not broken Canadian laws or called for violence. 

During Feucht’s Montreal concert, protesters gathered outside, with one arrested by police for obstruction and another who entered the church to hurl smoke bombs at the stage during his performance.

Marilyn Gladu
Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu says the public safety justifications for cancelling Feucht’s permits are ‘dubious and unsubstantiated.’ The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner (Calgary Nose Hill, Alta.) also highlighted the perceived hypocrisy of Feucht’s cancellation for “spreading hate in Canada” when, at the same time, the Irish rap group Kneecap, a member of which has been charged with terrorism-related offences in the United Kingdom, is scheduled to perform in Toronto and Vancouver this October. 

In a statement to The Hill Times, Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu (Sarnia–Lambton–Bkejwanong, Ont.), her party’s civil liberties critic, expressed concern over what she views as a “pick-and-choose” approach to Canadians’ “hard-fought freedoms” by government officials.

“The public venues that cancelled these concerts are subject to the Charter and must uphold these fundamental principles,” Gladu added. “Abandoning them based on dubious and unsubstantiated concerns about public safety is unacceptable.”  

Yet, at least one federal parliamentarian has spoken out in condemnation of Feucht’s tour and the attempts to paint Feucht as a “martyr.”

Progressive Senator Kristopher Wells, centre, said Feucht ‘is not entitled to a platform provided by the public to spread hate.’
Photograph courtesy of the Senate of Canada

Progressive Senator Kristopher Wells (Alberta) defended the cancellations, noting that “Feucht has no Charter right to have his shows hosted at public facilities… [d]on’t believe the martyrdom.”

In a July 29 statement to The Hill Times, Wells wrote that the decision by municipalities to decline Feucht’s permits “has nothing to do with his freedom of expression or religion … and everything to do with ensuring community safety and standing up for human rights.”

Wells added that Feucht’s “hate and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community are well documented,” and noted his past associations with the Proud Boys, a far-right organization that Canada designated a “terrorist entity” in February 2021.

In 2021, Feucht was known to have members of the Proud Boys among his security detail.  

Feucht has also previously denounced what he calls “gender confusion [and] sexual perversion” among young people, abortion as “the slaughter of the unborn and the newborn,” and described Pride Month as an opportunity to identify “which people, businesses, influencers, corporations & ministries have sold their soul to a demonic agenda seeking to destroy our culture and pervert our children.”  

Feucht describes himself as a musician, missionary, author, and activist, but he is also a self-described Christian nationalist. In early July, The Atlantic described him as a “MAGA Superstar” over his connection to the movement supporting U.S. President Donald Trump, whom he has praised as “God’s chosen one,” and for his repeated advocacy for “the fusion of Church and state.”

Wells told The Hill Times that allowing Feucht’s events to be held in public venues risks public safety and “creates a culture of fear and exclusion.”

“So, while Mr. Feucht is free to share his views at private venues, he is not entitled to a platform provided by the public to spread hate.”

The response to offensive speech is more speech’: Van Geyn

Christine Van Geyn, litigation director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, told The Hill Times that, ironically, Feucht’s message has seemingly only gained a larger platform as a result of the attempts to bar him from public venues.

The Canadian Constitution Foundation’s Christine Van Geyn says Feucht’s speech may be offensive, but the bar for criminal hate speech is much higher. Photograph courtesy of Christine Van Geyn

“The attempts to silence him and push his offensive speech underground are what has turned him into a martyr,” Van Geyn said, noting that despite Feucht’s speech being offensive, she has seen no evidence that anything he has said meets the criminal definition of hate speech. 

“It may be distasteful, but the answer to that is not to go, or if you feel strongly about it, you could go and protest,” Van Geyn said. “You have a right to express yourself, too, and it’s probably more affirming to the dignity of the communities you’re concerned about to speak out positively for them rather than just silencing him and turning this singer into a martyr.”

Van Geyn also pushed back on Conservative MP Jamil Jivani’s (Bowmanville–Oshawa North, Ont.) July 28 motion at the House Heritage Committee calling for it to study “threats to freedom of worship,” particularly his call for the consideration of so-called “bubble zone laws.”

Van Geyn said such laws, which would create “bubble zones” around places of worship, schools, and libraries to prohibit protest within those areas, are “constitutionally suspect.”

“Bubble zones restrict protest in the places where they often have the most meaning,” Van Geyne said, noting that Canada already has laws to protect places of worship and congregants’ right to gather. 

“If you believe in freedom of expression as a principle, you need to support it, even when you disagree with the content of the speech,” Van Geyn said. “The response to offensive speech is more speech.”

Trans rights activist Fae Johnstone speaks at a press conference in West Block on Nov. 20, 2023, to call on the government to ensure protection of the rights of trans people and children.
Trans rights activist Fae Johnstone says the right to speech is not the same as a right to a public platform. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

LGBTQ+ activist Fae Johnstone, executive director of Queer Momentum, told The Hill Times that while she believes Feucht’s “heinous views” are worthy of being denounced, she warned against allies and politicians playing into “the contrived, stupid little game he’s playing.” 

“We’ve all seen the playbook by now: he’s a far-right influencer looking for attention, so he’s going to do whatever he can to get headlines and a pedestal,” Johnstone said. “There are folks out there using examples like him to try to create a false narrative that the queer community is some threatening boogeyman, and we can’t fall for that trap.”

However, Johnstone rejected the premise that Feucht’s rhetoric doesn’t rise to the level of hate speech.

“I have great respect for diversity of views, but describing queer people as a demonic force seeking to pervert children and destroy culture is pretty despicable language and dehumanizes our LGBT neighbours and loved ones,” Johnstone said. “That kind of language puts people at risk.”

sbenson@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times

 
Stuart Benson began covering Parliament Hill in early 2022, reporting on political party apparatuses and fundraising, policing and public safety, women and youth, marijuana, heritage, the Bloc Québécois, and the Green Party. He is also The Hill Times’ regular Party Central columnist. Benson previously covered local news and municipal politics at The Low Down to Hull and Back News in Wakefield, Que., where he began his professional journalism career in February 2020. He also won a Quebec Community Newspaper Award in 2021 for Best News Story and Best Agricultural Story, as well as winning a Canadian Community Newspaper award for Best Campus News story in 2020. See all stories BY STUART BENSON

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