Parks Canada says a U.S. singer and rising star in the MAGA movement will not perform at a national historic site near Halifax after the federal agency revoked the organizer’s permit.
Christian rocker Sean Feucht was slated to play a concert on Wednesday night at the York Redoubt National Historic Site, a fortification constructed in 1793 to help protect the port city.
Feucht, who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Congress as a Republican in 2020, is also a missionary and an author who has spoken out against the 2SLGBTQ+ community, abortion rights and critical race theory on his website.
Residents who live near the site and throughout Halifax had raised concerns about the performance, which they argued went against Parks Canada’s guiding principles of inclusion and safety for all visitors. Some had planned to stage a protest at the concert.
In a news release late Tuesday, Parks Canada stressed that the event was not being put on by the agency, but rather was being hosted by a permit holder.
It said due to “evolving safety and security considerations” based on the planned protests, input from police and security challenges with the configuration of York Redoubt, Parks Canada has reassessed the conditions of the permit and the potential impact to community members, visitors, concert attendees and event organizers.
“After careful review, and due to heightened public safety concerns, Parks Canada has notified the organizer that the permit has been revoked,” it said in a statement issued just after 11 p.m. AT.
Feucht did not respond to a request for comment from CBC News on Tuesday.
In a post on his Facebook page, he posted a screenshot of a CBC News article about his event with the caption, “We will all get to witness if free speech and freedom of religion still exist in Canada.”
Feucht has called for government policy in the United States to be based on traditional Christian values in the midst of a “spiritual war” in that country.
His website calls on young people to stand up against the “progressive agenda being forced upon America.”
The concert at the York Redoubt site was to kick off a national tour Feucht said marks the “Summer of Revival in the nation of Canada.”
