The decision to revoke a controversial interpreter permits that supports Maga to celebrate public property events has caused a debate about who should act in public spaces.
Sean Feucht is a religious singer of the United States who has expressed the opinions of anti-diversity rights, anti-2SLGBTQ+ and anti-women on their platforms.
He was scheduled to act in the National Historical Site of York Redoubt in Halifax on Wednesday, but in the midst of a violent reaction of public parks, Canada canceled his permission, citing security concerns.
Shortly after, Feucht’s permits for public property events in Charlottetown, Pei, Moncton, NB and Quebec parts were also canceled.
Cameron Cassidy, executive director of Pride Pei, said that the city of Charlottetown “did the right thing to revoke that permission. I think that only shows a lot of respect for the queer community on his part.”
But not everyone agrees.
James Turk, director of the Free Expression Center at the Metropolitan University of Toronto, said the decision to eliminate a permit raises a red flag.
“I think we should all worry when there is a demand that someone’s right to speak, a retired permit, a reservation in a canceled place,” Turk said in an interview on Thursday.
Message amplification
Turk said the price of democracy is to live with points of view with those who do not like or agree, as well as those who like.
“In Canada, in general, we recognize that the basis of democracy is an ongoing public discourse on what is legitimate, which is not legitimate,” Turk said. “And that means that we tolerate a wide range of perspectives and points of view, and solve things in our heterogeneous society listening to different points of view, discussing against them or ignoring them or boycotting, but not censoring them.”
Turk said attempts to censor someone like Feucht could end up amplifying their message.
“I never heard of this type. I suspect that 99.99 percent of their listeners never heard of him. But now we are talking about that. He could be in the national news. He is being covered. So he has received advertising from this that he could never afford to buy. Therefore, who was opposed to him has done a great favor,” Turk said.
Matthew Taylor, a main Christian scholar of the Institute of Islamic Studies, Christians and Jews who has written about Feucht, agrees.
“These provocative, on their face, intentionally trying to obtain a response from local officials, even trying to be forbidden or forbidden. And then it presents that, as a persecution, he is a victim of anti-Christian bias,” Taylor said.
Feucht ended up acting in Nueva Scotia on Wednesday. The event was held in ownership in Shubenacadie, NS, belonging to Christine and Neil Barr. Both are shepherds affiliated with a religious group called Lighthouse Ministries.
“He was here and had no political agenda, only the Gospel and his love for Canada,” Christine Barr told CBC News.
Before the performance, the Barrs said they received hundreds of messages from people who opposed the Feucht program.
“Many very hateful emails, text messages to say that we were allowing a fascist on our property and that we should know better and the Christianity we were showing was not love, it was hate and that we were racist. Some people even cursed our health,” said Christine Barr.
The Barrs said some people appeared to protest the show.
In response to the reaction, Feucht filed a statement.
“Here is the hard truth: if it had appeared with purple hair and a dress, claiming to be a woman, the government would have not said anything. But publicly professing the deeply rooted Christian beliefs is being labeled as an extremist and having free adoration events classified as’ public security risks.”
The FEUCHT show opponents in York Redoubt had expressed their opposition because they said it was against the guiding and security principles of Parks Canada for all visitors.
Turk said that, although some people may not feel safe by having someone like Feucht acting in their community, there is no protection for the “subjective security sensation.”
“We have an absolute obligation of society to make sure that people are physically safe. In other words, not subject to violence or threats of violence, but because someone says something that I find hateful is not a justification to silence that person,” Turk said.
“I can argue with them. As I say, I could ignore them, I can encourage people to have nothing to do with them, but I have no right to silence them.”
