Permit revoked for MAGA musician's concert at Parks Canada site, but show will go on

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, but the show is slated to go on at a new venue.

Christian rocker Sean Feucht was scheduled 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 the province 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review, and due to heightened public safety concerns, Parks Canada has notified the organizer that the permit has been revoked," it said in a statement issued just after 11 p.m. AT.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 immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.

In a video on his Facebook page late Wednesday morning, Feucht noted that people have been gathering for Halifax Pride Festival events over the past week, "but now they're not so tolerant when peaceful Christians come together."

"This is not the hour to cower. This is not the hour to bow down to the mob. No, we need to rise up. And so tonight, we are going to gather," he said.

"The show's going on, baby."

On Wednesday morning, the event page said the show would go ahead at a "new location that's even better than the old one," and asks people to send a direct message for the venue.

The free concert will now take place at a location in Shubenacadie, N.S., a rural area about 60 kilometres north of Halifax. That address is associated with a religious group called Lighthouse Ministries.

N.S. show kicks off summer tour

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."

Feucht's show in Nova Scotia kicks off his "Revive in 25" tour across Canada, but the singer has also been facing backlash in other cities. 

Shows were cancelled Wednesday in three other provinces, including a performance scheduled for Thursday in Charlottetown. The city said it had revoked the permit "due to evolving public safety and security concerns." 

Another concert planned for Thursday in Moncton, N.B., was scrapped when that city cancelled the booking. It said a review found Feucht's event did not comply with the code of conduct for city facilities. 

The plug was also pulled on a Quebec City performance planned for the weekend. In a statement, a spokesperson for the city said that "the presence of a controversial artist was not mentioned in the contract" between the venue and the promoter.

Feucht was scheduled to play over the weekend in the Ottawa and Toronto areas. He will take his tour to Western Canada in late August.