Sean Feucht speaking with attendees at the 2022 AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
American Christian musician Sean Feucht went ahead with a downtown Montreal church performance on July 25 despite the city’s efforts to cancel it.
Sean Feucht describes himself on social media as a missionary, musician, and author and has spoken out against gender ideology and abortion.
City of Montreal officials said Feucht expresses hateful and discriminatory speech and the church didn’t have a permit for concerts.
Feucht has already faced cancellations at six public venues in other Canadian cities.
He was scheduled to perform at York Redoubt National Historic Site (a 1793 British fort in Nova Scotia) and sites in Charlottetown, Moncton, N.B., Quebec City, Vaughan, Ont., and Gatineau, Que. Parks Canada and the municipalities cancelled the events, most citing safety concerns amid planned protests, while Quebec City called Feucht “controversial” when citing its reason for the cancellation.
The stops are part of Feucht’s “Let Us Worship” movement. The tour has managed to line up alternative venues for each of the cancelled events.
Ahead of Feucht’s performance at Montreal, a spokesperson with the mayor’s office told The Epoch Times the church, Ministerios Restauración/Église MR, did not have a concert permit.
“Borough inspectors have notified the owners that the event cannot proceed,” Catherine Cadotte said in an email. “Violation notices will be issued if the concert continues, and the neighborhood police station has been mobilized to enforce the regulations.”
Feucht said the church was “not backing down” and that it was “time to take a stand for the gospel in Canada.”
According to the CBC, Feucht said before the Montreal church event it was “not a performance, it’s a church service” and he didn’t need a permit “to worship inside a church.”
When a smoke bomb was thrown on the stage during the event, Feucht picked it up and asked, “somebody take a picture of this,” before handing it to a man who took it away.
Tour Bus Hit
The musician encountered further trouble on the Canadian leg of his tour when his tour bus was hit by a car as he was headed to the church event.
“A car just rammed into our bus outside of Montreal,” Feucht posted on X.
“It was out of control, it was swerving everywhere,” he said in a video posted on the social media platform. “We were all sleeping and felt it just bam our bus.”
In a subsequent post, Feucht said police on the scene were “unbelievably kind.”
The other driver “acknowledged he slammed into our bus and somehow ‘lost control,’” he wrote.
“Thank you for praying! Nothing will stop the sound of worship going forth from Canada,” he wrote in the social media post.
Public Venues Cancelled
A Quebec City spokesperson previously told The Epoch Times in an email that Feucht’s appearance had not been mentioned as part of the contract between the concert promoter and the venue, ExpoCité.
It said ExpoCite decided to terminate the contract based on the “new information.”
A City of Vaughan spokesperson said the city denied Feucht a special event permit for a July 27 performance at Dufferin District Park “on the basis of health and safety as well as community standards and well-being.”
A spokesperson for the National Capital Commission (NCC) in Gatineau said it would not issue a permit for Feucht’s show at Jacques-Cartier Park North. The NCC is a Crown corporation that oversees federal lands and buildings in the National Capital Region.
NCC communications adviser Maryam El-Akhrass told The Epoch Times in an email that the decision was made after consultation with the Gatineau Police Service over concerns about “public safety and security for and around the event.”
Parks Canada, as well as the cities of Charlottetown and Moncton, previously said they cancelled Feucht’s appearances over “safety and security” concerns.
Feucht responded to the Parks Canada cancellation by moving his Nova Scotia performance to a location in Shubenacadie, N.S., about 60 kilometres north of Halifax.
A social media post from the City of Moncton said it had cancelled Feucht’s July 24 concert, calling the event “non-compliant” with its code of conduct for city facilities.
The city said it was committed to creating a “respectful, positive, and safe environment” for those using municipal facilities and it was responsible for ensuring public spaces were used in a “manner consistent with community standards.”
Feucht said in a July 24 post on X that the “Let Us Worship” Canada tour was born “as an organic response” to COVID-19 lockdown policies and that Canada had some of the most oppressive policies in the world.
“The pandemic may be over, but the anti-Christian bias remains,” he said on X.
He added that if he had shown up with purple hair and a dress, claiming to be a woman, “the government wouldn’t have said a word.”
“But to publicly profess deeply held Christian beliefs is to be labeled an extremist—and to have a free worship event classified as a public safety risk,” Feucht wrote.
The City of Charlottetown previously said members of the public expressed concern over Feucht’s appearance, noting that from a “legal standpoint” it was “limited in restricting access to public spaces.”
The city said it supports the LGBT community and any statements expressed by Feucht to the contrary were “not the views of the City.”
Feucht has previously said “The LGTBQ and trans community are radicalizing” youth, “with victimhood leading to senseless violence.” He has also called for a “national reckoning.”
“We want God in control of government,” he told the audience at a 2023 performance in Wisconsin.
Feucht also held worship concerts during COVID, in violation of lockdown orders.
The Canadian concerts are part of Feucht’s “Revive in 25” tour. He has performances scheduled in Western Canada in August.
Chandra Philip is a news reporter with the Canadian edition of The Epoch Times.