Faith leader, anti-fascist activist want city to deny U.S. Christian singer permit to perform

A downtown United Church cleric and a longtime city anti-fascist activist are urging the city to deny a permit for a planned concert by American Christian singer Sean Feucht, scheduled to take place next month in Winnipeg’s Central Park.

Feucht, who some have labelled a Christian nationalist, has publicly aligned himself with U.S. President Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again movement. He is known for his outspoken opposition to gender diversity, abortion rights and the LGBTTQ+ community.

“The Central Park area and community often has very vulnerable people and is a very vulnerable population, so we’ve worked tirelessly to try and make this area safe for all people to come together and express their beliefs and to have a sense of community that lifts them up, rather than pulling them down,” said Rev. Lesley Harrison of Knox United Church, which is located on Edmonton Street, bordering the park where the Aug. 20 show is scheduled to take place.

Feucht has had several concerts across Eastern and Atlantic Canada cancelled in recent days, including stops in Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Quebec City, Gatineau, Que., and Vaughan, Ont.

The City of Montreal, meanwhile, fined a local evangelical church $2,500 for hosting Feucht last Friday after failing to secure a permit.

The 41-year-old, in a video posted to social media last week, said he’s being persecuted for his Christian beliefs.

Helmut-Harry Loewen, a former German, philosophy and sociology instructor at the University of Winnipeg who chaired the Manitoba Coalition Against Racism and Apartheid and was involved in other anti-fascist projects for decades, wrote Mayor Scott Gillingham Monday, outlining his opposition to Feucht’s planned concert.

He told the Free Press that Feucht is at the cutting-edge of a movement that is skilled at rebranding and repackaging hate to 21st-century, Christian audiences and those tied into popular culture.

“If Winnipeg did not ban this guy, Winnipeg would be an outlier, and it would not be very good,” Loewen said. “Winnipeg has a reputation to maintain, and needs to stand in solidarity with its vulnerable communities.”

Gillingham, at an unrelated press conference Monday, said city staff are looking at the permit request.

“I don’t have an update at this point,” the mayor said.

“Our staff was looking at it, and they’ll make a determination to issue the permit or not. I think a couple of things is that, in my understanding, from some of what I’ve seen, or heard had been said in the past… is not some of the things that we would value. On the other hand, we do have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms that does permit people to have their opinion, express their opinion.”

Gillingham said he did not know when a decision on the permit would be made. A city source, however, told the Free Press a decision is expected Tuesday.

— With files from Malak Abas

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca