Moncton tells court it cancelled a Christian worship concert to prevent ‘anticipated hate speech’

On Thanksgiving Monday, the City of Moncton tells a New Brunswick court why it cancelled a free Christian worship concert in a public park: "to ensure public safety and to prevent anticipated hate speech."

Burn 24/7 Canada booked Riverfront Park for a Let Us Worship stop with American worship leader Sean Feucht: a live band, local churches praying for the city, and tanks of water for baptisms. The city approved it, then cancelled it the day before, after an open letter and threats of counter-protests. The ministry is suing for $50,000 under the Charter.

Now the city's statement of defence is in. It says the safety concerns came from "individuals opposed to the Event." It acknowledges the cancellation limited freedom of expression but calls that justified. And it argues the Christians filed the wrong kind of lawsuit, so the case should be thrown out with costs.

That's a heckler's veto: whoever threatens trouble gets to decide who speaks. And Moncton wasn't alone. Parks Canada in Halifax, Charlottetown, Quebec City, Gatineau, Vaughan and Abbotsford all shut Feucht out in the summer of 2025. In Montreal, where a church hosted him anyway, a man threw smoke bombs during the service, and the city fined the church $2,500. Rebel News identified the alleged smoke bomber, a Department of National Defence employee who has since been charged with mischief.

Plus: author John Goddard, a former Associated Press reporter in Tehran and later a Toronto Star reporter, on his book Chicken Land: Murder in the Name of Allah. It's about the 2021 attack on a family at their Mississauga takeout restaurant after one son walked away from a business that Goddard says doubled as an ISIS cell. Three men were convicted, the RCMP laid no terrorism charges, and most of the national media looked away.

Defend the right to worship in public: https://www.LetUsWorship.ca

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