Moncton tells court it cancelled a Christian worship concert to prevent ‘anticipated hate speech’
In its statement of defence, the City of Moncton says the danger came from people opposed to a free Christian worship event, admits the cancellation limited Charter-protected expression, and asks a judge to throw out the lawsuit with costs.
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Article by Rebel News staff.
The City of Moncton has told a New Brunswick judge why it cancelled a free Christian worship concert in a public park. The purpose, according to the city's lawyers, was "to ensure public safety and to prevent anticipated hate speech."
Anticipated. Nobody had said anything. Nobody had been charged with anything. The concert hadn't happened yet.
That line is paragraph 14(q) of the city's statement of defence, filed September 22 in the Court of King's Bench of New Brunswick by Pink Larkin, one of the biggest law firms in Atlantic Canada. It's the city's answer to a $50,000 Charter lawsuit from Burn 24/7 Canada Worship Ministries Society, the ministry that brought American worship leader Sean Feucht to Canada in the summer of 2025 for its free "Let Us Worship" tour.
Here's how the organizers described the Moncton stop on their application, as quoted in the city's own filing:
"This is a Free, Public, Live, Christian music event with a live band. Bringing together churches from different communities in the area to pray for the city and region. … There will be tanks of water for anyone who would like to be baptized. It's about bringing the community together."
Churches. Prayer. A band. Baptisms. That's what Moncton calls a threat to public safety.
According to the ministry's claim, the city approved the Riverfront Park booking on April 30, 2025, and organizers spent the next three months working out insurance, washrooms and drinking water with city staff. Then, on July 22, two days before the concert, the city says it "received communications from members of the public, expressing opposition to the Event and Sean Feucht, and indicating an intention to organize counter-protests."
Six groups, including the Regroupement féministe du Nouveau-Brunswick and River of Pride, had signed an open letter demanding that the city cancel the event. About 130 individuals added their names. Moncton has nearly 80,000 residents.
On July 23, the day before the concert, the city cancelled. Its general manager of community services emailed organizers that the event was "non-compliant with the City's Code of Conduct in City Facilities," and that "evolving safety and security considerations, including confirmation of planned protests" made it a risk to "community members, event attendees, and organizers."
The Code of Conduct is three pages long. It covers things like threatening referees, throwing objects at people and discriminating against anyone on the basis of religion. Somebody at city hall might want to re-read that last one. It says nothing about events, permits or protests, and the word "hate" doesn't appear in it.
Hours before showtime, the concert was moved to Bar None Camp in Taxis River, more than two hours' drive away. Organizers had expected about 1,000 people in Moncton. About 200 made it to the woods.
Now read the city's explanation closely. Paragraph 9 says its safety concerns "arose from the potential interaction between attendees and individuals opposed to the Event, Sean Feucht, or both."
So the danger wasn't the Christians. It was the people coming to confront the Christians. The city says so in its own pleading. And its answer was to cancel the Christians.
The rest of the defence follows the same script. The city says it learned of social media posts by Feucht with "homophobic and transphobic content as well as threats," and that his "security team" included members of the Proud Boys. No names, no evidence, just a line in a pleading. It also notes that it had just heard Parks Canada pulled his Halifax permit, as if everyone else doing it made it all right. None of these assertions has been tested in court.
Then comes the admission. The city denies it breached the Charter. But in the alternative, at paragraph 14(r), it "acknowledges that the effect of the cancellation was a limitation on section 2(b) of the Charter, but maintains that the limitation was justified." Translation: yes, it limited their freedom of expression. It just thinks that was fine.
And then the lawyer's trick. The city argues the ministry filed the wrong kind of case. It should have sought judicial review, the deadline for that has passed, so the lawsuit should be dismissed and the Christians should pay the city's legal costs.
That's a heckler's veto, typed up and filed with a court. Whoever threatens trouble gets to decide who speaks, and the government enforces it for them.
Moncton wasn't alone. Within days in July 2025, Parks Canada revoked Feucht's permit near Halifax and Charlottetown revoked his. Quebec City cancelled his contract at ExpoCité, the National Capital Commission cancelled his Gatineau show, and Vaughan never issued a permit, The Globe and Mail reported. In Abbotsford, B.C., the city told organizers they needed "safety letters" from police and fire. Neither department provided them, and the permit was refused. In Edmonton, the show went ahead on the legislature grounds, and the Alberta government said it "does not engage in shutting down or censoring law-abiding events." Imagine that: a government that enforces the law instead of surrendering to the mob.
Montreal shows what the "safety" argument really means. The city pulled Feucht's outdoor permit there too, so a small Spanish-speaking church, Ministerios Restauración, opened its doors and hosted him inside. During the service, a man walked in, lit two smoke bombs, threw them toward the stage and walked out.
That's what an actual attack on a religious gathering looks like. Not an open letter. Not a Facebook post. Smoke bombs thrown at people who are praying.
The City of Montreal's response was to fine the church $2,500. For months there was no arrest. Rebel News offered a reward, obtained the surveillance footage and identified the man as Gabriel Lepage, a Department of National Defence employee with, as Rebel reported, links to Antifa. When Rebel's Alexa Lavoie went to ask him about it outside his workplace, masked men appeared and one assaulted her. Lepage has since been charged with mischief, an allegation not proven in court, and National Defence confirms he still works there.
Rebel News and The Democracy Fund are paying for the church's lawyer to fight that fine. In February, a Quebec Superior Court judge rejected the city's bid to have the case thrown out.
Now imagine Montreal police had taken Moncton's approach. Imagine them walking into that church after the smoke cleared and telling the pastor: you see what happens when you people gather? You're too risky. We're shutting you down. And the man with the smoke bombs can go home.
Everyone would call that blaming the victim. It's exactly what Moncton did. It's what Parks Canada, Charlottetown, Quebec City and Gatineau did. They just did it a day or two early, so nobody had to see the smoke.
It isn't only churches. In November 2024, Toronto police handcuffed Ezra Levant on a public sidewalk at Bathurst and Sheppard while he filmed a pro-Hamas rally in a Jewish neighbourhood. The officer said his presence was a breach of the peace. The protesters were the threat. The journalist went into the cruiser. No charges followed.
That's how a heckler's veto works. Once a government accepts it, the hecklers learn that threats work, so they threaten more. Eventually nobody has to show up or throw anything at all, because the city does the job for them, in advance, for free.
That should bother every Canadian who cares about religious freedom, Christian or not, whether or not they'd ever go to a Sean Feucht concert. Today it's an evangelical with a guitar in a park. In Montreal, it was a church fined for opening its doors. Who's next?
Feucht is an American citizen who came to Canada lawfully, invited by a Canadian ministry to sing hymns in public parks, and half a dozen Canadian governments shut him down. The U.S. State Department publishes an annual International Religious Freedom Report on every country on earth, Canada included. This court file belongs in the next one, and Rebel News will make sure the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa gets a copy.
Happy Thanksgiving. Thank God for what you have. Out loud, if you like. Sing, if you like. Just not in a park in Moncton.
The murder trial the media ignored
Author John Goddard, who covered the 1981 release of the American hostages in Tehran for The Associated Press and later reported for the Toronto Star, has written Chicken Land: Murder in the Name of Allah, about a case most Canadians have never heard of.
On May 29, 2021, a gunman walked into Chicken Land, a family-run takeout restaurant in Mississauga, and opened fire. Naim Akl, 25, was killed. His mother, father, brother and a delivery driver were wounded. The Crown told the court the attack was meant to silence Naim after a falling-out over an online business whose owners, prosecutors said, were sending money to ISIS. A jury convicted three men of first-degree murder after hearing they had pledged allegiance to ISIS.
No terrorism charges were laid, and Goddard says nobody else connected to the alleged cell has been charged. Eight days after the shooting, a deadly truck attack on a Muslim family in London, Ontario, became a national story. Chicken Land barely registered. Goddard's book asks why.
Stand up for the right of Canadians to worship in public. Sign the petition at LetUsWorship.ca.
COMMENTS
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Ruth Bard commented 2026-10-13 00:16:21 -0400Thanksgiving began in Canada in 1879, when Sir John A MacDonald proclaimed it as “a day of general Thanksgiving to the Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed this year.” I got that from Classic Canadian Cooking, and what could be more reliable than a cookbook? -
Bruce Atchison commented 2026-10-12 20:42:01 -0400It’s a matter of world view. Leftists hate Christ because he spoke, and still speaks, the truth. Islam hates apostates because nobody is supposed to turn from what they think is thee truth. So leftists and Islamists murder to hide the truth.
