The city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, denied a permit Tuesday for activist missionary and worship leader Sean Feucht to perform in a public park amid a flurry of other government cancellations during his revival tour throughout Canada.
Feucht, who was slated to hold an event in Winnipeg’s Central Park on Aug. 20 during his ongoing “Revive in 25” tour, was barred from the park amid supposed “operational challenges” after some expressed concerns regarding his rhetoric, according to the CBC.
Winnipeg is now canceling our permit to worship OUTDOORS next month.
Did they not learn anything about what happened last week across Canada?
This is going backfire spectacularly!???????????? pic.twitter.com/0JPdacTzhA
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— Sean Feucht (@seanfeucht) July 29, 2025
An outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump who first rose to prominence for holding worship services in the U.S. in protest of church lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, Feucht has drawn condemnation in recent days from some Canadian leaders for his views opposing abortion, critical race theory, transgender ideology and LGBT behavior.
Winnipeg’s decision regarding the permit came a day after Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham told the CBC that while Feucht’s views are controversial, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects freedom of expression.
“My understanding from some of what I’ve seen … or heard had been said in the past, in the States side, is not some of the things that, you know, we would value,” Gillingham told the outlet. “On the other hand, we do have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms that does permit people to have their opinion, express their opinion.”
Winnipeg’s permit denial marks the seventh Canadian city to cancel Feucht’s tour stops, following in the footsteps Halifax, Nova Scotia; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; Moncton, New Brunswick; Quebec City and Gatineau, Quebec; and Vaughan, Ontario.
Despite Winnipeg’s cancellation, Saskatchewan’s largest city of Saskatoon has agreed to allow Feucht’s planned Aug. 21 event to go forward, according to CTV.
Feucht’s scheduled appearances during the upcoming western leg of his Canadian tour are also under review by government authorities, according to the National Post.
Last week, the city of Montreal slapped the Spanish-speaking Ministerios Restauración Church with a $2,500 fine for hosting Feucht without government permission. The unapproved church service was met with heavy police presence and featured a smoke bomb that was thrown at Feucht’s head while he performed.
“This show runs counter to the values of inclusion, solidarity, and respect that are championed in Montreal,” Mayor Valerie Plante’s office told the National Post regarding the church fine. “Freedom of expression is one of our fundamental values, but hateful and discriminatory speech is not acceptable in Montreal.”
“A ticket was issued because the organization violated the regulations by going ahead with the show,” the spokesperson added.
Réseau évangélique du Québec, a religious group that represents approximately 500 Evangelical Protestant churches in the province, condemned the municipal government’s actions and suggested government-sanctioned censorship is more concerning than Feucht’s potentially offensive opinions.
“While the criticism of ideas is legitimate in a democracy, state censorship of those ideas represents a dangerous deviation,” the group’s spokesperson, Jean-Christophe Jasmin, told The Canadian Press.
“It’s not the state’s place to determine how our churches ought to conduct themselves.”
Despite opposition from some Canadian leaders, Feucht has attracted support from multiple lawmakers in the western province of British Columbia, who have denounced his treatment.
Tara Armstrong, who has served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia since 2024, placed Feucht’s situation in the wider context of what she claimed is a growing antipathy toward Christianity in her country, where multiple pastors were arrested and jailed for keeping their churches open during the pandemic.
“Make no mistake, Christianity is under attack throughout Canada. Over 85 churches were targeted after the mass grave hoax and now an American singer is smoke bombed inside a church,” she wrote last week on X, referring to the many Canadian churches that have been burned or vandalized in recent years.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the church vandalism at the time as “unacceptable and wrong,” but also suggested they were “understandable” in the wake of allegations that mass graves of indigenous children were discovered at Catholic residential schools. Later excavations found no evidence of human remains at the sites, according to the New York Post.
“Let’s rise up and call this out for what it is: it’s HATE on full display,” Armstrong added. “And it must be condemned. Religious freedom is a fundamental right that is guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I will stand to protect it.”
In 2021, outrage over the alleged indigenous mass graves boiled over into tensions that led to protesters toppling statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II in Winnipeg, for which no one was prosecuted.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
