Toronto/CMEDIA: The Belfast-based prominent Irish rap group Kneecap reportedly threatens legal action for being barred from entering Canada.
Toronto MP Vince Gasparro has said that the federal government had deemed Kneecap “ineligible” to come to Canada, as their actions and statements ‘are contrary to Canadian values and laws.’
As a result a legal action against Gasparro is being initiated by the rap group Kneecap for not allowing them to enter the country.
“Our government will not tolerate the advocating of political violence, terrorism or Anti-Semitism and hate more broadly,” Gasparro wrote on X Friday.
“The group have amplified political violence and publicly displayed support for terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas,” said Gasparro, who serves as the parliamentary secretary to the secretary of state for combating crime.
Scheduled to perform two shows in Toronto, and another two in Vancouver, in October, Kneecap responded on Instagram with a letter addressed directly to Gasparro, calling his comments “wholly untrue and deeply malicious.”
Made up of Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh (Mo Chara), Naoise Ó Cairealláin (Móglaí Bap), and J.J. Ó Dochartaigh (DJ Próvaí), the Belfast-based group has frequently drawn headlines for its politically charged performances.
Britain’s Home Office confirmed earlier this year that it was reviewing musical duo Bob Vylan for leading on-stage chants of “death, death to the IDF” during the Glastonbury music festival over the summer, while Kneecap led chants against the U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and condemned Israel in front of a huge crowd was also being reviewed.
Ó hAnnaidh appeared in a London court on a terrorism-related charge in August, for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag during a concert while Kneecap rejected the allegation and said the case was part of a wider effort to silence their political messaging.
In its Friday letter, Kneecap wrote, “No member of Kneecap has been convicted of ANY crime in ANY country EVER.”
The Kneecap group said, in a separate statement to fans, that the Canadian government had already issued Electronic Travel Authorizations, commonly known as eTAs, to its members.
The musicians’ presence in the country, argued the authorities, would constitute a risk to national security.
Jewish advocacy group B’Nai Brith Canada thanked the federal government for its decision, which it said “must serve as precedent.”
