{"id":155211,"date":"2025-09-19T16:16:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T16:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/155211\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T16:16:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T16:16:06","slug":"hip-hop-group-kneecap-barred-from-entering-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/155211\/","title":{"rendered":"Hip-hop group Kneecap barred from entering Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap has been deemed ineligible to enter Canada, MP and Parliamentary Secretary for Combating\u00a0Crime Vince Gasparro\u00a0announced in a video posted to his X account on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Kneecap had been scheduled to perform in Toronto and Vancouver next month.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The group have amplified political violence and publicly displayed support for terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas,&#8221; Gasparro said in the X video.<\/p>\n<p>Jewish groups have been asking Ottawa to ban the group since June, along with the English punk-rap duo Bob Vylan, over comments they argue\u00a0serve\u00a0to incite antisemitism. Gasparro&#8217;s video\u00a0did not mention Bob Vylan.<\/p>\n<p>On behalf of the Government of Canada I am announcing that on the advice of our officials, we have deemed the group Kneecap ineligible to enter our country.<br \/>Our government will not tolerate the advocating of political violence, terrorism or Anti-Semitism and hate more broadly. <a href=\"&quot;https:\/\/t.co\/3KOf84G3bZ&quot;\">pic.twitter.com\/3KOf84G3bZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/vgasparro\/status\/1969011507070439784\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@vgasparro<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Belfast trio is known for its anarchic energy, satirical lyrics and use of symbolism associated with the Irish republican movement, which seeks to unite\u00a0Northern Ireland\u00a0\u2014 currently part of the U.K. \u2014 with the\u00a0Republic of Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>The group has faced criticism for lyrics laden with expletives and drug references, and for political statements seeming to glorify militant groups like\u00a0Hamas\u00a0and\u00a0Hezbollah.<\/p>\n<p>Kneecap has accused its critics of trying to silence the band because of its support for the Palestinian cause throughout Israel&#8217;s\u00a0war in Gaza. But they have said they don&#8217;t support Hezbollah and Hamas, nor do they condone violence.<\/p>\n<p>Kneecap member Liam\u00a0\u00d3g \u00d3\u00a0Hannaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara,\u00a0is facing terrorism charges in the U.K., after allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag on stage at a November 2024 gig in London.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, the group announced it was cancelling 15 shows in the U.S. \u00d3\u00a0Hannaidh has a court hearing in London scheduled for Sept. 26, and the group said the proximity of that court hearing is what caused those cancellations.<\/p>\n<p>The group was dropped by their U.S. booking agent after a controversial performance at the\u00a0Coachella\u00a0music festival in April,\u00a0where they displayed\u00a0the messages\u00a0&#8220;Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people&#8221; and &#8220;F&#8211;k Israel, Free Palestine&#8221; on stage.<\/p>\n<p>CBC News has reached out to Kneecap for comment, but did not immediately hear back.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap has been deemed ineligible to enter Canada, MP and Parliamentary Secretary for Combating\u00a0Crime&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-155211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}