{"id":178645,"date":"2025-09-29T22:07:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T22:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/178645\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T22:07:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T22:07:13","slug":"10-days-after-liberal-says-kneecap-barred-from-canada-band-has-no-notice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/178645\/","title":{"rendered":"10 days after Liberal says Kneecap barred from Canada, band has \u2018no notice\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Controversial Irish hip-hop group Kneecap<\/a> has still not received official notice from the Canadian government about whether they are barred from entering Canada, the band\u2019s manager said Monday, 10 days after their apparent entry ban was announced.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNo notice on anything,\u201d band manager Daniel Lambert told Global News in an email, \u201cjust Vince\u2019s social media video.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lambert was referring to Liberal MP Vince Gasparro<\/a>, the parliamentary secretary for combating crime, who posted a video to his social media on Sept. 19<\/a> saying the government has deemed Kneecap\u2019s members ineligible to enter Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn 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,\u201d Gasparro said in the post.<\/p>\n

Kneecap, which has been outspoken in its support of the Palestinian people and opposition to Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza, was scheduled to perform next month in Toronto and Vancouver.<\/p>\n

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Gasparro said in the video the group has endorsed political violence and terrorism, and noted one member was facing \u201cterrorism-related charges\u201d in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

A British judge on Friday dismissed the case against Liam \u00d3g \u00d3 hAnnaidh \u2014also known by his stage name Mo Chara, which means \u201cmy friend\u201d in Irish \u2014 who had been charged after waving a flag of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah during a London concert last year.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah is a listed terrorist organization in both the U.K. and Canada.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018It was always about Gaza,\u2019 Irish band Kneecap says after court drops terrorism charges\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Gasparro declined to answer questions from reporters Friday on whether Kneecap would be allowed into Canada now that the British case has been dropped.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLook, any statement I\u2019ve made, there\u2019s nothing more for me to add in terms of my video,\u201d he said. \u201cAny further comments I\u2019m going to leave to the officials at immigration, and they\u2019ll manage that accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s better for me to leave it to our professional public service to manage any rollout from there, but I appreciate the questions,\u201d Gasparro added after he was pressed.<\/p>\n

He said his video was made and released \u201cbased on the information that was available.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement Monday, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said it cannot comment on Kneecap\u2019s specific case due to privacy reasons and did not confirm whether a formal entry ban was put in place, or if one remains.<\/p>\n

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Irish citizens do not require a visa to visit Canada but do require an electronic travel authorization (eTA),<\/a> which is applied for online and is needed when arriving by air.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a social media message responding to Gasparro\u2019s video, Kneecap said its members had already been issued valid electronic travel authorizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach case is assessed individually,\u201d the IRCC spokesperson said. \u201cEntry to Canada may be refused for a number of reasons, including concerns related to security, human or international rights violations, or criminal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Global News was included on an email chain between bureaucrats and a spokesperson for Immigration Minister Lena Diab, who instructed the department\u2019s media relations team to add a line to its \u201cmessaging for Kneecap moving forward,\u201d noting that \u201capplicants are informed of their visa status through the email provided on their applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The statement said anyone whose entry visa applications have been denied \u201ccan reapply for an eTA once they have addressed the reason(s) leading to the refusal of their application.\u201d<\/p>\n

The minister\u2019s office declined to comment separately from the department\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCanada bars hip-hop group \u2018Kneecap\u2019 over allegations of supporting terror groups\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree\u2019s office declined to comment Monday when asked by Global News if Gasparro consulted with the minister before his announcement.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said the office would \u201cdefer to IRCC\u201d on questions regarding Kneecap\u2019s case<\/p>\n

Global News has also reached out to the Prime Minister\u2019s Office for comment.<\/p>\n

The group said Gasparro\u2019s \u201cbaseless\u201d allegations were \u201cwholly untrue and deeply malicious,\u201d adding that no member of the group had ever been convicted of a crime in any country.<\/p>\n

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The group also threatened to take legal action against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we beat you in court, which we will, we will donate every cent to assist some of the thousands of child amputees in Gaza,\u201d its statement said.<\/p>\n

Gasparro on Friday said he\u2019s not concerned about a possible lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of things in my private sector career. I have never been sued,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they want to sue me, I look forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIrish hip hop group \u2018Kneecap\u2019 banned from Canada for supporting Hamas, Hezbollah\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

In his video, Gasparro accused Kneecap of publicly supporting Hezbollah as well as Hamas, which is also a listed terrorist entity in Canada, and that \u201copen endorsements of terrorist groups are not free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justice Minister Sean Fraser tabled legislation<\/a> the same day Gasparro released his video that would make hateful displays of certain symbols \u2014 including listed terrorist group emblems as well as the Nazi swastika \u2014 a criminal offence punishable with up to two years in prison.<\/p>\n

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Kneecap has accused critics of trying to silence the band because of its support for the Palestinian cause throughout the Israeli military\u2019s destruction of Gaza. The band says it doesn\u2019t support Hezbollah and Hamas, nor condone violence.<\/p>\n

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and Jewish advocacy organization B\u2019nai Brith Canada, which had advocated for the ban, have praised the government for Gasparro\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Controversial Irish hip-hop group Kneecap has still not received official notice from the Canadian government about whether they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,6680,34427,714,90837,3275],"class_list":{"0":"post-178645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-immigration","12":"tag-kneecap","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-vince-gasparro","15":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178645","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=178645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}