DISCRIMINATION AGAINST CHRISTIAN
BAND IN TORONTO, CANADA:
Is this Just the Beginning of what Christians can expect
following the Liberal Victory Sweep?
Toronto bans music festival from city square over Christian songs TORONTO, October 29, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- The City of Toronto is refusing to grant a Christian group a permit to use a prominent downtown square for its annual musical festival next year, because the city has decided that singing the name of Jesus in the public venue contravenes city policy against “proselytizing.” Voices of the Nations (VON) has been using city property since 2006 for an annual “multi denominational” event in which it celebrates Christianity through live music and dance. It has been using the Yonge-Dundas Square without issue for the past five years. This year’s August event attracted 19 different performance acts, including children’s choirs and popular Christian bands, where well-known ‘praise-and-worship’ songs such as “Days Of Elijah” are performed. When VON’s Events Coordinator Leye Oyelani contacted the Square’s Manager of Events Natalie Belman last week by phone to apply for next year’s permit, he was told that a permit would not be issued and to look for a venue elsewhere. “If you’re praising Jesus, ‘praise the Lord,’ and ‘there’s no God like Jehovah,’ that type of thing, that’s proselytizing,” she said. ‘Blatant discrimination’. Rev. David Lynn, street preacher and founder of Christian Positive Space & Stop Bullying Christians Now, called the refusal to grant the permit “blatant discrimination” against Christians.
“How’s a Christian at a Christian Event not to say the name of Jesus in their Songs?” he asked in an interview with LifeSiteNews.
“This City of Toronto verdict is telling the Christian Community that we are not allowed to be ourselves on Toronto property. This is awful,” he said. Paresh views the permit refusal as a direct assault on God and has vowed to fight the verdict. “The city official is not going up against me or my organization, but against the most high God. She's basically saying, ‘Sorry, but you can't have the name of Jesus being spoken from the stage on Dundas Square. When they go up against the most high God, in my opinion, I have to fight for the name of Jesus. Whatever happens, I will fight for the name of Jesus.”
Ben Robinson, director of the Toronto Christian Business Directory and a sponsor of the VON event, called it “sad” to see public officials
“discriminating against a Christian group for singing songs in public about Jesus. It’s almost as if we are nearing the last days where the Bible tells us that Christians will be persecuted for their faith. This is only the tip of the iceberg and I believe that things will only get worse, but we know that Jesus has already won the war,” he told LifeSiteNews.
