Feds Ban Another Outspoken Musician From Entering Canada
I was debating whether or not to buy a ticket to see one of my favourite country musicians, Charley Crockett, on March 2 in Toronto, but the Canadian government ended up making that decision for me.
Hours before Crockett was set to take the stage Feb. 22 at the Orpheum theatre in Vancouver, organizers cancelled the concert due to “unforeseen circumstances”. The next day, the American country singer said he had been denied entry into Canada twice in 24 hours—first while trying to cross the border in Vancouver, then in Kelowna. As a result, he has cancelled his entire Canadian tour, apologizing profusely to fans, whom he said would receive full refunds.
In his Instagram post making the announcement, Crockett displayed a report from Canada’s federal government declaring it was denying him entry on the basis of a 10-year-old conviction for selling weed. The report cited section 44 (1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, ruling him inadmissible to play music in Kelowna “on grounds of serious criminality for having been convicted of an offence outside Canada that if committed in Canada would constitute an offence under an Act of Parliament punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of at least 10 years.”
The specific offence was Crockett’s 2016 conviction for possessing less than 5 lbs of marijuana with intent to sell, give or distribute in the state of Virginia. The Canadian government reported that this “offence if committed in Canada would equate to section 5 (2) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) which is an indictable offence that would be punishable by a term of life imprisonment.”
Ottawa’s decision to ban Crockett is unjust, arbitrary and hypocritical. Crockett has toured Canada multiple times since his 2016 conviction with no problem. As country music news website Saving Country Music points out, the offence Crockett was convicted of may have been punishable in Canada with up to life imprisonment in 2016, but that’s no longer the case:
Canada legalized the possession of marijuana in 2018, and anyone is allowed to posses as much as 30 grams at any given time without legal repercussions. They are also allowed to grow and transport marijuana in certain quantities.
Canada’s marijuana is regulated, but even individuals found with major amounts of unregulated marijuana are only subject to a fine of up to $5,000, imprisonment for up to six months, not life. Even the most serious distribution/sale charges carry a penalty of five years, less a day.
As Saving Country Music notes, banning Crockett from Canada is not just a slap in the face to his fans, many of whom had already shelled out their hard-earned cash for travel and accommodations. It doesn’t just harm music venues and workers there who lose pay. It also contributes to a broader chilling effect on culture—both the freedom of artists to perform and for the public to enjoy their work:
You break the law, you lose. But in this instance, it’s the fans in Canada who lose the opportunity to see Charley Crockett, including ones that paid for travel and hotels to see him. It’s the venues that lose the revenue they would have garnered by hosting the shows. The workers who were hoping for tips and pay on the night lose out as well, not to mention Charley’s crew and band who now have an empty hole in their calendar. This is just a lose/lose situation.
And even worse, it doesn’t bode well for American musicians attempting to cross into Canada to perform. Even if you have all your paperwork in order, artists and bands are going to be more reluctant to head to the frozen north, worried some wrinkle at the border will throw their entire tour in disarray. John Moreland cancelled his Canadian tour in 2025 due to similar concerns. Hypothetically, Willie Nelson could be denied entry since he has marijuana convictions.
The argument that banning Crockett is fine and dandy because he was once found guilty of a criminal offence, one that isn’t even a crime in Canada anymore, is laughable. Countless musicians convicted of far more serious crimes have toured here with no issue. In 2022 I saw a Toronto concert featuring Mötley Crüe, a band whose singer was convicted of vehicular manslaughter—which unlike selling weed is still a crime in Canada punishable by up to life in prison—and whose drummer was convicted of spousal battery.
The point isn’t that musicians who have been convicted of crimes should never be allowed to perform in Canada. The point is that the federal government is being highly selective and arbitrary in who it declares admissible.
The timing of Crockett’s ban is also suspect. On Feb. 9 Crockett labeled U.S. President Donald Trump—whom Prime Minister Mark Carney has spent most of his time in office sucking up to, including by increasing funds for border control—a “grifter” and called for the deportation of billionaires Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, whom he said “openly believe in a post-democratic society where men of their class are above the law.” But Crockett isn’t the first outspoken musician the feds have blocked recently from performing for Canadian fans.
In September 2025, MP Vince Gasparro, parliamentary secretary for combatting crime, announced on social media that the federal government had banned Irish hip-hop group Kneecap—known for their public criticism of Israel and support for Palestinians—from entering Canada for allegedly “amplifying political violence” and supporting “terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas.” Gasparro is a member of the governing Liberal Party that has consistently supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza and slandered the Palestine movement as “antisemitic”.
Government documents tabled in the House of Commons later determined that neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the Canada Border Services Agency were “involved” or “consulted” in Gasparro’s announcement, despite his claim that the decision was made “on behalf of the Government of Canada.” Kneecap have since begun legal action against Gasparro for defamation.
Regardless, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said in November 2025 that it had cancelled Kneecap member Mo Chara’s travel authorization in August—a month before Gasparro’s announcement—due to “inadmissibility for omitting to disclose complete and accurate information on his application”. IRCC also told the other two members of Kneecap not to travel to Canada until they received further communication. There have been no public updates from IRCC since. But the damage was done: Kneecap was forced to cancel four sold-out shows in Toronto and Vancouver it had been scheduled to play in October 2025.
The Canadian government’s actual reason for banning Kneecap is obvious: the group has used its platform to criticize Israel’s genocide and express solidarity with Palestinians, and the war criminals in Ottawa who support Israel’s genocide sought to punish them. The U.K. government charged Mo Chara with terrorism-related offences for the same reason before the charges were thrown out of court.
In Crockett’s case, it’s less clear why the feds prevented him from entering Canada. But again, it is suspicious to ban a musician who has toured Canada many times since 2016 so soon after he publicly criticized Trump, following a wave of ICE terror and repression in Minnesota. “Forgive me if I have a problem with a 34 time convicted felon running this country when I lost the right to vote or own a weapon for years over marijuana,” Crockett said.
Trump has indeed been convicted of 34 felonies relating to falsified business records. Strangely enough, unlike Crockett, Trump’s prior convictions did not stop him from successfully entering Canada in June 2025 to attend the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, where he received a warm welcome from Carney.
One of the core principles of the rule of law is to protect people against arbitrary, unjust government actions by supposedly applying the law to everyone on an equal basis. But it’s becoming increasingly clear to people that the law does not apply equally to all. The state writes the laws and chooses which ones to enforce, and the state is fundamentally an instrument of class rule by which one class oppresses another. As we’ve seen from the Epstein files, our capitalist ruling classes commit the most depraved crimes without any fear of punishment, because they view themselves as above any and all rules which govern the rest of us.
Meanwhile, the more that capitalism falls into crisis and is unable to solve any of society’s problems, the less the ruling class is able to permit basic democratic rights like freedom of speech. Hence their increased censorship of artists, such as the attacks on pro-Palestine musicians like Kneecap and Bob Vylan. The slide towards authoritarianism means governments will assert their power in increasingly arbitrary ways, as we see with the decision to ban Charley Crockett from Canada, which inevitably has a deadening effect on art and culture.