It's Friday, August 1st. I'm Tara Jean Stevens, and here are this week's headlines from the Heaven Bent universe.

Sean Foyt versus Canada. Christian nationalist Sean Foyt says he kissed the ground upon returning to the United States this week.

He had just wrapped up a maudged version of the first leg of his Canadian worship tour

after the permits were revoked from every original venue.

The cancellations on his first leg were at public outdoor venues in Nova Scotia,

Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario, and the reasons given involve public

safety concerns and to protect inclusive public spaces.

Sean Foyt says this backlash is all a sign of rampant anti-Christian bias in Canada,

and that this country has been taken over by a woke mob. He's also saying he's engaging with

Canadian legal counsel and plans to fight the decisions in court. And Sean is not the only one who thinks

something illegal may have gone on here. For example, Brian Lilly. He's a well-known

conservative journalist and commentator, and he suggested this week in the Toronto Sun that

there is a selective approach to who gets to have their rights protected here. He believes

this is particularly true when it involves freedom of religion, expression, and assembly.

But in Canada, unlike the states, free speech doesn't mean pretty much anything goes. We also have

laws that protect against hate speech,

especially when someone uses a public platform to target marginalized groups like gay and trans kids,

like Sean Foyt does. This is not a mob, as he says. It's our communities strictly upholding our shared values of safety and

inclusion. And this is even true in Abbotsford, a city right in the heart of BC's Bible Belt,

where it's recently become the eighth city to revoke or deny the tour permits. So for all the canceled dates so far,

Sean was able to quickly reschedule to new venues.

They were offered up last minute by supporters.

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