Kneecap are taking legal action against Canadian MP Vince Gasparro, who in September announced on social media that the group were banned from entering the country because their on-stage criticism of Israel was “contrary to Canadian values and laws”.
At the time Gasparro said he was making that announcement “on behalf of the government of Canada”, but last week it was revealed that neither Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney nor the Canada Border Services Agency were aware the announcement was being made.
When Gasparro made his social media post in September, Kneecap immediately hit back, insisting that his claim that their on-stage support for Palestine included “publicly displaying support for terrorist organisations” was “wholly untrue and deeply malicious”.
In a new post this weekend, they add, “it now transpires you also lied by telling the world you were acting on ‘behalf of the government of Canada’. This was another lie. You were not. Your own government has made this clear”.
Therefore, the group continue, “we are serving legal action against you”. In pursuing that litigation, they “will be relentless in defending ourselves against outrageous and baseless accusations”.
And, “when we beat you in court, which we will, we will donate every cent of your money to assist the thousands of child amputees in Gaza”.
Although Gasparro definitely exaggerated the situation regarding Kneecap being banned from Canada, there were issues with the group’s travel permits which resulted in planned shows in the country being cancelled.
Last week Immigration, Refugees And Citizenship Canada revealed that, while the group initially secured the necessary ‘electronic travel authorisations’ last year, the ETA for one member, Mo Chara, was then cancelled in August due to “inadmissibility for omitting to disclose complete and accurate information on his application”. His bandmates ETAs were then put under review the following month.
Therefore Gasparro was right to say in September that there were issues with Kneecap’s travel permits, but not necessarily for the reasons he gave.
Plus, until last week, IRCC and Immigration Minister Lena Diab refused to comment on the status of Kneecap’s travel permits because, they said, doing so would breach privacy rules. So it's not clear why Gasparro, a member of the governing Liberal Party, felt free to make a public statement.
In addition to Kneecap’s litigation, Gasparro’s political rivals in the Canadian Parliament are also piling on the pressure. It was a query from Jenny Kwan MP, member of opposition party the NDP, that prompted last week’s statements from the Canadian prime minister and border agency.
Following those statements, Kwan told Global News that “there are still a lot of unanswered questions” regarding Gasparro’s Kneecap intervention. “He said he received information from officials”, Kwan continued. “So who are these officials? Who authorised him to make this announcement? That is still unclear”.
The Deputy Leader of Canada’s Conservative Party Melissa Lantsman has also demanded to know on what basis Gasparro made his Kneecap statement.
Despite her being diametrically opposed to Kneecap on the issue of Israel and Palestine, she still wants to know if her political rival in the Canadian Parliament broke the rules in his role as a parliamentary secretary, which makes him an official link between the government and Parliament.
She previously told Global News, “We have a parliamentary secretary that either doesn’t know what’s happening within his own government or who clearly lied. I would suspect that in any other workplace you would be reprimanded for that. And in this case, you wouldn’t be a parliamentary secretary anymore”.
Gasparro himself hasn’t yet commented on the controversy surrounding his September statement.
Meanwhile, Kneecap have assured their Canadian fans that their team is dealing with the travel permit issues at Canada’s IRCC agency with the hope they can reschedule their shows in the country.
“We are working to resolve the ‘compliance issues’ that have been communicated by your IRCC”, their social media post concludes. And “we look forward to visiting Canada again in 2026 and playing to sold out shows across your land as we have done so in the past”.