Barred From Canada, Anti-Semitic Comic Dieudonne Performs in Montreal Via Video
Image by getty images
MONTREAL —After being barred from entering Canada, controversial French comic Dieudonne M’bala M’bala still managed to present a show in Montreal — via video link.
Some 600 tickets reportedly were bought up by loyal fans of the man convicted multiple times in France and Belgium for hate speech, anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, and defending terrorism.
They paid $40 a ticket to see the comedian on a big screen in an east-end reception hall on Monday.
Dieudonne’s last conviction was May 10 in France for using material that included accusations of Jewish involvement in the slave trade and deriding the Holocaust.
That was the same day the Canadian Border Services Agency informed him he had to take a flight back to France.
Still, promoter Louis Tall said Dieudonne’s show, called En Paix (In Peace), was all part of a sincere effort to rehabilitate his image.
“We are trying to promote something about peace, about love, not about racism and anti-Semitism,” CJAD radio quoted Tall as saying.
A message from our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren
We're building on 127 years of independent journalism to help you develop deeper connections to what it means to be Jewish today.
With so much at stake for the Jewish people right now — war, rising antisemitism, a high-stakes U.S. presidential election — American Jews depend on the Forward's perspective, integrity and courage.
— Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief
