Candace Owens barred from Australia, petition launched to overturn visa rejection

(LifeSiteNews) — Candace Owens’ upcoming speaking tour in Australia has been canceled after the country’s top immigration officer refused to approve her visa application.

“Candace Owens has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction,” Tony Burke claimed Sunday, pointing to what he implied were previous anti-Semitic remarks.

LifeSite has launched a petition calling on the Australian government demanding she be allowed to speak in the country. Click here to add your name.

Owens, who responded in a video today, was scheduled to appear next month in Auckland (New Zealand), Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide to discuss topics such as free speech and “why Christ really is king,” among other subjects liberals disdain.

BANNED FROM AUSTRALIA?!
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Plus, Kamala’s family is from the Brahmin caste. But what exactly does that mean and why is the San Francisco Weekly deleting old articles of her mother discussing it?

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— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) October 29, 2024

Owens’ tour was to be held just five months after Tucker Carlson conducted his own five-city speaking gig down under.

During one of his events, Carlson expressed support for recently freed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange while simultaneously excoriating a woke journalist who was defending the COVID shot.

Australia’s Institute of International Affairs had issued a statement preposterously claiming Carlson would be spouting “Kremlin propaganda” during his visit.

Owens’ cancellation comes as election season in the U.S. nears its conclusion.

In recent days, the Harris campaign has resorted to calling Donald Trump a “fascist” and that he will weaponize the government to attack his political opponents.

That accusation conveniently ignores the fact that Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, both of whom served in the Trump administration, were just released from prison after having been sent there due to the efforts of the Democratic Party.

Owens’ visa denial is not the first time a non-Australian has been kept out of the country. Tennis legend Novak Djokovic was not only prevented from playing in the Australian Open in 2022 because he had not received the experimental COVID shot but was deported after he had landed. In a twist of irony, he won the tournament just one year later.

A LifeSite petition expressing support for him surpassed more than 45,000 signatures in less than 24 hours of being launched.

Burke further accused Owens of “downplaying the impact of the Holocaust” and claiming “that Muslims started slavery.”

“Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else,” he remarked.

Burke seems to have been motivated to block Owens after Jewish groups expressed outrage this summer over her tour. Owens, who has been critical of the Israeli government’s brutal destruction of Gaza, had previously taken on degenerate U.S.-based Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on social media and television.

“Australia has no place for those who mock the suffering of genocide survivors and insult the memories of the 6 million Jews who perished,” Dvir Abramovich of the Anti-Defamation Commission told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation this past weekend.

Owens defended her tour while appearing on a Sydney-based radio station in August.

“It’s kind of incredible to think people could be so fearful of just speech and conversation,” she said. “I was quite surprised to see that they were like ‘Don’t give her a visa, she’s a bad person.’ But I promise you it is not going to harm you to hear different ideas.”

LifeSite’s petition in support of Owens can be signed here.