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Friends actor and popular stand-up comedian Micheal Rapaport has criticized a liberal Canadian politician for demanding her fellow lawmakers bar him from doing stand-up shows in Canada. In a first-person article in The Free Press, Rapaport called out Heather McPherson, Canadian Member of Parliament, after she requested lawmakers to forbid him from doing stand-up shows in her country, ahead of his show date in Alberta, Canada.
The comic said that he would be there for the shows and offered the parliament member a front-row seat. Rapaport wrote in the The Free Press:
“If you’re reading this, Heather, I have front-row seats reserved for you and the New Democrats. That’s a genuine offer.”
McPherson, a member of Canada's New Democrat Party took to X on February 27, 2025, and posted a statement asking the Canadian government to deny entry to Micheal Rapaport. The post read:
"Statement calling on Canadian government to deny entry to Michael Rapaport — February 27, 2025 New Democrats are alarmed that American personality Michael Rapaport is scheduled to perform in Canada."
McPherson's X post also had an extended thread that accused the comedian of alleged racism and supporting terrorism. The thread, in continuation to the same post, added:
“All Canadians deserve to feel safe in our communities. New Democrats are calling on the Liberal government to deny entry to Michael Rapaport.”
She concluded by declaring:
"Hate has no place in Canada."
McPherson wanted other fellow Members of Parliament in Canada to be aware of Rapaport's visit, and tagged many of them.
How stand-up comedian Michale Rapaport responded to Canadian politician's ban call
Rapaport responded to the allegations in his The Free Press column, calling it 'the craziest campaign against me yet.' The comedian also replied to all the allegations of hate crime against him and said that the only criminal history he has was calling his ex-girlfriend Lili Taylor too many times in 1997. He pointed out that he has no outstanding warrants against him, and addressed McPherson's allegations saying:
"I’ll admit: I have a phobia of anybody who wants to kill, hurt, or dehumanize Jews.”
Rapaport claimed that McPherson talked about eliminating hate crimes in Canada, questioning what action she had taken to curb rise of hate crimes against Jews. He wrote:
“The irony is that McPherson, in her post, asserted that ‘hate has no place in Canada’ — except, of course, when hate is directed toward Jews, which Canada apparently has no problem with,” he wrote, linking to a report which found a “670 percent increase in antisemitic incidents in Canada in the past year.”
He added:
“Rather than call attention to that — or the horrific antisemitism sweeping her own country — this member of Parliament is spending her capital making pleas to keep me out, rather than fixing whatever is going wrong in her own backyard.”
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Rapaport has often expressed his opinions about Hamas, and has also spoken against anti-Israel agitators.
He further said that he would be there for his decided shows in Canada.
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