Right-wing US commentator Candace Owens, known for her controversial views on race, gender, and social issues, has been blocked from entering Australia for a scheduled speaking tour. The country’s authorities have cited her “capacity to incite discord,” media have reported.
Australian Immigration Minister Tony Burke confirmed on Sunday that an online influencer’s visa application has been rejected, saying “Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else.”
Owens, who has 18 million followers on YouTube, caused controversy when she announced a five-city Australian tour, due to her history of remarks about Jewish, Muslim and transgender people that have been widely criticized as inflammatory and anti-Semitic.
“From downplaying the impact of the Holocaust with comments about [Nazi doctor Josef] Mengele through to claims that Muslims started slavery, Candace Owens has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction,” Burke said in a statement.
In July, Owens questioned the authenticity of well-documented medical experiments on Jewish twins in concentration camps performed by the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele during World War II, describing the evidence as “completely absurd” and “bizarre propaganda.”
Owens has been accused of anti-Semitism before, and was fired from conservative news outlet Daily Wire earlier this year for accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza, and claiming that a “small ring” of “political Jews” in the US “use the fact that they are Jewish to shield themselves from any criticism.”
Owens’ remarks sparked a public feud with Daily Wire’s Jewish co-founder, Ben Shapiro, who called them “disgraceful.”
In August, Jewish groups in Australia reportedly called for Owens’ visa to be canceled. The Anti-Defamation League, a US-based group which campaigned to have her visa revoked, said she has “come to espouse explicitly anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist and anti-Israel views.”
LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Glaad has accused Owens of spreading anti-transgender views after she claimed in 2020 that the movement for trans equality “is one of the most dangerous” and “evil” things that is happening.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the 35-year-old media personality stirred controversy after suggesting the US military “invade Australia and free an oppressed people who are suffering under a totalitarian regime.”