Rally organizer David Lynn urged the crowd, which gathered on one side of Yonge Street to face an Eaton's Centre teeming with Christmas shoppers, to stand up for their Christian faith whatever the cost.

"Stop being afraid!" said the charismatic street preacher and pastor-founder of the non-denominational Christ's Forgiveness Ministries. "I am a Christian! You are a Christian! And being a Christian is the greatest thing that you could ever be!"

The rally was the latest pushback against the City of Toronto and the management board of Yonge-Dundas Square's October decision to ban the Christian group, Voices of the Nations (VON), from using the square for its annual August music event. (Photo: Lianne Laurence / LifeSiteNews)

Voices of the Nations was denied a permit to use the square for the first time in six years because it allegedly violated a law against proselytizing in the public square.

"If you're praising Jesus, 'praise the Lord,' and 'there's no God like Jehovah,' that type of thing, that's proselytizing," Natalie Belman, manager of events for Yonge-Dundas Square, told VON's Leye Oyelami, as verified in an audio recording obtained by LifeSiteNews.

LifeSiteNews subsequently launched a petition urging the city to repeal its decision, drawing about 30,000 signatures. VON director Peter Ruparelia has delivered it, along with a 10,000-name petition from TheRebel.media, to Mayor John Tory's office.

(The LifeSiteNews petition is still active and has reached 34,153 signatures, and VON now has its own petition as well.)

Read more from LifeSiteNews, here.

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