Statement from the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) Regarding the Targeting of MAC Convention Speakers by the CBSA

This year’s convention features a distinguished roster of scholars, leaders, and speakers from Canada and abroad, invited because their voices matter and because Canadian Muslims deserve access to voices of their calibre.

What has unfolded this week by the Government of Canada and the CBSA is shocking, coordinated, and deeply un-Canadian.

Of the international scholars and speakers invited to this year’s convention, nearly all have been subjected to targeted immigration actions. ETAs have been held for months or cancelled immediately before departure and upon arrival, without reason or any opportunity to address concerns. Visas have been cancelled without notice or explanation. At Toronto Pearson International Airport, respected scholars have been interrogated for hours, denied water, refused a space to pray, and subjected to vulgar language by CBSA officers. They have been treated to a standard that should never be applied to anyone entering this country. This was not a series of coincidences. This was deliberate.

This did not occur in a vacuum. Pro-Israeli groups, operating from within Canada and beyond its borders, have made a deliberate effort to pressure the Government of Canada to target Muslim leaders and organizations with misinformation designed to intimidate, defame, and suppress opposition to oppression and injustice. It is a profound failure of institutional integrity when a federal agency allows such voices to drive its decisions. The result is that Canadian Muslims have been effectively prevented from gathering with the scholars and leaders they invited to their own convention, on their own soil. This is neither political disagreement nor a legitimate public safety concern. This is a concerted effort to silence and erase our community.

This is not an isolated incident either. MAC has engaged directly with CBSA leadership on this issue before and received commitments that the use of Islamophobic and fringe source material by its officers would be addressed. Those commitments have not been honoured. The pattern continues, and it is getting worse.

There are consequences to this approach. You cannot treat Muslim scholars and leaders with suspicion, hostility, and double standards, while simultaneously claiming that Muslim Canadians are a respected and integrated part of society. That contradiction is not sustainable, and the government must understand the impact of this approach with Canadian Muslims. The relationship between Canadian Muslims and the CBSA is already strained. What has happened this week has caused serious and lasting damage to that relationship.

This behaviour is unacceptable. It is un-Canadian. And it must stop.

MAC calls on the Prime Minister’s Office and Public Safety Minister Anandasangaree to immediately investigate the coordinated targeting of MAC convention speakers by the CBSA, to hold accountable those responsible for the misconduct at Toronto Pearson International Airport, and to take concrete steps to ensure that Canadian Muslims are treated with the same dignity, fairness, and respect afforded to every other community in this country.

A petition has been launched calling for full accountability for the coordinated targeting of our speakers. To sign the petition, click here