On May 14, 2026, the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) released a statement regarding Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)’s coordinated targeting of international speakers flying in for the annual MAC convention. CBSA cancelled the visas of some speakers without notice and subjected other speakers to hours-long interrogations, vulgar language, and denied them access to water and a prayer space at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
Al-Ahrar Palestinian Prisoner Support condemns this targeted Islamophobic attack on Muslim leaders and the MAC convention itself. This incident is a texbook case of the Canadian government and its institutions criminalizing and harrassing people and organizations for their support of Palestine and opposition to the Zionist entity. This incident exposes, once again, the ongoing targeting of Muslims and treating of them with suspicion, rooted in decades of institutionalized Islamophobia since the so-called War on Terror first began.
MAC’s statement identifies this incident as a targeted attack on MAC speakers based on pressure from pro-“Israeli” groups that have been pressuring the government to target Muslim organizations and leaders. The repressive measure taken against MAC is evidently another incident of the Canadian state’s close alliance with Zionism demonstrated, yet again, in their use of state institutions to target those opposing Zionism.
While this targeting of Muslim leaders by CBSA is appalling, it is unfortunately not surprising. Activist and writer Harsha Walia correctly states that borders operate on “an underlying and inherent ideology of us versus them.” This repressive incident reveals who is “us” and who is “them” in the eyes of CBSA and the Canadian settler-colonial state.
The targeted attack against MAC and their speakers sends a strong message that individuals and organizations who oppose Zionism and support Palestine should prepare for increased suppression and targeting. It is critical, now more than ever, to stand in solidarity with any individual or organization that is targeted by Zionist lobbying and state attacks and loudly oppose the Canadian state’s use of its institutions to silence and criminalize us.
It is of utmost importance that we build coalitions of solidarity that operate outside the state’s parameters of legality. We cannot appeal to the state about what is legal because MAC attendees were trying to enter Canadian borders in an entirely legal way and yet, they still were abused by the state because of Zionist lobbying and Canadian imperialist participation in the genocide of Palestinians. We cannot rely on the state to tell us what is legal and illlegal since it slaps “terrorism” labels on whomever threatens its interests. We must remember that no amount of pandering and cozying up to the state will keep us safe.
It is on us as organizers, activists, and people of conscience everywhere to escalate for Gaza, for south Lebanon, and for Iran in the face of state repression. When they brutalize, arrest, raid, incarcerate, and proscribe, we resist with ten times the force, we expand our movement, and we do not surrender.
