Borders & immigration
We are making sure no Muslim faces discrimination at borders through advocacy.
WHAT'S
HAPPENING
Borders & immigration
There are very few Canadian Muslims who can’t relate, or know someone who relates, to the challenge of “flying while Muslim”. We at the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) are very familiar with these challenges.
From young Muslim six-year old kids appearing on Canada’s No Fly List, to Muslims facing additional screening purely on the basis of their religious backgrounds, to problems at the border based on where their parents were from, NCCM has heard countless stories over the last two decades about the challenges of flying while Muslim.
Our goal is to make sure that nobody suffers from discrimination while at the borders, while traveling, or at immigration.
NCCM HAS SUCCESSFULLY PUSHED FOR:
- An end to the biased No Fly List in coordination with the No Fly List Kids.
- CBSA Oversight to be implemented after the passage of Bill C-20.
- A zero-tolerance policy for Islamophobia being implemented at the CBSA after years of advocacy.
Former CEO, Mustafa Farooq speaks at House Committee
IMPACT STATS
25%
of front-line employees surveyed at Canada’s border agency in March 2020 said they had directly witnessed a colleague discriminate against a traveller in the previous two years.
100,000
Canadians likely affected by the No Fly List before NCCM, working with the No Fly List Kids, helped to shut down the unfair system.
500
allegations of misconduct by CBSA officers filed between 2018-2019 found in a CBC access-to-information request.
A SNAPSHOT | WHAT WE DO
2015 - NCCM Reaches Out to Parents
Suffering with Challenges with the No Fly List
Suffering with Challenges with the No Fly List
The No-Fly List (officially known as the Passenger Protect Protect) was long critiqued for its false-flagging of innocent Canadians, including children, who share the same or similar name to persons deemed immediate security threats by the federal government. This misidentification often leads to increased security checks by airport staff and other forms of humiliation, including being barred from flights altogether.
In 2015, in conjunction with families of children who were being falsely flagged (the No Fly List Kids) NCCM began reaching out to bring claimants together to push for change.
2018 - After Years of Advocacy, Action
Finally Taken to Address the No Fly List
Finally Taken to Address the No Fly List
National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), a prominent civil liberties and advocacy organization, welcomed the federal government’s announcement of $81.4 million in funding over 5 years to end the false flagging of innocent persons within Canada’s Passenger Protect Program (PPP), better known as the ‘No-Fly List’.
The funding announcement was a welcome step forward for Canadians mistakenly identified on the No-Fly List, and for their families and supporters who have worked tirelessly over many years to have this injustice corrected. Everyone should be able to enjoy the full range of mobility rights afforded to them under the Charter.
The No-Fly List has long been critiqued for its false-flagging of innocent Canadians, including children, who share the same or similar name to persons deemed immediate security threats by the federal government. This misidentification often leads to increased security checks by airport staff and other forms of humiliation, including being barred from flights altogether.
The No-Fly List had been an ongoing issue since 9/11. In each instance, the inability of victims to access basic information about their file and to subsequently clear their names had deeply concerning.
2020 - NCCM Files a Claim Against The
CBSA after a Muslim Academic
Allegedly Discriminated Against at the Border
CBSA after a Muslim Academic
Allegedly Discriminated Against at the Border
As told to the CBC: Mohamed Duale can still remember the feeling in the pit of his stomach when a border officer at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport stopped and subjected him to a battery of questions as he tried to re-enter Canada last year.
“It’s because of where you were born — you’re Somalian, right?” the Canadian citizen recalled the Canadian Border Services Agency agent telling him.
It was a moment that Duale, a doctoral student at York University in Toronto, says stopped him in his tracks.
“I was literally frozen … Being a Black, male, Muslim person with about a dozen CBSA officers alone in front of a departure gate, I’m literally scared,” Duale said.
“I never thought that the discrimination would be so overt or verbalized in such clarity. And it’s words that I will never forget for as long as I live.”
Representing Duale are the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) and Mariam Moktar and Sarah Rostom from Goldblatt Partners LLP. They argue the 33-year-old’s experience is part of a broader pattern of discrimination by the CBSA and underlines the need for independent oversight of the agency — something that was in Bill C-3 last year, before it died on the order paper when Parliament was prorogued over the summer.
2021 - NCCM CBSA Oversight Bill
Submission Calls For Zero Tolerance
for Islamophobia Provisions
Submission Calls For Zero Tolerance
for Islamophobia Provisions
There are very few Canadian Muslims who can’t relate – or know someone who relates – to the challenge of “flying while Muslim”. We at the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) are very familiar with these challenges. From young Muslim six-year old kids appearing on Canada’s No Fly List, to Muslims facing additional screening purely on the basis of their religious backgrounds, to problems at the border based on where their parents were from, NCCM has heard countless stories over the last two decades about the challenges of flying while Muslim.
That is why one of our key battles over the last two decades has been in calling for oversight over the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA). CBSA Officers are the officers you meet at a port of entry at land or when you are flying into an airport internationally.
Unfortunately, the issues of racism and Islamophobia at the CBSA are well-documented. While the CBSA has historically denied that racial profiling occurs, a growing body of research in the area has made it clear that the CBSA routinely engages in racial profiling.
Most recently, a CBC access-to-information request revealed over 500 allegations of misconduct by CBSA officers filed between 2018-2019. That’s why it’s so important for us to get CBSA oversight right. Before Parliament was prorogued, Bill C-3 promised oversight over the CBSA, the very thing NCCM has been advocating for over the last two decades. However, there were key changes that need to be made for the legislation to do what it has to do.
Critically, none of our suggested policy suggestions in our brief hamper the ability of CBSA agents to ensure border security. Rather, they simply ensure that racial discrimination is not active on the border.
2022 - STCA Litigation at the Supreme
Court of Canada
Court of Canada
NCCM and other community organizations appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada to highlight the vulnerabilities of Muslim refugees who show up and are turned away along the US-Canada border because of an arrangement called the Safe Third Country Agreement. NCCM argued for an individualized assessment of Charter rights which accounts for the identity (religious and otherwise) of claimants.
The current arrangement allows Canada to turn back refugee claimants who show up at the border on the basis that they must try to get asylum in the US first (the country where they first arrived), since we consider the US to be a “safe country” for refugees and asylum seekers to stay in.
The Safe Third Country Agreement has been in place for 18 years.
NCCM counsel and the Canadian Muslim Lawyers Association (CMLA) submitted to Canada’s top court that such an agreement allows for easy violation of Canada’s commitment to refugee and human rights. By sending prospective refugees back to the US, Canadian border officials are often consigning such marginalized and vulnerable people to detention and mistreatment.
For instance, one Muslim refugee who was turned back got thrown into a US detention facility under solitary confinement during the Trump Muslim ban. She was given what she suspected was pork in her meals—which she doesn’t eat for religious reasons. She lost over 15lbs under such circumstances after a month or so in her cell.
2023 - VIA Rail Issue & NCCM Advocacy
In 2023, Muslim man was harassed for trying to pray in the VIA Rail station in Ottawa.
You responded collectively with a clear message:
Islamophobic harassment has no place in Canada.
Our legal and education teams worked alongside the Ottawa Muslim community to ensure this never happens again.
We began working with VIA Rail shortly after to make sure that nobody had to suffer from racism again – and we continue to engage in productive dialogue with them amongst many of our partners.
2024 - CBSA Oversight Legislation
Finally Passed
Finally Passed
NCCM representatives were on Parliament Hill constantly in 2024 to urge Parliamentarians and Senators to urgently pass oversight legislation for the CBSA.
NCCM has long advocated for the establishment of structural oversight for the CBSA, whose agents have long operated with a lack of transparency and accountability at the border.
The result has been a long history of systemic racism and incidents of Islamophobia toward various marginalized communities at the border and beyond.
While C-20 does not solve every issue, it is a first step in the right direction.
2024 - Zero Tolerance Policy on
Islamophobia at the CBSA Implemented
Islamophobia at the CBSA Implemented
For years, NCCM had called for the CBSA to implement a zero tolerance policy for Islamophobia at the CRA, especially given years of seeing CBSA officers rely on Islamophobic tropes, and indeed sometimes racist reports, in making decisions at the border. The decision to finally implement the zero-tolerance policy is a significant step in the right direction.
DISCRIMINATION AT THE BORDER
STILL HAPPENS
Help us take action to stop Islamophobia at the border.
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