By Harinder Mahil

A British MP was stopped by Air Canada from boarding a flight in London because his name is Mohammad. It is a shameful incident involving racial profiling which should be strongly condemned.

Mohammad Yasin, a British member of parliament, was travelling to Canada with a group of MPs as part of a parliamentary delegation last week when he was stopped and questioned at Heathrow Airport check-in by Air Canada officials and asked if he was carrying a knife or other offensive weapon.

According to Clive Betts, another British Member of parliament, who was part of the delegation, Yasin was stopped for questioning, unlike other MP’s in the delegation who were travelling to Canada together. Yasin was the only person of colour, and the only one with a Muslim name. 

“The questioning was undertaken by officials from Air Canada and, we believe, the Canadian government,” said Betts. He said Yasin was questioned multiple times, first at Heathrow airport, then at airports in Montreal and Toronto. He said Yasin was also asked where he was born.

Yasin was only able to board the flight in London after proving he was a member of parliament – and showing he had a visa to enter Canada. Yasin said: “It was stressful and humiliating to be singled out in such an aggressive way by immigration control, especially when travelling in a group as a representative of the British Parliament on long arranged government business.”

Air Canada’s first reaction was that its staff followed procedure when it delayed Yasin for extra questions as he was boarding his flight. However, in a statement to CBC, Air Canada said it regretted the inconvenience or upset caused by the incident and has reached out to apologize to Yasin. “We are following up internally on the handling of this particular matter to ensure procedures were properly followed, and we have also been in touch with relevant authorities,” reads Air Canada’s statement. The airline did not elaborate on who the relevant authorities were. 

Yasin and members of the British delegation have received apologies from Air Canada and the parliamentary secretary to the Canadian Minister of Immigration, Betts said, but he still planned to write to the Canadian high commissioner about the incident “given the racist and Islamophobic nature of these challenges.”

This is the second such recent incident involving racial profiling by Air Canada. A Black Montreal family had alleged they were victims of racial profiling when they were removed from a Florida-bound flight after telling Air Canada staff their bags hadn’t been loaded on the plane. Members of the Wright family had called for accountability for what happened to them on July 28, 2023 at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport.

This is a serious incident of racial profiling which must be taken seriously by Pablo Rodriguez, the federal Minister of Transport. A simple apology is not enough. The minister must make sure that this does not happen again and those responsible for it must be appropriately dealt with.

Harinder Mahil is a human rights activist and is president of the West Coast Coalition Against Racism (WACAR).