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Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) Director of European Affairs Shannon Seban visited Canada this past week for a series of work meetings and speaking appearances.
Seban gave a keynote address on Wednesday at a forum for national lawmakers on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, organized by the Canadian Jewish civil rights group Tafsik, advocating for the Canadian government to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
“What we are discussing today is Islamism, not Islam,” Seban emphasized. “Islam is a religion practiced peacefully by millions of citizens across democracies, including here in Canada. Islamism, however, is a political ideology that instrumentalizes religion in order to gain power and reshape society according to a supremacist vision.”
“Antisemitism is not incidental within Islamist intellectual history,” Seban noted. “From early Brotherhood writings to decades of sermons and rhetoric, Jews have been portrayed not merely as a religious community, but as a conspiratorial force — controlling governments, corrupting societies, obstructing an imagined ‘Islamic order.'”
Il est temps que le monde occidental se réveille et désigne ENFIN les Frères musulmans comme organisation terroriste.
Retrouvez mon avertissement à ce sujet dans le @nationalpost depuis le Canada. ⤵️ https://t.co/46jej9GqqV
— Shannon Seban (@ShannonSeban) February 12, 2026
“When this ideology enters Western democracies, it adapts its language,” she continued. “It may rebrand hostility as anti-Zionism. It may change vocabulary. But the underlying narrative — that Jews are a civilizational adversary — often persists.”
“Leaders must be able to say, without hesitation, that Islamism is not pluralism,” Seban declared. “Religious supremacism is not diversity. Democracy cannot remain neutral toward ideologies that seek to dismantle it.”
“Europe is learning this slowly,” she said. “The Middle East learned it painfully. The United States has addressed it through financial scrutiny and security measures. Canada still has the opportunity to act early — calmly, rationally, confidently.”
“Democracies rarely collapse suddenly,” Seban pointed out. “They erode gradually — through normalization, through silence, through the refusal to name patterns that are visible. The strongest democracies are not those that avoid difficult conversations. They are those that confront them early — guided by principle rather than fear.”
Read the full text of Seban’s speech HERE.
While in Ottawa, Seban also held meetings with Canadian Minister for Women and Gender Equality Rechie Valdez, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Leo Housakos, Member of Parliament Anthony Housefather, and French Ambassador to Canada Michel Miraillet, and Mayor of Ottawa Mark Sutcliffe, among other officials and community leaders.
Merci pour cet échange fructueux ! Combattre l’antisémitisme, c’est défendre les droits humains, l’état de droit et nos valeurs occidentales partagées. Restons vigilants et déterminés. https://t.co/SaOomTyBNE
— Senator Leo Housakos (@SenatorHousakos) February 12, 2026
In addition to the need to ban the Muslim Brotherhood, Seban also raised in her meetings her concern over the Canadian government’s recent decision to eliminate the Office of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism.
Following that news, CAM announced last week its plans to open a Canadian branch and hold a the first-ever Canadian Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism.
Merci à Michel Miraillet, Ambassadeur de France au Canada, pour son accueil et la qualité de nos échanges. 🇫🇷🤝🇨🇦
Nous avons évoqué la lutte contre l’antisémitisme, le racisme et toutes les formes de haine, ainsi que le rôle des démocraties face à la montée des extrémismes.… pic.twitter.com/GjSgVEKW0v
— Shannon Seban (@ShannonSeban) February 10, 2026
