On Wednesday March 8th, 2017, the Toronto Sun published an opinion piece by Candice Malcolm entitled “Iranian official boasts of 'guerilla movement' within the U.S.”

In this opinion piece, Malcolm insinuates that Iranian immigrants and dual citizens are a veritable fifth column in the United States and abroad who will betray their countries. She further accuses Iranian immigrants of abusing “immigration policies to thwart our national security and send terrorists and spies into North America.” Ms. Malcolm’s accusations are categorically false and defamatory against Canadians of Iranian heritage; Canadians of Iranian heritage and Iranian immigrants in Canada, a population estimated at over 300,000 nationwide, are hardworking people who are significantly contributing to Canada’s multicultural society and to every aspect of its social, cultural, political and economical spheres. Furthermore, the divisive and xenophobic narrative in Ms. Malcolm’s article is not only false, but also constitutes a clear danger to the safety of Iranian immigrants and Canadians of Iranian heritage across the world and in Canada in particular.

In the wake of the wave of Islamophobic and Iranophobic incidents in the United States and Canada, including the Kansas shooting of two Indian men by a white supremacist terrorist who believed that he was shooting Iranians, the publishing of this material is extremely irresponsible. Narratives such as those put forth by this article threaten the unity and multicultural foundations of Canadian society. The Iranian Canadian Congress therefore asks the Toronto Sun and Ms. Malcolm to act responsibly and refrain from promoting bigotry and racism against members of any minority and ethnic community, including Iranian Canadians. We also request that the Toronto Sun publish this statement as a piece in the same forum in which they published Ms. Malcolm’s piece.