"Former Toronto police detective has warned that Muslim grooming gangs, similar to those discovered in Britain, may already be operating in Canada after three men from the Ottawa area were arrested in connection with an alleged organized human-trafficking network spanning several Ontario cities.
Donald Best, a former Toronto Police sergeant who worked on deep-cover investigations into organized crime and corrupt officials, described the arrests as another sign that 'Muslim rape gangs are here in Canada now'. Best linked the case to Britain's grooming-gang scandal and argued that Islamic teaching supplied part of the ideological framework for the abuse documented there.
Ottawa Police said Moad Ben Yahya, 28, Abdulaziz Al-Zouaghi, 27, and Mohammad Elmuradi, 26, were arrested on 8 July following an investigation into an alleged trafficking network operating between Ottawa and the Greater Toronto Area. The inquiry expanded to London, Windsor, Toronto, and Sarnia, involved FINTRAC, and has so far produced statements from six women. Police believe further victims may exist.
As Best pointed out, the Ottawa case is not an isolated one. A second Ontario case gives the comparison greater weight. Peel Regional Police said girls aged 11–14 were trafficked across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) through coercion, manipulation, and threats of violence. Mohamad Omar Al-Saleh, Mustafa Abdo, and Yousif Al-Gburi were charged with obtaining sexual services from a minor, sexual assault of a girl under 16, and sexual interference. A 15-year-old was charged with trafficking, procuring, controlling, and benefiting from the girls' exploitation.
'Authorities could again sacrifice vulnerable girls to political sensitivities'
The six adult defendants have been described in activist commentary as Muslims. Neither police release, however, provides information on their religion, ethnicity, immigration status, or cultural background. Canadian police releases generally do not identify an accused person's religion and often omit ethnicity, nationality, and immigration status unless those details are directly relevant to identifying a suspect or explaining the alleged offence. There is no standardized national system for publishing offenders' religious affiliation. Recent changes have resulted in the broader collection of Indigenous and racialized identity data; however, practices vary between police services.
The concern, nevertheless, extends beyond the individual cases. Canadian Muslim commentator Raheel Raza warned in 2025 that mass immigration without integration, identity politics, fear of accusations of racism, and official reluctance to confront Islamist ideology had created many of the same vulnerabilities in Canada that allowed British grooming gangs to operate for years. She argued that authorities could again sacrifice vulnerable girls to political sensitivities.
Canadian conservative author Jordan Peterson presented a similar argument this week. Writing after Rupert Lowe's British 'Rape Gang' inquiry, Peterson called the UK networks 'sexual conquest gangs', arguing that the abuse of white non-Muslim girls combined criminal sadism with racial and religious degradation. He also blamed multicultural ideology and institutional cowardice for suppressing the pattern, suggesting, similarly to Raheel Raza, that these factors could be very much present in Canada as well.
Statistical data show that Canada already has a substantial domestic infrastructure of trafficking networks. From 2014 to 2024, official data recorded 5,070 human-trafficking incidents reported to police; 93 per cent of identified victims were women and girls, 22 per cent were minors, and 82 per cent of accused persons were male. Toronto, Ottawa, and London, Ontario, alone accounted for nearly one-third of recorded incidents. Almost 60 per cent of incidents were not cleared, largely because the evidence was insufficient to proceed.
'The full picture may emerge only when enough victims come forward, identify their abusers, and testify about how the networks operated'
Many earlier cases could fit the pattern. In 2019, police uncovered an alleged organized-crime network that moved women from Quebec into Ontario and elsewhere in Canada for sexual exploitation. 31 people were arrested, more than 300 charges were laid, and more than a dozen victims were identified. A separate Ontario investigation began in 2023 after a woman reported being held against her will and trafficked for sex. Police eventually identified additional victims and seven suspects; four defendants were convicted in June 2026, while another had previously pleaded guilty.
The cases presented do not prove that Muslim grooming gangs are operating in Canada. However, an increasingly recognizable pattern involving vulnerable girls, multiple offenders, coercion, intercity trafficking, and institutional blind spots bears comparison with the abuses now presented by Britain's Rape Gang Inquiry.
Because Canadian police do not disclose suspects' religious affiliations, the available records cannot confirm or disprove an ethnoreligious pattern. As the British experience demonstrated, the full picture may emerge only when enough victims come forward, identify their abusers, and testify about how the networks operated—and whether authorities failed to recognize or confront what was happening."