Last Sunday, Spain lifted the World Cup trophy at MetLife Stadium, closing out six weeks that revealed two very different North Americas.

The first is represented by the United States: a place where human rights took a back seat to the preparations and orchestration of the world’s most important sporting event.

The second is Canada: a country continuing to pride itself as welcoming of diversity, and welcoming of the world.

Yet, even in Canada, nothing can be taken for granted at a time of growing divisions, suspicion and economic uncertainties that are putting stress on human rights.

Let’s start with the U.S. A top-rated FIFA referee was turned back at the American border, travelling on a Somali passport. Iran’s national team was barred from setting foot on U.S. soil, exiled to play its matches out of Tijuana. Dozens of fans from Ghana and Morocco who’d saved for years were simply denied visas, no explanation given. Meanwhile, ICE kept a visible presence near stadiums, in cities that have logged more than 167,000 enforcement arrests since last year.

Meanwhile, in Canadian cities Toronto and Vancouver, stadiums filled with the crowds this tournament was supposed to produce, waving flags from a hundred countries, full of families who’d travelled the world to be there. In fact, Ottawa has made it easier, not harder, for certain travellers to visit.  It felt as though the differences between generosity and suspicion were a line on a map, rather than a political choice.

Even if Canada’s own team was knocked out by Morocco, many Canadians felt proud to have welcomed the world, with around a third saying they hope Canada hosts again. But we cannot mistake FIFA fervour with commitments to remaining a welcoming nation. Growing hate and intolerance sadly do not stop at the border.

Mark Carney’s government has already moved to cap immigration levels which is understandable on one level, given recent stress on housing and employment. However, advocates have raised concerns about how far the federal government has gone.The Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act received royal assent in March, imposing new time limits on asylum claims and letting officials cancel immigration applications en masse. A companion bill still before Parliament would go further, expanding border-agency powers and creating new authority to pass personal data to foreign governments.

Civil liberties advocates have spent months warning that such a channel could let American agencies, ICE among them, quietly trace those who crossed into Canada seeking protection.

The tightening is ongoing: this month Ottawa paused all new family sponsorship applications for parents and grandparents for the rest of 2026, a reminder that these policies land first on families trying to reunite. None of this happened in a vacuum: the Environics Institute recently found a growing share of Canadians feel there is “too much immigration”, and anti-immigrant groups that once organized quietly now stage open displays.

Predictably, hate crime is climbing across the country. Just outside Toronto, Peel Region has recorded a significant spike in hate crime in the past five years, on the basis of race and religion.

South Asians, Jews, and Muslims in Mississauga and Brampton have found themselves targeted. It’s a consistent pattern across Canada.

And among the most disturbing figures is about lives lost: a Senate report studying 2016 to 2021 found that on anti-Muslim killings, Canada ranked worst in the G7, ahead of every one of its peers rather than behind them.

Recent polling from Opinium on behalf of the transatlantic Concordia Forum points to a disturbing future.

American and British Muslims are living in fear: roughly half are worried of being harmed for their faith, over a third have altered where they go and how they move to stay safe, and just one in five believe the law affords them equal standing.

If we continue on this path, worrying aspects of the two versions of North America could quietly converge until one day key differences are gone.

While Canadians have reacted unequivocally to reject encroachments upon our sovereignty, we must also defend the values that make us who are, or aspire to be. That includes holding up multiculturalism, diversity, and human rights as central aspects of our nation, not mere words that can be tossed aside when the going gets tough. 

Six weeks of soccer set the competing values of the two North Americas side by side. While the actual world cup victors may have been decided on the field, it remains to be seen which nation’s values win out.Email