On June 7, 2026, two RCMP officers knocked on Tanya Gaw’s door in Surrey, British Columbia. Constable Mason of the General Investigation Unit told her she was under investigation under Section 319(2) of the Criminal Code for wilfully promoting hatred. The complaint, he said, concerned posts on her X account and the Action4Canada website regarding “Muslims and Islam.”
When she asked for specifics, Mason said: “I don’t have the post with me right now.” He provided no file number, presented no evidence, and cited no specific post during the recorded exchange. He confirmed she was “not charged right now,” and that it was “just a heads up.” He invited her to come to the detachment to talk. She requested the allegations in writing before deciding whether to meet with investigators. Gaw said police had made no further contact since the June visit. The Western Standard confirmed with the RCMP that the investigation is genuine. The RCMP “respectfully” declined to comment further.
What makes the visit remarkable is that the officers told Gaw she was under criminal investigation without identifying a single specific statement that allegedly broke the law. The officer remained polite throughout. Mason compared the visit to a neighbor complaining about a neighbor. He referenced the “11 hallmarks of hate,” a framework from the 2006 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, without identifying which specific statements allegedly met those criteria.
Gaw suspects the complaint concerns her report titled “The Rise of Political Islam in Canada,” published on Action4Canada in February 2019. Police have not publicly confirmed which specific posts or publications prompted the investigation. It curates news reports and government data on Islamic political activity in Canada. According to Gaw, an RCMP intelligence officer reviewed the same report years earlier, confirmed its accuracy, and provided updates on the cases it cited. Now officers from that same organization have visited her home over an allegation concerning her online content.
Gaw challenged the officers about their priorities, pointing to extortion and shootings in Surrey. The RCMP had sent two officers to her home over a complaint about online content concerning Muslims and Islam. She told Mason that police would have to visit “a million other doors” because so many Canadians shared her concerns. Mason repeatedly said he had received a complaint and a duty to investigate it.
Britain has already perfected this mechanism. In 2023, police in England and Wales made 12,183 arrests under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 and Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988. That is roughly 33 per day, a 58% increase since before the pandemic. Of those 12,183 arrests, only 1,119 resulted in sentencing. Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, noted that in the same period, police closed only 11% of violent and sexual offense cases in England and Wales after a suspect was caught or charged. The police are solving speech crimes at a higher rate than violent crimes.
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