Last week, a group of Canadian citizens were in Cairo for a symbolic “March to Gaza” in protest of the ongoing treatment of Palestinians by Israel. Ottawa resident Afnan Kaid was among them, joining friends for what she said was a non-violent, symbolic gesture of support for Palestine.
The protest never happened. Instead, multiple groups — including the Canadian delegation — were stopped by Egyptian authorities, loaded onto a bus, and relocated across Egypt over the course of approximately 12 hours. More than 40 Canadians were allegedly detained. Many were separated from each other and had their passports confiscated.
Kaid, 38, is a student at Ottawa’s St. Paul’s University and former president of the Student Association. She decided to go back to school in September of 2023 to study after she met a Palestinian doctor living in Toronto who shared his lived experiences with her.
Soon after, she became involved in pro-Palestinian advocacy and activism after the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023 and the war that has taken place since, particularly the most recent violence against Palestinians.
“I went back to school to contribute. And what an unfortunate way to be able to do that,” she said. “It started in Palestine advocacy. I now really hate the pro-Palestine label because it isn’t specifically about Palestine. There’s a genocide happening.
“It doesn’t matter where the genocide occurs, it just happens to be in this place that has been experiencing this for the last near century.”
Kaid grew up mostly in Ottawa, but her family is from Yemen, where her father was a diplomat throughout her childhood. Her family then came to Canada during his posting at the Embassy. And she said she was not kidding herself about what she might face in Egypt.
“People were talking about how arrogant and silly it was for us to think that we could go over there and protest, and that we would leave unharmed and safe… But I thought, ‘No, I have thought about every possible scenario before I left’,” Kaid told Ottawa Compass. “I even organized my stuff just in case something happened and Israel decided to treat us like diplomats, or Egypt decided to treat us like Egyptians, or we didn’t come back.
“Those were all possibilities that I thought were very real,” she said. “And I still felt like I couldn’t afford to not go.”
The Global March to Gaza (GMTG) was a civilian-led, international initiative to march from Arish, Egypt, to the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip in Palestine, and was intended to begin on 15 June 2025.
“The continued increase in ongoing violence is what drove many to join the march,” said Kaid. “The International Court of Justice Ruling and lack of action of governments continues to allow for killing and compelled civilians to fly across the planet.”
Protestors with delegations from around the world planned to march on foot, then establish a protest camp on the Egyptian side of the border.
“This is an active war zone, so we were not going to be doing anything that Egypt does not give us permission to do, right? That was 100 per cent clear, and it was shared and communicated clearly,” said Kaid. “If you have any ideas about doing any of this, regardless of the intent or if you want to be a hero, you don’t come.
“We were supposed to be able to march to a certain point. It was a symbolic gesture to bring awareness, to show the people in Gaza that we are willing to go to these lengths,” she continued. “We want to bring awareness to people who have been starving, haven’t had food in for weeks and weeks and weeks.”
Upon arriving in Egypt, Kaid said she was hearing reports of delegations from Africa being stopped and sent home, but that Egyptian authorities had discouraged the protest from happening.
The group of Canadians was careful to follow rules of gathering and protest in Egypt, she said, and were not trying to cause a disruption to the local laws or culture.
But a few days before the march was set to begin, one small group of participants, including Kaid, went to check into a hotel when they heard that another group they were travelling with had been “grabbed” by Egyptian authorities from a coffee shop.
“Somebody who was in plainclothes grabbed him by the arm… and then dragged all of them into an area where they already had other people being held,” explained Kaid.
A member of Kaid’s group had left their passport in a bag that was now with the detained group, so they had no choice but to rejoin their friends, said Kaid.
“There’s no way we were going to leave them, and he didn’t have a passport, so we circled back,” she said. “So we went back to that place, and there were probably 100 people and police who were screaming at them and pushing them and shoving them and trying to get them onto buses.”
Kaid and a few others were speaking to Canadian and international journalists, and were told by police not to be recording or taking video, she said.
“One of them grabbed me and dragged me, and I said, ‘it’s fine. I’ll get on the bus,’ and then he snatched my phone away, and I thought, ‘Oh my God. This is it.’ My concern was group chats with other people, what if it endangers them?” she said. “I was so much more concerned about people who were of Egyptian background, or people who didn’t have a foreign passport, or people who were in other countries that faced any similar level of repression.
“I was speaking to him in Arabic, and I think this was a saving grace, as I was able to speak to him in Arabic and even shift dialects to try to sound right so that they could relate,” she said.
Once her phone was returned to her, and people were loaded onto buses, “it was absolute chaos”. Delegations were split up among the several buses, which were filled over capacity.
She said the communication between authorities was inconsistent, and many did not know the plan or details of where passports had been placed or where the buses were headed.
Kaid’s bus made a stop for restrooms after seven hours of driving. There were no stops for food or water and people were sitting in the aisles and on top of luggage. Many did not speak English or Arabic and struggled to communicate with each other or the Egyptian authorities.
Throughout the long bus ride, Kaid reached out to the Canadian Embassy in Egypt as well as Global Affairs Canada. She said she did not receive responses to her phone calls or emails, which highlighted that Canadians were faced with an emergency situation.
She said other delegations were on the phone with representatives from their countries, like Spain and Ireland, which were providing them with advice and support.
Family members and friends of the Canadians were trying to find information from home. Kaid said many reached out to their local members of Parliament, but did not hear back.
Kaid’s MP is Prime Minister Mark Carney, but his constituency office does not have a telephone number listed on its website.
In response to questions from Ottawa Compass, Clémence Grevey, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada (GAC), said that the office was “aware of reports that Canadian citizens were detained in Egypt” and that consular officials were in contact with local authorities.
Grevey also confirmed that all detained Canadians have been released and said that GAC works to provide emergency assistance to all Canadians while abroad.
The consular services listed on GAC’s website tells Canadians who are arrested or detained that “the nearest office or the Emergency Watch and Response Centre, which are available 24/7, will provide more details on how we can assist.” Kaid said she and the Canadians she was with tried emailing and calling, as did their families back in Canada. Nobody heard back.
The buses took detours around the country to avoid checkpoints where other protestors had been stopped and were gathering. Eventually, passengers were dropped off near an airport, but were told it was their choice whether or not to leave Egypt.
“I don’t know that I expected that they would send planes to pick us up. But I thought, why aren’t you sending out emails that give directions or a helpline,”said Kaid. “There were a lot of people who realized if we’re going to be deported, that was the best-case scenario.
“We just needed to be given direction because there were people who were ready to leave,” she continued. “We came to do one thing, and clearly that’s not going to be a viable option for us.”
Some participants were reportedly handcuffed, taken to secondary locations and even beaten by authorities. One of the organizers of the Canadian delegation was separated from the group, Kaid said, and they were unable to contact him for 48 hours while he was being questioned.
After being dropped off on the side of a highway by a local driver and attempting to navigate the unfamiliar country, Kaid’s group was taken in by a local, with six people staying in the two-bedroom apartment until they could get flights back to Ottawa.
During Kaid’s time in Egypt, the Canadian government issued a travel advisory for “the Middle East”, which was later adjusted to specific countries, including Israel, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Iran.
The government now recommends that anyone travelling to Egypt exercise a high degree of caution.
Kaid said she doesn’t know if people will attempt the March for Gaza for a second time, or if the protest will take another form. She also said she’d go to Egypt again for a chance to raise awareness.
She didn’t expect miracles from GAC, but she did not feel supported while in Egypt, and said she was simply grateful that she was detained and not abused by authorities, like some other protestors reported. She also said she’d like to see more engagement from Canada on the International Court of Justice that Israel is conducting a “plausible genocide.”
A study from Israeli academic Garb Yaakov published by Harvard has stated that more than 300,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, and that more are buried under debris or not included in reporting. This study, which was published in May of this year, allowing motivated civilians to join the march, said Kaid.
“I don’t expect Mark Carney alone to stop the genocide. I don’t think he could,” she said. “Mark Carney could run up and down the streets in a keffiyeh holding a Palestinian flag, and it wouldn’t stop the genocide.”
Rather, she said she expects Canada to use legal tools at its disposal to “uphold international law” and reflect on Canada’s international role in preventing genocide.
“The world that we engage or don’t engage in is going to be what people leave to their kids. What you allowed for other people’s kids will eventually circle back,” she continued. “And for me, this is about being Canadian and upholding our values and our identity.”
