“A positive step” — National Council of Canadian Muslims hopeful after Jays meeting

TORONTO – A National Council of Canadian Muslims spokesman said he was feeling hopeful after an initial meeting with the Toronto Blue Jays this week in the wake of the Anthony Santander controversy. 

Santander shared anti-Muslim posts on Nov. 4 in the aftermath of last week’s U.S. midterm elections and deleted them the next morning. 

Steven Zhou, media and communications lead for the NCCM, said the meeting between Blue Jays brass and members of the Muslim community was an important step in trying to turn a negative into a positive.

“I feel more strongly about that now,” Zhou said. “Now that we’ve had a first meeting, we’ve gotten on the same page about why this kind of narrative is not just annoying and upsetting. It poses real dangers in a place like Canada.”

Santander apologized on Friday afternoon, saying the content caused hurt and fell short of his own convictions.

The Blue Jays are the only MLB team in Canada, which has a population of over 1.78 million Muslims, per 2021 census data from Statistics Canada. About 10 per cent of Toronto’s 2.8 million residents identify as Muslim, the agency said.

Santander’s statement came a day after Blue Jays president and chief executive officer Mark Shapiro apologized to the Muslim community and fans following the meeting with community leaders. General manager Ross Atkins said earlier in the week that he asked Santander to publicly address the controversy.

“The Blue Jays’ apology (and) explicit condemnation of Islamophobia and engagement with Muslim community leaders are a good start,” said Morgan McLellan, a managing partner at Sovereign, a Toronto-based strategic, financial and crisis communications advisory firm. “But that clarity should have come immediately. 

“After more than a week of backlash, the response looks reactive, driven by mounting pressure rather than a clear commitment to the values the club says it represents.”

In his statement, Santander said reflection and conversations with people he trusts made him recognize he should have been more thoughtful about what he shared and the responsibility that comes with having a public voice.

He expressed respect for the Muslim community and pledged to avoid sharing content that promotes hate.

The posts included a video of a Christian preacher disparaging Muslims and another suggesting Sharia law would be imposed on the United States after Abdul El-Sayed’s election to the Senate in Michigan.

“There’s no need to perpetuate those dangerous narratives, especially if you’re a public figure,” Zhou said. “There’s just no need for that. And if that does happen, then it’s our job to follow up, to denounce it, to call for denunciations and to work from there.”

It wasn’t clear why Santander, a 32-year-old Venezuelan who signed a US$92.5-million, five-year contract with Toronto in January 2025, waited over a week to apologize. 

Messages left in recent days with him and the sports management agency that represents him were not returned. 

Santander missed the entire 2026 season because of injuries. He hit 44 homers for the Baltimore Orioles in 2024 but hit just .175 with six homers over 54 games in an injury-plagued 2025 season with Toronto.

He’s expected to be healthy for the 2027 season and become an everyday player again. 

It remains unclear whether the team will discipline him over the posts. There are also unanswered questions about how potential social media policy and morality clause contract violations might be handled by the team or club owner Rogers Communications Inc.

Messages left with the team and Rogers on those subjects were not returned. 

“With no discipline publicly announced, the Blue Jays and Rogers also leave an obvious question unanswered: what does accountability look like?” McLellan said. “If the organization says this behaviour violates its values, fans deserve to understand what consequences follow.”

Spring training is scheduled to begin in February, but there is a strong possibility an MLB lockout will begin next month when the current collective bargaining agreement expires. 

In the meantime, Zhou said the meeting was a “positive step in the right direction.”

“There’s only more opportunities going forward and we’ll be actively seeking those out,” he said. “And I think there’s good reason to think that there will be a positive engagement and response on that.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 14, 2026.