During the U.S. team's pre-Olympic tour, there was a major fall out when the team played in Zurich, Switzerland. The crowd simply rioted in protest over the U.S. team's rough play with some of the spectators even attempting to attack U.S. players sitting in the penalty box. The problems continued at the Olympics in Oslo when the Swiss fans threw snowballs at the U.S. players during the game (U.S. vs Switzerland). In June 1952, the Swiss federation banned any U.S. teams from playing in Switzerland, except during the World Championships. USA and Canada were therefore not banned from playing the IHWC as the Swiss federation had no jurisdiction to take such a decision.
In August 1952, the American and Canadian hockey authorities released a joint statement. It reads: "In view of the innumerable incidents of the past few years" during hockey tours, the two federations "do not look with much enthusiasm upon future European tours." Neither country will participate in future world events "unless both bodies are invited under the same conditions".
By the same token, however, Canada and USA said that they were willing to send representatives to the world championship but wanted expense guarantees.

What to make out of this? Well, basically, Canada showed solidarity with USA. If US teams weren't allow to visit Switzerland (read: Europe), then Canadian teams wouldn't go on European tours, either.

USA and Canada's absence from the 1953 IHWC thus had nothing to do with the incidents in Zurich, Oslo and elsewhere. It wasn't a controversy between Switzerland and North America. It was a controversy over travel expenses.

At the time, the US and Canadian team toured Europe extensively prior to and after the IHWC. Many of the games drew huge crowds, but the North American teams didn't get a share of the profit to cover their travel expenses. If they were to play in the IHWC again, they wanted a guarantee that their travel expenses would be covered. Interestingly, it was Bunny Ahearne that had operated the North American tours for many years. But, in the Summer of 1952 Canada and USA broke their relations with him. The relationship between Canada and Bunny Ahearne never became good again.