diff --git a/mlir/include/mlir/Interfaces/SideEffectInterfaces.h b/mlir/include/mlir/Interfaces/SideEffectInterfaces.h
--- a/mlir/include/mlir/Interfaces/SideEffectInterfaces.h
+++ b/mlir/include/mlir/Interfaces/SideEffectInterfaces.h
@@ -316,6 +316,8 @@
 /// Return true if the given operation would be dead if unused, and has no side
 /// effects on memory that would prevent erasing. This is equivalent to checking
 /// `isOpTriviallyDead` if `op` was unused.
+///
+/// Note: Terminators and symbols are never considered to be trivially dead.
 bool wouldOpBeTriviallyDead(Operation *op);
 
 /// Returns true if the given operation is free of memory effects.
diff --git a/mlir/lib/Interfaces/SideEffectInterfaces.cpp b/mlir/lib/Interfaces/SideEffectInterfaces.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Interfaces/SideEffectInterfaces.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Interfaces/SideEffectInterfaces.cpp
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 #include "mlir/Interfaces/SideEffectInterfaces.h"
 
+#include "mlir/IR/SymbolTable.h"
 #include "llvm/ADT/SmallPtrSet.h"
 
 using namespace mlir;
@@ -152,6 +153,8 @@
 bool mlir::wouldOpBeTriviallyDead(Operation *op) {
   if (op->mightHaveTrait<OpTrait::IsTerminator>())
     return false;
+  if (isa<SymbolOpInterface>(op))
+    return false;
   return wouldOpBeTriviallyDeadImpl(op);
 }
 
diff --git a/mlir/test/Dialect/Transform/test-interpreter.mlir b/mlir/test/Dialect/Transform/test-interpreter.mlir
--- a/mlir/test/Dialect/Transform/test-interpreter.mlir
+++ b/mlir/test/Dialect/Transform/test-interpreter.mlir
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 // RUN: mlir-opt %s --test-transform-dialect-interpreter -allow-unregistered-dialect --split-input-file --verify-diagnostics | FileCheck %s
 
+// Make sure that canonicalizing the IR (including transform IR) does not result
+// in invalid IR.
+// RUN: mlir-opt %s -canonicalize -allow-unregistered-dialect --split-input-file
+
 transform.sequence failures(propagate) {
 ^bb0(%arg0: !transform.any_op):
   // expected-remark @below {{applying transformation}}