diff --git a/dask_jobqueue/core.py b/dask_jobqueue/core.py
index 46d91056..d608b167 100644
--- a/dask_jobqueue/core.py
+++ b/dask_jobqueue/core.py
@@ -445,7 +445,7 @@ def stop_jobs(self, jobs):
         logger.debug("Stopping jobs: %s", jobs)
         if jobs:
             jobs = list(jobs)
-            self._call([self.cancel_command] + list(set(jobs)))
+            self._call(shlex.split(self.cancel_command) + list(set(jobs)))
 
         # if any of these jobs were pending, we should remove those now
         for job_id in jobs:
diff --git a/dask_jobqueue/tests/test_sge.py b/dask_jobqueue/tests/test_sge.py
index 8ce3b005..a6bba110 100644
--- a/dask_jobqueue/tests/test_sge.py
+++ b/dask_jobqueue/tests/test_sge.py
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ def test_basic(loop):
     with SGECluster(
         walltime="00:02:00", cores=8, processes=4, memory="2GB", loop=loop
     ) as cluster:
-        print(cluster.job_script())
         with Client(cluster, loop=loop) as client:
 
             cluster.scale(2)
@@ -103,3 +102,26 @@ def test_job_script(tmpdir):
             "#$ -j y",
         ]:
             assert each in job_script
+
+
+@pytest.mark.env("sge")
+def test_complex_cancel_command(loop):
+    with SGECluster(
+        walltime="00:02:00", cores=1, processes=1, memory="2GB", loop=loop
+    ) as cluster:
+        username = "root"
+        cluster.cancel_command = "qdel -u {}".format(username)
+
+        cluster.scale(2)
+
+        start = time()
+        while not cluster.running_jobs:
+            sleep(0.100)
+            assert time() < start + QUEUE_WAIT
+
+        cluster.stop_all_jobs()
+
+        start = time()
+        while cluster.running_jobs:
+            sleep(0.100)
+            assert time() < start + QUEUE_WAIT