Three Iranians have been issued deportation orders by Canadian authorities. A fourth has been removed from the country. Canada’s Border Services Agency is investigating how dozens of alleged Iranian officials have been allowed into Canada.
At the heart of the issue is a declaration in 2022 that Iranian leaders, including senior government and security officials, were not admissible to Canada because of their involvement in terrorism and human rights violations.
That was recently reaffirmed by Prime Minister Mark Carney at a Canada-EU summit.
“Where the state of Iran has been a sponsor of terrorism, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and beyond. Where, at least in our opinion, Canada has listed the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, an active terrorist organization. These are violations of international law,” Carney said.
Canada denies access to any senior official of the Iranian regime, and any regime member who came to Canada before or after the terrorism designation can be deported.
As of early June, Canadian authorities had looked at nearly 18-thousand immigration applications with possible links to the regime in Tehran. 131 visas have been cancelled. Three people have received deportation orders for being senior officials of the Iranian regime. Other cases are ongoing and under investigation.
Kaveh Shahrooz is an advocate for the Iranian Canadian community and said there must be more diligence over who is allowed into Canada.
“To know that there are people affiliated with the highest echelons of Iran’s regime walking around our streets certainly poses a danger to this country,” Shahrooz said. “It also poses a danger to the diaspora. We all worry that those folks are here, they’re monitoring our activities and that they can carry out acts of transnational repression.”
Data from the Canadian Border Services Agency shows it has found at least 20 people linked to the regime and flagged for deportation, who are already in Canada.
One individual who is in Canada is Mahdi Nasiri, a former hardliner who now says he opposes the regime. He’s been in Canada for months despite a ban on senior Iranian officials.
Mojdey Shahiri is a refugee, immigration and human rights lawyer.
“What is wrong with our immigration system that allowed this person to come to Canada with a valid visa, legally initially. No Canadian should feel safe when we have people who have been involved in crimes against humanity, in terrorism, in trafficking, in money laundering living amongst us as if that’s normal,” Shahiri said.
Here again, Kaveh Sharooz.
“It’s infuriating to see people with links to the regime, or past links to the regime, openly talk about the fact that they can come to this country,” Sharooz said. “I think what it does is it mocks our government’s efforts to keep out Iranian regime officials.
Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Anita Anand, said she’s deeply concerned about the possibility of Tehran activating sleeper cells in Canada, especially after the recent U.S. attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. Some critics fear Iran could use those cells to commit acts of violence in Canada against opponents of the regime.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service said it is investigating what it calls credible death threats originating from Iran against people in Canada.
