Twenty alleged senior members of the Iranian regime have now been discovered residing in Canada, immigration officers confirmed amid an election debate on how finest to cope with the Islamic republic.
The newest is an Iranian citizen scheduled to go earlier than the Immigration and Refugee Board in June after the Canada Border Companies Company accused him of getting served as a high official in Tehran.
The refugee board launched his identify to World Information on Wednesday however later requested that it not be printed as a result of his deportation listening to was being held behind closed doorways.
Reached by World Information, a Vancouver-area man by the identify declined to remark. Based on Iranian media, he was an official in Iran’s oil ministry. The CBSA declined to remark.
He’s the newest Iranian citizen flagged for deportation because the Canadian authorities launched a crackdown in 2022 in opposition to alleged high-level regime members residing within the nation.
These recognized by immigration enforcement authorities are being despatched to the refugee board, which has been holding hearings to resolve whether or not they need to be deported.
However the circumstances have been held largely in secrecy and have moved slowly, with just one profitable elimination up to now, though just a few of the Iranian officers have left voluntarily.
“To know that there are folks affiliated with the very best echelons of Iran’s regime strolling round our streets actually poses a hazard to this nation,” mentioned Kaveh Shahrooz, a Toronto lawyer and human rights activist.
“It additionally poses a hazard to the diaspora, lots of whom have escaped Iran to reside right here in security. And to see the folks affiliated with the regime that they escaped from are in a position to come right here and reside freely, they actually really feel intimidated by this.”
The place do the events stand on Iran?
Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre, left to proper, Liberal Chief Mark Carney, New Democratic Celebration Chief Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Québécois Chief Yves-Francois Blanchet at English-language leaders’ debate in Montreal, April 17, 2025.
SKP
Greater than a decade after Canada severed diplomatic ties with the regime, Iran appears prone to stay a key nationwide safety and international coverage problem for the subsequent authorities.
Lengthy a supply of instability within the Center East, Iran trains, arms and funds Hamas, Hezbollah, Iraqi Shiite militias and Yemen’s Houthis, and sells assault drones to Russia for the conflict on Ukraine.
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In Canada, operatives have helped Iran launder money and evade sanctions, and the international interference inquiry revealed how the theocracy targets the diaspora in an try to stifle dissent.
Final October, the RCMP warned former Liberal MP and justice minister Irwin Cotler, an outspoken critic of Tehran, that he was the goal of an Iran-linked assassination plot.
Iran arose through the federal leaders’ debates, with the Conservatives highlighting its accountability for the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas assault on Israel, and Liberals agreeing it was a “basic danger.”
However through the closing days of an election dominated by the query of how one can cope with U.S. President Donald Trump, World Information requested the foremost political events how they supposed to strategy Iran.
See the full party responses here.
The Conservatives responded by promising to “stand with the long-suffering folks of Iran” and criticizing the Liberals for being sluggish to record the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group.
In an announcement, the celebration mentioned a Pierre Poilievre authorities would implement sanctions in opposition to Tehran and enhance Canadian oil exports to companions and allies with the intention to cut back worldwide reliance on Iranian oil.
“Conservatives will give attention to stopping members of the regime from getting into Canada and strengthen efforts to counter cash laundering by the regime by way of Canada’s monetary system,” it mentioned.
The Liberals mentioned the earlier authorities had outlawed the Houthis, Revolutionary Guard and Samadoun, and would work with nationwide safety companies to focus on different terror teams and their supporters.
“The Iranian regime poses a risk to worldwide peace and safety, each by way of its armed forces and thru help of its allies and proxies. A new Liberal authorities led by Mark Carney will work with the worldwide group to discourage its destabilizing affect within the area,” a celebration spokesperson mentioned.
Carney would additionally “stand agency” in upholding human rights sanctions in opposition to Iran, the spokesperson mentioned. “We will use each software in our toolbox to crack down on this brutal regime and the people liable for its egregious behaviour.”
In the meantime, the Liberals would maintain work to carry Iran accountable for downing a industrial airliner in 2020, killing 176 folks, amongst them 55 Canadian residents and 30 everlasting residents.
Households of the victims will proceed to have a pathway to everlasting residence, and Canada will preserve urgent Iran to supply monetary reparations, in response to the Liberal spokesperson.
The NDP didn’t reply.
Not one of the events anticipated to revive diplomatic relations
Mehrzad Zarei, father of passenger killed when Iran shot down Ukraine Worldwide Airways Flight PS752, at demonstration in Ottawa, Aug. 25, 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
No matter who wins the election, Prof. Thomas Juneau doesn’t foresee a thaw in relations with Iran and believes Carney and Poilievre would probably comply with an identical path.
“I don’t anticipate that there could be main variations between the substance of the Iran coverage of a Liberal or a Conservative authorities,” mentioned Juneau, a professor on the College of Ottawa’s Graduate College of Public and Worldwide Affairs.
“The Conservatives have pledged to take a harder line, however in apply there could be little they may do past harsher rhetoric.”
Shahrooz mentioned Iranian Canadians desire a authorities dedicated to nearer interplay with the group and speedier motion to take away regime members.
“I’d like better authorities motion by way of freezing the property and figuring out the property which have been stolen from Iran and dropped at Canada and parked right here,” Shahrooz mentioned.
“And eventually, what I’d prefer to see is bigger due diligence occurring earlier than somebody obtains a visa to come back to this nation. What I feel we want, somewhat than only a easy coverage change, is only a totally different philosophical strategy,” he mentioned.
“We must be extra welcoming of folks that have ties to Canada, or folks which can be human rights defenders that want to come back to this nation for security. And we have to shut our doorways to people who have ties to the regime.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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