‘Safe haven’: Iranian Canadians urge Ottawa to expel regime officials – National
Canada must do more to avoid being a safe haven for members of the Iranian regime, Iranian Canadians warned Thursday in documents unsealed by the foreign interference commission.
Documents released by the Hogue Commission summarize public consultations with the Iranian diaspora last year about foreign interference and what to do about it.
In particular, Iranian Canadians have called for improved vetting to remove regime officials who previously served in the government of the Islamic Republic. to come to this country.
“Some participants spoke of the presence of Iranian government officials involved in criminal activities and human rights abuses in Canada,” the commission wrote.
Community members also told the inquiry that “Iranian Canadian community organizations have been infiltrated and taken over by individuals acting on behalf of the Iranian regime.”
Global News revealed Despite Ottawa’s pledge this week to expel senior regime officials, the Canada Border Services Agency has deported only one of the 18 identified so far.
Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay, a Tehran-born human rights activist, said in her presentation that Canada is “known as a safe haven for Islamic regime officials and their families.”
He recalled that “Iranian nuclear officials” were invited to the University of British Columbia, saying it was “very traumatic” for Iranian Canadians to see officials of the Islamic regime in Canada.
He described the “desperation of Iranian regime officials to see their children driving luxury cars around Vancouver” and claimed that realtors were working with officials “to park their money.”
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Border agents need more awareness and training and should use Faces of Crime, a public online database documenting abuses by regime officials in Iran, he said.
Another witness told the inquiry that the former police chief of Iran, Ont. He was spotted in Richmond Hill and the former Iranian cabinet minister said he was “going on summer vacation in Montreal.”
An unnamed witness told the inquiry that the Iranian regime “wants to exert influence in Canada because there is a large and well-educated Iranian diaspora there.”
Another witness suggested that Canada’s immigration or foreign affairs departments create a unit to “screen immigration applications from Iran.”
The Iranian regime is one of several that Canada has accused of targeting dissidents in the diaspora with threats and intimidation.
End assassination plots Those linked to Iran have targeted outspoken critics of the clerical regime, including former Liberal MP Irwin Cotler.
According to a summary of Javad Soleimani’s presentation, “Iranian dissidents have been threatened in Canada and their families in Iran have been contacted by Iranian officials.”
Soleimani’s wife was on board the passenger plane shot down by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 2020. As a result of the rocket attack, 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents were killed.
Three months after the tragedy, Iran’s intelligence service contacted him and asked him to delete social media posts they did not like.
When he refused, he said that they threatened his family, who are still in Iran.
Members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “work and study freely in Canada,” he said, adding that Iran is “actively promoting its agenda through mosques and community groups” that should be investigated.
The Canadian government announced in November 2022 that it would ban senior regime officials from leaving the country in response to Tehran’s crackdown on women’s rights protests.
Since then, immigration enforcement investigators have so far identified dozens of suspected top regime members, but only three deportation hearings have been completed.
Two of them ended up with a deportation order, but only one of them was removed from Canada. In the third case, the Immigration and Refugee Board refused to consent to deportation.
Meanwhile, a deportation hearing was scheduled to begin next month Amen YusufThe Iranian, who helped the Islamic Republic evade sanctions, later changed his name to Ameen Cohen after his conviction.
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