Canada’s record on preventing senior Iranian government officials from entering the country is under increased scrutiny amid the war that broke out between Israel and Iran on June 12.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Canadian border authorities say they are investigating or taking enforcement action in 66 cases involving suspected senior Iranian officials who may have been allowed into Canada, despite a law that bars them from entering the country or remaining in it.
Of the 66, the Canada Border Services Agency has so far identified 20 people as inadmissible because they are believed to be senior Iranian officials, according to figures the agency provided to The Globe and Mail.
The border agency refers such cases to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, which holds hearings to decide whether someone should be allowed in the country.
One person has so far been removed from Canada for their association with the Iranian government. Two others have been deemed inadmissible and were issued deportation orders. An additional two people were deemed admissible, though the border agency is appealing those decisions. The figures provided to The Globe are current up to June 6.
“Our strong response to suspected senior officials in the Iranian regime remains in place and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) continues to take action to stop them from seeking or finding safe haven in Canada,” agency spokesperson Rebecca Purdy said in a statement.
Canada’s record on preventing senior Iranian government officials from entering the country is under increased scrutiny amid the war that broke out between Israel and Iran on June 12. Human-rights activists and lawyers are concerned that Iranian officials, including members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have already managed to get into Canada and that more will attempt to do so.
Opinion: The Iranian people are caught between forces they cannot control
Asked if the CBSA is augmenting its response because of the conflict, the agency said: “To address this situation, additional resources have been engaged to ensure safe and secure border management as necessary.”
In 2022, Ottawa designated senior officials who had been part of the Iranian government since Nov. 15, 2019, inadmissible to Canada, citing their engagement in terrorism and systemic human-rights violations.
The designation applies to Iranian heads of state, cabinet members, ambassadors, senior diplomats, members of the judiciary, senior military, intelligence officials and senior public servants.
Last September, the federal government expanded the measure to include any senior official who had served in the Iranian government since June 22, 2003 – the date that Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was arrested while taking pictures outside a prison in Tehran. Ms. Kazemi was tortured while in detention and died a few weeks later.
In an interview with The Globe this week, former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler – who is a strong supporter of Israel and is on an Iranian hit list, according to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service – said he fears Tehran may have activated sleeper cells in Canada to carry out acts of violence against opponents of the Iranian government. He said it is important that Canadian spy and law enforcement authorities are working collaboratively “because we don’t want any untoward Iranian penetration at this time.”
Mr. Cotler has been on Iran’s radar for his global campaign since 2008 to list the IRGC as a terrorist entity. Last spring, Canada joined the United States in declaring the IRGC a banned terrorist group. Ottawa severed diplomatic ties with Iran more than a decade ago.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand addressed Mr. Cotler’s comments on Tuesday in The Hague, where she and other Canadian officials are attending a NATO summit. She said Ottawa is “very concerned” about possible Iranian government activities in Canada.
Earlier this year, the final findings of the Hogue inquiry into foreign interference noted that the Iranian regime has not been interested in meddling in Canadian politics but does monitor members of the Iranian diaspora living here, in order to repress their criticism of Iran. Iranian officials have made it into the country using fake identities and some people who have committed human-rights violations in Iran “live openly and freely in Canada,” according to testimony from members of the public summarized in the final report.
Former justice minister Irwin Cotler warns Iran may have activated sleeper cells in Canada
These officials are enjoying their lives in Canada but do their best to hide their links to the Iranian government, according to human-rights lawyer Mojdeh Shahriari, one of the co-founders of StopIRGC, a volunteer group that accepts and investigates public tips about suspected officials living here.
Since Vancouver-based Ms. Shahriari and a handful of colleagues formed the group in 2022, they have combed through open-source intelligence from here and the Middle East – such as social-media posts or news articles – to identify 92 cases where they have credible evidence an official is living in Canada. She said they have then filed joint complaints against these individuals with the border agency and the RCMP’s national security units.
Ms. Shahriari, who fled the Iranian government’s wave of student repression in the 1980s and settled in Canada as a refugee, said her group has no window into what has happened with these 92 complaints, but both federal agencies have said they welcome this evidence and take it seriously.
The border agency said it does welcome all tips but did not comment specifically on the work of StopIRGC. The RCMP did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Kaveh Shahrooz, a lawyer and senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said he believes the Canadian border agency’s figures underrepresent the true number of inadmissible Iranian officials living in Canada.
“Being a member of this community, and hearing from people about those that they know and see who have ties to the regime and who have brought money here that they can’t explain, that number strikes me as low,” he said.