‘Safe haven’: Iranian Canadians urge Ottawa to expel government officials – National
Canada must do more to avoid being a safe haven for members of the Iranian regime, Iranian Canadians warned in documents unsealed by the foreign interference commission on Thursday.
Documents released by the Hogue Commission summarize a public consultation last year with the Iranian diaspora about foreign interference and what to do about it.
In particular, Iranian Canadians have called for better screening to exclude government officials who worked in the government of the Islamic Republic before coming to this country.
“Some attendees spoke of the presence of Iranian government officials who were involved in criminal activities and human rights abuses in Canada,” the commission wrote.
Members of the community also told the inquiry that “Iranian Canadian civil society organizations have been imported and taken over by people representing the Iranian regime.”
Global News reported this week that despite Ottawa’s promise to fire senior government officials, the Canada Border Services Agency has fired one of the 18 identified so far.
Canada is “known as a safe haven for Islamic State officials and their families,” Tehran-born human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay said in her opening speech.
It was “very traumatic” for Iranian Canadians to see Islamic State officials in Canada, he said, recalling an incident that saw “Iranian nuclear officials” invited to the University of British Columbia.
He described “feelings of despair when he saw the children of Iranian state officials driving luxury cars in Vancouver,” and said traffickers were working with officials to “park their money” in B.C.
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Border agents need more awareness and training, and should use the public online database Faces of Crimes, which documents abuses by state officials in Iran, he said.
Another witness told the inquiry that the former Iranian police chief was seen in Richmond Hill, Ont., and the former Iranian cabinet minister “took a summer vacation in Montreal.”
The Iranian regime “wants to have influence in Canada because there are many Iranians who are scattered and uneducated,” the witness, whose name has not been released, told the inquiry.
Another witness suggested that a division be established in Canada’s immigration or foreign affairs departments to “process immigration applications from Iran.”
The Iranian regime is one of several that Canada has accused of targeting scattered dissidents through intimidation and intimidation.
Recent assassination plots linked to Iran have targeted key critics of the clerical regime, including Irwin Cotler, a former Liberal MP.
“Iranian dissidents have been threatened in Canada and their families in Iran have been contacted by Iranian officials,” according to a summary of the presentation by Javad Soleimani.
Soleimani’s wife was on board a passenger plane that was shot down by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) in 2020. 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents died in the missile attack.
Three months after the tragedy, the intelligence service in Iran contacted him and told him to remove the post on social media that they did not like, he said.
When he refused, he said they threatened his family in Iran.
IRGC members “work freely and study here in Canada,” Soleimani said, adding Iran “has been promoting its agenda through mosques and public groups” that should be investigated.
The Canadian government announced in November 2022 that it has banned government officials from the country due to Tehran’s crackdown on women’s rights protests.
Since then, a dozen and a half suspected high-ranking officials have so far been identified by immigration investigators, but only three deportation hearings have been completed.
Two of those ended in deportation orders, but only one was removed from Canada. In the third case, the Immigration and Refugee Board refused to authorize the deportation.
Meanwhile, the deportation hearing was supposed to start next month for Amin Yousefijam, an Iranian who helped the Islamic republic evade sanctions, then changed his name to Ameen Cohen after being convicted.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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