‘Safe haven’: Iranian Canadians urge Ottawa to purge regime officials – The National
Canada must do more to prevent it from becoming a haven for members of the Iranian regime, Iranian Canadians warned Thursday in a document released by the Commission on Foreign Intervention.
Documents released by the Hogg Commission last year cover foreign interference with the Iranian diaspora and public consultation on what should be done.
In particular, Iranian Canadians have called for better vetting to remove regime officials who served in the Islamic Republic government before coming to this country.
“Some of the participants claimed to be Iranian government officials involved in criminal activities and human rights abuses in Canada,” the commission wrote.
Community members told the inquiry that “Iranian Canadian community organizations have been infiltrated by people acting on behalf of the Iranian government.”
Global News reported this week that despite Ottawa’s pledge to deport senior regime officials, the Canada Border Services Agency has deported only one of the 18 identified so far.
“Canada is known as a safe haven for Islamic State officials and their families,” said Tehran-born human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam McKee.
It was “terrifying” for Iranian Canadians to see Islamic State officials in Canada, she said, recalling an incident in which “Iranian nuclear officials” were invited to the University of British Columbia.
She described the “desperation of Iranian regime officials to see kids driving fancy cars around Vancouver” and said realtors worked with officials to “park their money” in BC.
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Border agents need more awareness and training, and use the public online database Face of Crime, which documents abuses by regime officials in Iran, she said.
Another witness told the inquiry that a former Iranian police chief in Richmond Hill, Ont. And a former Iranian cabinet minister said he “took a summer vacation in Montreal.”
“The Iranian regime wants to exert influence in Canada because there is a large and well-educated Iranian diaspora,” the unnamed witness told the inquiry.
Another witness suggested the establishment of a unit in Canada’s immigration or foreign affairs departments to “screen immigration applications from Iran.”
Canada is one of several that the Iranian regime has accused of targeting dissidents in the diaspora with intimidation and intimidation.
More recently, Iran-linked assassination plots have targeted critics of the clerical regime, including former Liberal MP Irwin Cotler.
“Iranian dissidents have been threatened in Canada and their families in Iran have met with Iranian authorities,” he said at the conclusion of Javad Suleimani’s presentation.
Soleimani’s wife She was on board a passenger plane that was shot down by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 2020. The missile attack killed 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.
He said he was contacted by Iran’s intelligence service three months after the incident and told to remove social media posts they did not like.
When he refused, he said that they still threatened his family in Iran.
IRGC members “work and study freely here in Canada,” Soleimani said, adding that Iran “is actively promoting its agenda through mosques and community groups.”
The Canadian government has announced it will ban senior regime officials from the country in November 2022 in response to Tehran’s crackdown on women’s rights protests.
Since then, twelve and a half suspected senior members of the regime have so far been identified by immigration enforcement investigators, but only three deportation hearings have been completed.
Two of them ended up with deportation orders, but only one of them was removed from Canada. In the third case, the Immigration and Refugee Board denied deportation.
Meanwhile, Iranian national Amin Yousefijam, who changed his name to Amin Cohen after his conviction, was due to face deportation proceedings next month.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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