Ottawa, ON – The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is currently investigating dozens of cases involving suspected IRGC officers and Iranian officials who have been granted entry into Canada. Despite these ongoing inquiries, official figures confirm that only one individual has been removed from the country, raising concerns among experts and advocates.
The CBSA has confirmed it is actively probing how a significant number of individuals, believed to be linked to the Iranian government, have been permitted to enter Canada. While investigations are underway, three individuals have been issued deportation orders, but only one has been successfully removed.
This limited number of deportations is sparking calls for more stronger action against former Iranian government and military officials residing in Canada. Critics argue that the current measures are insufficient given the serious allegations and risk to Canada’s Iranian diaspora.
Strict Scrutiny for Iranian Visa Applicants
Rebecca Purdy, a spokesperson for the CBSA, stated that all Iranian nationals seeking to enter Canada are required to apply for a visa. These applications undergo a “careful assessment” by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
“Our strong response to suspected senior officials in the Iranian regime remains in place and the CBSA continues to take action to stop them from seeking or finding safe haven in Canada,” Purdy affirmed.
In 2022, Canada officially designated the Iranian government as one that “engages in terrorism and systematic or gross human rights violations.” This designation effectively bars senior government officials, including those from security and intelligence agencies and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), from entering Canada.
Under this designation, the CBSA reports that 131 visas have been cancelled by IRCC. Additionally, the CBSA has initiated 115 investigations. Of these, 49 have been concluded. Purdy clarified that a concluded investigation means “the individuals in question were either not in Canada or determined not to be a senior official in the Iranian regime and therefore not inadmissible for this reason.” The remaining 66 investigations are ongoing.
Furthermore, 20 individuals have been “reported inadmissible” by the CBSA due to their status as senior Iranian regime officials, with 19 of those either having been or scheduled to be sent for an admissibility hearing. Following these hearings, “three individuals were found inadmissible for being prescribed senior officials and issued deportation orders.”
The CBSA’s actions, following the 2022 designation, include visa cancellations, new investigations, and admissibility hearings. In addition to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act designation, Canada has also listed the IRGC as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code.
Challenges in Identifying Suspects
Former CSIS director Ward Elcock highlighted the complexities of these investigations in an interview with CTV News, describing the process of determining inadmissibility as “not a delicate situation, but it can be difficult.”
“People don’t arrive in Canada with a stamp on their forehead saying, ‘I am a spy,’ or ‘I am a former Iranian official, and I tortured people,’” Elcock explained. “So, do you know that? How do you know that information? You don’t necessarily know it.”
He added that it “may take investigation to actually determine whether the individual is who they say they are, or whether they have connections that they haven’t disclosed or not. All of that is subject to investigation and can take time.”
Iran’s “Transnational Repression” a Growing Concern
The ongoing Israel-Iran conflict has brought a renewed focus on the Iranian regime’s activities. Irwin Cotler, a former federal justice minister and former special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism, told CTV News that IRGC members have long been present in Canada and their activities are likely to increase.
“We always see the confluence of domestic repression on the one hand and transnational repression, and even assassination, on the other,” Cotler stated. “So, while we have the intensified domestic repression, we can expect, as well the transnational repression, to be equally intensified.”
Cotler, who is also the founder and chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, described Iran as a “leading architect of transnational repression and assassination,” a fact that causes “reason for apprehension.” Cotler himself was allegedly the target of a foiled assassination plot by Iranian agents last November and has been under 24-hour security protection since 2023.
He asserted that Iranian agents “are responsible for threats, intimidation, harassment of both Iranian Canadians and their families back in Iran.” Cotler also alleged that “they are also allegedly complicit in trafficking, in money laundering, and the like.”
“All these things would be matters that would have to be investigated,” he said, emphasizing that the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization means, “number one, the exclusion IRGC officials to begin with – and that’s why the CBSA is investigating these things – and as I said, I recommended prosecution of those here where the evidence can show a complicity in criminality.”
A Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference report, released in January, indicated that while Iran is not a “significant” actor in terms of foreign interference in Canada, its regime does engage in transnational repression. The report noted that “Iran relies on criminal groups to carry out its activities and conducts psychological harassment online,” which “may very well prevent people from participating in Canadian democratic processes, but this is difficult to determine with certainty.”
The report also stated, “The government assesses Iran as a considerable transnational threat because it is likely monitoring, influencing, collecting information on, harassing and intimidating the Iranian diaspora community to prevent criticism of Iran.”
Cotler advocates for more prosecutions of Iranian officials and IRGC members living in Canada, and the establishment of a dedicated agency to investigate transnational repression.
Calls for More Deportations and Prosecutions
Mojdeh Shahriari, a Vancouver-based lawyer and volunteer with the group StopIRGC, expressed her concern to CTV News regarding the low number of deportations thus far. She characterized the number of ongoing CBSA investigations as “extremely low” and believes there should have been more deportations sooner.
Shahriari is pushing for the prosecution of former IRGC members who have since obtained Canadian citizenship. “Any member of the IRGC is complicit, according to the law, in crimes of terroristic nature, whether directly or indirectly,” she asserted, citing the Canadian government’s designation of the IRGC as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code.
She is urging the federal government to expand investigations beyond new arrivals to include potentially hundreds of individuals already settled in Canada. “I think no Canadian should feel safe when we have people who have been involved in crimes against humanity, in terrorism, in trafficking, in money laundering, living amongst us as if that’s normal,” she stated. “That is not normal.”
