Canada issues deportation orders, cancels visas for Iranian regime members

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OTTAWA — Three people have been found ineligible to remain in Canada in recent years for being senior officials of the Iranian regime, the federal border agency says.

Deportation orders were issued for all three and one has been removed from Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency said Wednesday.

In 2022, Ottawa declared Iran’s leaders — including senior government and security agency officials — inadmissible to Canada due to involvement in terrorism and human rights violations.

The border agency says the designation, which was expanded last year, denies any senior official of the regime access to Canada in the first place.

It also allows the agency to take immigration enforcement action against any regime member who came to Canada before or after the designation.

The current hostilities between Israel and Iran have drawn more attention to the possible activities of Iranian regime members in Canada.

Border agency spokeswoman Rebecca Purdy said the agency works very closely with domestic and international partners by sharing relevant information on border and national security issues.

Those efforts include the agency’s support for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which makes decisions on citizenship and immigration applications, including visas, she said.

All Iranian nationals must apply for a visa to come to Canada and visa applicants are carefully assessed by the Immigration Department, she added.

The border agency investigates when it becomes aware of a temporary or permanent resident inside Canada who may be inadmissible as a senior official of a designated regime.

If the case is well-founded, it’s referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board, Purdy said. If the board determines a person is inadmissible, it issues an order against them and the border agency then works to remove them from Canada.

As of June 6, about 17,800 applications were reviewed for potential inadmissibility due to possible links to the Iranian regime, while immigration officials had cancelled 131 visas and the border agency had opened 115 investigations.

Forty-nine of those investigations have been concluded by the border agency, meaning the individuals in question were either not in Canada or were found not to be a senior official in the Iranian regime and therefore not inadmissible, Purdy said.

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The remaining cases are subject to ongoing investigations or enforcement action, she said.

The border agency has requested admissibility hearings at the Immigration and Refugee Board in the cases of 12 people suspected of being senior members of the Iranian regime.

Admissibility hearings have concluded in five of those 12 cases, Purdy said.

Three individuals were issued deportation orders for being senior regime officials. Two others were not found inadmissible, but the border agency is appealing to the Immigration Appeal Division in both cases.

Six cases are ongoing and one has been withdrawn by the border agency.

“The CBSA works in an operating environment that changes on a daily basis and we are ready to respond and adapt as needed,” Purdy said. “To address this situation, additional resources have been engaged to ensure safe and secure border management as necessary.”

Public Safety Canada spokesperson Noemie Allard said Wednesday that the department and its portfolio agencies “continue to monitor the residual impact of the evolving situation in the Middle East.”

Canada’s law enforcement agencies “remain on alert and are working together to ensure the safety and security of all communities in Canada during this challenging time,” Allard added.

It emerged last year that former Liberal justice minister and longtime human rights activist Irwin Cotler was under RCMP protection due to an alleged Iranian assassination plot.

Cotler, an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime, expressed concern Wednesday about the ongoing threats and intimidation emanating from Tehran against the diaspora community in Canada.

Cotler, international chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, said Canada should establish a stand-alone agency to address the phenomenon of transnational repression.

“We need an independent agency for that purpose,” he said in an interview.

Cotler, citing the lone deportation of an Iranian regime member, also wants to see more prosecutions of such individuals in Canada.