In documents revealed by the Committee on Foreign Interference on Thursday, Iranian Canadians warned that Canada must do more to avoid becoming a safe haven for members of the Iranian regime.
Documents released by the Hoag Commission summarize public consultations held last year with the Iranian diaspora on foreign interference and what to do about it.
In particular, the Iranian Canadians called for better vetting of regime officials who served in the Islamic Republic’s government before arriving in this country.
“Some attendees spoke of the presence of Iranian government officials involved in criminal activities and human rights violations in Canada,” the committee wrote.
Community members also told the investigation that “Iranian-Canadian community organizations have been infiltrated and taken over by people working on behalf of the Iranian regime.”
Global News revealed this week that despite Ottawa’s promise to expel the regime’s top officials, the Canada Border Services Agency has deported only one of the 18 identified so far.
Canada “is known as a safe haven for officials of the Islamic regime and their families,” Tehran-born human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam-McKay said in her presentation.
She said it was “extremely painful” for Iranian Canadians to see officials from the Islamic regime in Canada, citing an incident in which “Iranian nuclear officials” were invited to the University of British Columbia.
She described “feelings of desperation at seeing the children of Iranian regime officials driving luxury cars around Vancouver,” and claimed that landlords worked with officials to “deposit their money” in British Columbia.
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She added that border agents need more awareness and training, and they should use the public online database Faces of Crimes, which documents violations by regime officials in Iran.
Another witness told the investigation that a former Iranian police chief had been spotted in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and a former Iranian government minister “taking a summer vacation in Montreal.”
The witness, whose name has not been revealed, told the inquiry that the Iranian regime “wants to exert its influence in Canada because there is a large, well-educated Iranian community in the diaspora.”
Another witness suggested creating a department within Canada’s immigration or foreign affairs departments to “screen immigration applications from Iran.”
The Iranian regime is one of several regimes that Canada has accused of targeting dissidents in the diaspora with threats and intimidation.
Recent assassination plots linked to Iran have targeted critics of the theocracy, including Irwin Cotler, a former Liberal MP.
The summary of the presentation presented by Javad Soleimani stated: “Iranian dissidents have been threatened in Canada, and Iranian officials have contacted their families in Iran.”
Soleimani’s wife was on board a passenger plane that was shot down by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in 2020. 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents died in the missile attack.
He added that three months after the tragedy, Iranian intelligence contacted him and asked him to remove a post on social media that they did not like.
When he refused, he said they threatened his family, who are still in Iran.
Soleimani said members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard “work and study freely here in Canada,” adding that Iran is “actively promoting its agenda through mosques and community groups” that should be investigated.
The Canadian government announced in November 2022 that it had prevented senior regime officials from entering the country in response to Tehran’s suppression of women’s rights demonstrations.
Since then, nearly a dozen and a half senior suspected members of the regime have been identified by immigration enforcement investigators, but only three deportation hearings have been completed.
Two of them ended up with removal orders, but only one of them was deported from Canada. In the third case, the Immigration and Refugee Board refused to approve the deportation.
Meanwhile, an extradition hearing was scheduled to begin next month for Amin Yousefjam, an Iranian who helped the Islamic Republic evade sanctions and then changed his name to Amin Cohen after his conviction.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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