Immigration officials have launched deportation proceedings against five more suspected members of the Iranian regime found in Canada, according to newly released figures.
The Canada Border Services Agency has alleged they held senior positions in Iran’s repressive government and has asked the Immigration and Refugee Board to hold hearings.
The sanctions were enacted after Iran’s morality police arrested Mahsa Amini for showing her hair in public and killed her while she was in custody, setting off protests that were brutally suppressed.
Since then, the policy has been used to order the deportation of two Iranian officials, Majid Iranmanesh, a science advisor, and Seyed Salman Samani, who was deputy interior minister.
But unlike those cases, which were held in public, hearings for the subsequent five are being conducted behind closed doors and the government has not released their names.
Deportation hearings are supposed to occur in public, unless the person concerned has made a refugee claim. Global News has applied to open the proceedings to the press.
Seyed Salman Samani, when he was spokesperson for Iran’s ministry of interior.
“Canada has, for too long, been a safe haven for people with ties to Iran’s regime. So I’m glad the government is increasingly taking action against them,” said lawyer and human rights activist Kaveh Shahrooz.
“But I wish the government would be more transparent about who these figures are and how they got into the country in the first place.”
Canada broke off diplomatic ties with Iran in 2012. In 2020, the IRGC shot down a passenger plane departing Tehran airport, killing 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.
The IRGC also arms, funds and trains Hamas, the terror group that killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more than 200 on Oct. 7. More recently, Iran has supplied drones to Russia for attacks on Ukraine.
Canada designated Iran “a regime that has engaged in terrorism and systematic and gross human rights violations” in November 2022, making holding senior posts in the the Islamic republic inadmissible to Canada.
On June 19, the government placed the IRGC on its list of terrorist entities, alleging it “knowingly carried out terrorist acts” and “acted in association” with Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.
Iran is also among the countries the government has said was engaged in foreign interference targeting dissidents and critics, and Iranian-Canadians have long complained that Iranian regime officials were entering Canada.
According to figures released on June 3, the Canada Border Services Agency has launched 87 investigations into suspected senior Iranian regime members living in the country.
Forty-three investigations have been closed because the individuals in question were either not in Canada or deemed not to be senior Iranian officials, the CBSA said.
So far, immigration officials have identified 14 “well-founded” cases of senior regime members, seven of which have now been sent to the IRB for hearings. Aside from the two cases that have been completed, five are now listed as “ongoing.”
The IRB declined to provide any information about them, but did not explain why the cases were proceeding in secrecy.
“As a matter of practice, the IRB does not provide information on any cases that are not public,” said spokesperson Anna Pape.
“We can confirm that, at this time, the IRB has received a total of two such cases which proceeded in public: Mr. Iranmanesh and Mr. Samani.”
“We have no other cases related to the Iran regime … that are proceeding in public at this time, and cannot comment on whether or not we have any non-public ones.”
Iran is currently holding elections following the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on May 19. Following an initial vote, a run-off is set for July 5.
Among those knocked out in the first round of voting was Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker and a former senior commander in the IRGC.
Court documents obtained by Global News show that his son, Eshagh Ghalibaf, applied to immigrate to Canada. He then launched a court case against Canada, alleging his security screening was taking too long.
In a Feb. 21 social media post, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said the government had refused his permanent residency application on Feb. 6. “The Iranian regime has engaged in acts of terrorism and systemic human rights violations.”
Demands for government intervention in Air Canada labour talks could negatively affect airline competition in Canada, the CEO of travel company Transat AT Inc. said.
“The extension of such an extraordinary intervention to Air Canada would be an undeniable competitive advantage to the detriment of other Canadian airlines,” Annick Guérard told analysts on an earnings conference call on Thursday.
“The time and urgency is now. It is time to restore healthy competition in Canada,” she added.
Air Canada has asked the federal government to be ready to intervene and request arbitration as early as this weekend to avoid disruptions.
Comments on the potential Air Canada pilot strike or lock out came as Transat reported third-quarter financial results.
Guérard recalled Transat’s labour negotiations with its flight attendants earlier this year, which the company said it handled without asking for government intervention.
The airline’s 2,100 flight attendants voted 99 per cent in favour of a strike mandate and twice rejected tentative deals before approving a new collective agreement in late February.
As the collective agreement for Air Transat pilots ends in June next year, Guérard anticipates similar pressure to increase overall wages as seen in Air Canada’s negotiations, but reckons it will come out “as a win, win, win deal.”
“The pilots are preparing on their side, we are preparing on our side and we’re confident that we’re going to come up with a reasonable deal,” she told analysts when asked about the upcoming negotiations.
The parent company of Air Transat reported it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31. The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
It attributed reduced revenues to lower airline unit revenues, competition, industry-wide overcapacity and economic uncertainty.
Air Transat is also among the airlines facing challenges related to the recall of Pratt & Whitney turbofan jet engines for inspection and repair.
The recall has so far grounded six aircraft, Guérard said on the call.
“We have agreed to financial compensation for grounded aircraft during the 2023-2024 period,” she said. “Alongside this financial compensation, Pratt & Whitney will provide us with two additional spare engines, which we intend to monetize through a sell and lease back transaction.”
Looking ahead, the CEO said she expects consumer demand to remain somewhat uncertain amid high interest rates.
“We are currently seeing ongoing pricing pressure extending into the winter season,” she added. Air Transat is not planning on adding additional aircraft next year but anticipates stability.
“(2025) for us will be much more stable than 2024 in terms of fleet movements and operation, and this will definitely have a positive effect on cost and customer satisfaction as well,” the CEO told analysts.
“We are more and more moving away from all the disruption that we had to go through early in 2024,” she added.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
