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.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
