A B.C. father is making a tearful plea to help find his missing daughter, whom he believes is being detained in an Iranian prison.
Amir Bahraminia says his 35-year-old daughter, Behnoush, disappeared in Tehran along with her partner Mathew Safari, also known as Majid, nearly a year and a half ago.
“She is in trouble,” Bahraminia told Global News, “I know she is in Iran. I haven’t heard her voice and I haven’t seen her.”
The couple left B.C. for Tehran in November 2021. Behnoush’s parents say the pair planned to travel to the Persian Gulf Island of Kish. The family was in constant contact with Behnoush and had a close relationship, but since landing in Tehran on Nov. 6, 2021, the family in Canada has heard nothing from them.
Behnoush had previously travelled to Iran to visit family with no issues, her father said.
There’s no record of Behnoush’s arrest or any charges, but the family says two sources in Iran, who they can’t identify for safety reasons, allege the regime is holding her in prison, on “super threats to national security.”
Her family says Behnoush, a Canadian-Iranian who lived in Metro Vancouver, was not a political person. She was a manager at a spa in West Vancouver.
They say she enjoyed spending time with her family and had a degree in psychology from Iran. She wanted to start over again in her chosen field when she immigrated to Vancouver in 2013 but couldn’t due to language barriers. Instead, her family says, Behnoush trained as an aesthetician and was devoted to her job.
Safari, also Canadian-Iranian from Port Moody, had allegedly planned to buy an apartment on Kish Island. Behnoush’s parents say the home was being built by RoyalBox Group in Iran. Global News reached out to RoyalBox but the company has no record of any purchase.
Behnoush’s family also doesn’t know Safari’s whereabouts. His parents are deceased, they say, and it is not known if he has any family searching for him.
Global News reached out to Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly’s office, which referred the question to officials at Global Affairs Canada, who said they are aware and are gathering further information to provide consular assistance.
The family notified Global Affairs Canada of their daughter’s mysterious disappearance last year. In recorded phone conversations, Global Affairs confirms the contact occurred and also confirms it didn’t act after being made aware of Behnoush’s disappearance. When a family representative asked why Global Affairs said it was waiting for a call back that never happened. A policy, the family, says makes no sense.
Since Behnoush’s father and mother struggle with speaking English, they have appointed realtor and family friend Nima Sheihky as a representative. He has been advocating for Behnoush.
“Behnoush is a Canadian citizen and the Government of Canada should follow my daughter’s case,” Bahraminia said, in Farsi.
The last message the family received from Behnoush was a text she sent her brother Mohammed on Nov. 5, 2021. She wrote “I’m not n Turkey” with a photo of what her mother, Parvin Jalilian, says is the hotel the couple stayed at during their layover in Istanbul, Turkiye.
Mohammed says he looks over that text and questions what she meant by it. He believes Behnoush was trying to send a clue, and that she must have written it, he assumes, in haste.
Behnoush’s boarding pass shows her on Turkish Airlines (TA) Flight 76 from Vancouver to Istanbul on Nov. 4, 2021 landing in Tehran on TA Flight 872 on Nov. 6 of that year.
The Imam Khomeini Airport Police Authority provided a document to relatives of the Bahraminia family in Iran saying Behnoush was seen at the airport in Tehran on Nov. 9, 2021.
It’s unclear what happened between Nov. 6 and 9 at the airport.
Standing in the now abandoned downtown Vancouver condo of his sister, Mohammad feels sadness surrounded by Behnoush’s presence.
“All these things around here remind me of her. I always look at her bed. She’s not there, ” he said, wiping tears off his face.
“The fact that after 15 months, they (Islamic Republic) haven’t told us what has happened, it shows me that she hasn’t done anything,” Mohammad added.
He says he wishes he could go back in time and warn his sister against travelling to Iran.
Life for the Bahraminia family is on hold. An open wound, they say, that just won’t heal, until they bring Behnoush back home to Canada.
“We need help. Help to find out what happened to my daughter,” Amir Bahraminia said.
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.
