Some Iranian Canadians say they are taking efforts into their own hands to investigate and track down Iranian regime members and affiliates who are now in Canada — saying the Canadian government is not doing enough.
One group even made the extraordinary move of publicly shaming a recent arrival at Toronto’s Pearson airport, who they claimed was a regime affiliate, asking how she got a visa.
The issue has ramped up since protests erupted across Iran last fall after the in-custody death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating Iran’s strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf.
As demonstrations have continued against the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran within the country and around the world, dissidents fear supporters of the regime may be leaving for safer harbours — like Canada.
“They’re terrorists,” said Mojdeh Shahriari, a human rights lawyer in Vancouver. “Do you want these people to roam around in Canada unchecked? Are you OK with that? I don’t think so.”
Mojdeh Shahriari is a human rights lawyer based in Vancouver and a member of StopIRGC, a volunteer group investigating reports of Iranian regime affiliates in Canada. (CBC)
Shahriari is a member of an organization called StopIRGC, a group of volunteers who are dedicating time and money to follow leads on regime members and affiliates here in Canada.
She says they have received more than 200 reports and are looking into the strongest leads, sometimes with the help of a private investigator. Once a solid file is built, they will turn over the evidence to authorities to take further action.
“If Canada was doing what it’s supposed to do to keep Canada safe, there would be no need for anything that we are doing,” she said.
Protester confronts woman from Iran at Toronto airport
This scene played out at Toronto’s Pearson airport after the arrival of a flight from Iran, drawing the attention of police. CBC News has not confirmed any of the allegations made.
Regime officials in Canada outed before
This is not the first time concerned citizens have outed affiliates of the Iranian regime in Canada.
In 2021, a high-profile former Tehran police chief was spotted running on a treadmill in Richmond Hill, Ont. Morteza Talaei was in charge of Tehran’s police in 2003 when Iranian Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was beaten to death in custody.
An Iranian dissident spotted and filmed him; those images went viral. Many in the community wanted to know how it was possible he had been allowed to enter Canada.
At the time, Talaei wasn’t on any sanctions list.
Morteza Talaei is shown in this file photo from November 2002, when he was the Tehran police chief. (Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters )
Last fall, CBC News and other news outlets sent inquiries to the government and to CSIS about Talaei, and soon after that he was added to the sanctions list, which should prevent him from entering the country again.
At the time, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) would not comment on his case, citing privacy legislation.
On Nov. 14, the federal government designated Iran as a regime that engages in terrorism and systemic human rights violations and banned regime members, including their relatives, from entering Canada. But they have fallen short of designating it as a terrorist organization, something critics say is very concerning.
“We [Canada] have dragged our feet since 2018 and not listed this group as a terrorist group, while we acknowledge that they are engaged in terrorism, so it absolutely makes no sense, I would like an answer,” Shahriari said.
Dozens of Iranian Canadians, including Shahriari, have told CBC they have concerns of regime presence already here. Some say they have felt watched — at home or while participating in protests.
“We have had many suspicious people roaming around in the protest, taking pictures, and you can’t accuse anyone without knowing exactly who they are. But it’s that uncomfortable feeling that a lot of people have, their looking over their shoulders,” she said.
“That uncomfortable feeling is very much a part of life in Canada especially. And so that’s why that is the main concern for me.”
Protesters chant during a rally demanding justice for the passengers of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 in Ottawa on Jan. 8. The plane was shot down by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corp killing all 176 people on board. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)
Last October, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed some of those fears to be true.
“We know there are people in Canada now who have benefited from the horrific regime in Iran to live a good life in Canada — well, we say no more,” Trudeau said while at a protest in Ottawa.
But people like Shahriari say that is not enough.
“Even within the laws that we have, they should not be able to come to Canada. But they keep coming. So I’m as shocked as anyone else. People sometimes ask me, ‘You are a lawyer, how is this happening?’ I really don’t know,” she said.
‘Immense anger’ at Canadian authorities
While StopIRGC has been investigating and advocating, others are taking more extreme actions — even publicly shaming people they believe to be associated with the regime.
At Toronto Pearson International airport last December, a small group waited in arrivals for a traveller who they believe is affiliated with the regime. They said they had received tips from dissidents inside Iran.
Footage taken by the group and posted on YouTube shows a small group filming on their phones and yelling at a woman, accusing her of working for the regime. They follow her through the airport; the footage rolls for more than 30 minutes.
“She just came to Canada, she used to work for the Iranian regime office and we’d like to know who gave her a visa, and we want the Canadian government to investigate that,” one man shouts at police officers who have come to break it up.
CBC has not confirmed any of the allegations being made in the video.
Why this lawyer says Canada needs to do more to keep regime supporters out
Lawyer Mojdeh Shahriari says the federal government needs to step up efforts to ensure possible supporters of the Iranian regime don’t enter Canada unchecked.
However, the sentiment motivating these actions, the need for answers on how members of the regime or its affiliates are getting into Canada, is a concern expressed by many in the community.
“There is the threat of excess, of people going too far, of people being slandered, and I have seen examples of that,”said Kaveh Shahrooz, a human rights activist more discreetly tracking regime members in Canada; he receives tips and carefully researches those leads.
“I think there is immense anger at Canadian authorities. The horrors that were inflicted on us and our families in Iran have been exported here to Canada,” he said.
“I have personally been in many meetings with government officials saying, folks, this is a real threat to this country. And we’ve always been dismissed, politely dismissed,” Shahrooz said.
Kaveh Shahrooz is a lawyer and human rights activist based in Toronto. (CBC)
Shahrooz likens Iranian officials leaving Iran now to Nazi leaders fleeing Germany for Argentina and elsewhere at the end of the Second World War.
“I worry that the same thing is going to happen as the Iranian regime comes under pressure and hopefully collapses. And a lot of them, I suspect, are gonna be coming to Canada,” he said.
CSIS investigating
Canada’s spy agency, CSIS, told CBC News it continues to investigate the threat of the regime in Canada. Last fall, it announced it was following credible “threats to life emanating from the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
The office of the public safety minister responded to CBC News’s request for comment and noted that Canada has already banned thousands of Iranian regime members from entering the country.
“This means that tens of thousands of senior members of the Iranian regime, including many members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, are now inadmissible to Canada,” the statement read.
Iranians protest the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the country’s so-called morality police, in Tehran, on Oct. 1, 2022. (The Associated Press)
“In addition to being banned from entering Canada, current and former senior officials present here may be investigated and removed from the country,” the statement read.
In the meantime, Shahriari said StopIRGC has never been busier.
“We are not going to stop doing the work we are doing. We are getting more and more reports and will continue to followup on each one,” she said.
“It’s a worry about Canada. What does that say about our country?”
OTTAWA – The New Democrats confirmed Thursday they won’t help Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives topple the government next week, and intend to join the Bloc Québécois in blocking the Tories’ non-confidence motion.
The planned votes from the Bloc and the New Democrats eliminate the possibility of a snap election, buying the Liberals more time to govern after a raucous start to the fall sitting of Parliament.
Poilievre issued a challenge to NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh earlier this week when he announced he will put forward a motion that simply states that the House has no confidence in the government or the prime minister.
If it were to pass, it would likely mean Canadians would be heading to the polls, but Singh said Thursday he’s not going to let Poilievre tell him what to do.
Voting against the Conservative motion doesn’t mean the NDP support the Liberals, said Singh, who pulled out of his political pact with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a few weeks ago.
“I stand by my words, Trudeau has let you down,” Singh said in the foyer outside of the House of Commons Thursday.
“Trudeau has let you down and does not deserve another chance.”
Canadians will have to make that choice at the ballot box, Singh said, but he will make a decision about whether to help trigger that election on a vote-by-vote basis in the House.
The Conservatives mocked the NDP during Question Period for saying they had “ripped up” the deal to support the Liberals, despite plans to vote to keep them in power.
Poilievre accused Singh of pretending to pull out of the deal to sway voters in a federal byelection in Winnipeg, where the NDP was defending its long-held seat against the Conservatives.
“Once the votes were counted, he betrayed them again. He’s a fake, a phoney and fraud. How can anyone ever believe what the sellout NDP leader says in the future?” Poilievre said during Question Period Thursday afternoon.
At some point after those comments, Singh stepped out from behind his desk in the House and a two-minute shouting match ensued between the two leaders and their MPs before the Speaker intervened.
Outside the House, Poilievre said he plans to put forward another non-confidence motion at the next opportunity.
“We want a carbon-tax election as soon as possible, so that we can axe Trudeau’s tax before he quadruples it to 61 cents a litre,” he said.
Liberal House leader Karina Gould says there is much work the government still needs to do, and that Singh has realized the consequences of potentially bringing down the government. She refused to take questions about whether her government will negotiate with opposition parties to ensure their support in future confidence motions.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet hasn’t ruled out voting no-confidence in the government the next time a motion is tabled.
“I never support Liberals. Help me God, I go against the Conservatives on a vote that is only about Pierre Poilievre and his huge ambition for himself,” Blanchet said Thursday.
“I support the interests of Quebecers, if those interests are also good for Canadians.”
A Bloc bill to increase pension cheques for seniors aged 65 to 74 is now at “the very centre of the survival of this government,” he said.
The Bloc needs a recommendation from a government minister to OK the cost and get the bill through the House.
The Bloc also wants to see more protections for supply management in the food sector in Canada and Quebec.
If the Liberals can’t deliver on those two things, they will fall, Blanchet said.
“This is what we call power,” he said.
Treasury Board President Anita Anand wouldn’t say whether the government would be willing to swallow the financial implications of the Bloc’s demands.
“We are focused at Treasury Board on ensuring prudent fiscal management,” she said Thursday.
“And at this time, our immediate focus is implementing the measures in budget 2024 that were announced earlier this year.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
OTTAWA – Treasury Board President Anita Anand has been sworn in as federal transport minister at a ceremony at Rideau Hall, taking over a portfolio left vacant after Pablo Rodriguez resigned from cabinet and the Liberal caucus on Thursday.
Anand thanked Rodriguez for his contributions to the government and the country, saying she’s grateful for his guidance and friendship.
She sidestepped a question about the message it sends to have him leave the federal Liberal fold.
“That is a decision that he made independently, and I wish him well,” she said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was not present for the swearing-in ceremony, nor were any other members of the Liberal government.
The shakeup in cabinet comes just days after the Liberals lost a key seat in a Montreal byelection to the Bloc Québécois and amid renewed calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down and make way for a new leader.
Anand said she is not actively seeking leadership of the party, saying she is focused on her roles as minister and as MP.
“My view is that we are a team, and we are a team that has to keep delivering for our country,” she said.
The minority Liberal government is in a more challenging position in the House of Commons after the NDP ended a supply-and-confidence deal that provided parliamentary stability for more than two years.
Non-confidence votes are guaranteed to come from the Opposition Conservatives, who are eager to bring the government down.
On Thursday morning, Rodriguez made a symbolic walk over the Alexandra Bridge from Parliament Hill to Gatineau, Que., where he formally announced his plans to run for the Quebec Liberal party leadership.
He said he will now sit as an Independent member of Parliament, which will allow him to focus on his own priorities.
“I was defending the priorities of the government, and I did it in a very loyal way,” he said.
“It’s normal and it’s what I had to do. But now it’s more about my vision, the vision of the team that I’m building.”
Rodriguez said he will stay on as an MP until the Quebec Liberal leadership campaign officially launches in January.
He said that will “avoid a costly byelection a few weeks, or months, before a general election.”
The next federal election must be held by October 2025.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he will try to topple the government sooner than that, beginning with a non-confidence motion that is set to be debated Sept. 24 and voted on Sept. 25.
Poilievre has called on the NDP and the Bloc Québécois to support him, but both Jagmeet Singh and Yves-François Blanchet have said they will not support the Conservatives.
Rodriguez said he doesn’t want a federal election right away and will vote against the non-confidence motion.
As for how he would vote on other matters before the House of Commons, “it would depend on the votes.”
Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos will become the government’s new Quebec lieutenant, a non-cabinet role Rodriguez held since 2019.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
— With files from Nojoud Al Mallees and Dylan Robertson
OTTAWA – Several federal political parties are expressing reservations about the prospect of fresh regulations to prevent foreign meddlers from tainting their candidate nomination processes.
Elections Canada has suggested possible changes to safeguard nominations, including barring non-citizens from helping choose candidates, requiring parties to publish contest rules and explicitly outlawing behaviour such as voting more than once.
However, representatives of the Bloc Québécois, Green Party and NDP have told a federal commission of inquiry into foreign interference that such changes may be unwelcome, difficult to implement or counterproductive.
The Canada Elections Act currently provides for limited regulation of federal nomination races and contestants.
For instance, only contestants who accept $1,000 in contributions or incur $1,000 in expenses have to file a financial return. In addition, the act does not include specific obligations concerning candidacy, voting, counting or results reporting other than the identity of the successful nominee.
A report released in June by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians expressed concern about how easily foreign actors can take advantage of loopholes and vulnerabilities to support preferred candidates.
Lucy Watson, national director of the NDP, told the inquiry Thursday she had concerns about the way in which new legislation would interact with the internal decision-making of the party.
“We are very proud of the fact that our members play such a significant role in shaping the internal policies and procedures and infrastructure of the party, and I would not want to see that lost,” she said.
“There are guidelines, there are best practices that we would welcome, but if we were to talk about legal requirements and legislation, that’s something I would have to take away and put further thought into, and have discussions with folks who are integral to the party’s governance.”
In an August interview with the commission of inquiry, Bloc Québécois executive director Mathieu Desquilbet said the party would be opposed to any external body monitoring nomination and leadership contest rules.
A summary tabled Thursday says Desquilbet expressed doubts about the appropriateness of requiring nomination candidates to file a full financial report with Elections Canada, saying the agency’s existing regulatory framework and the Bloc’s internal rules on the matter are sufficient.
Green Party representatives Jon Irwin and Robin Marty told the inquiry in an August interview it would not be realistic for an external body, like Elections Canada, to administer nomination or leadership contests as the resources required would exceed the federal agency’s capacity.
A summary of the interview says Irwin and Marty “also did not believe that rules violations could effectively be investigated by an external body like the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections.”
“The types of complaints that get raised during nomination contests can be highly personal, politically driven, and could overwhelm an external body.”
Marty, national campaign director for the party, told the inquiry Thursday that more reporting requirements would also place an administrative burden on volunteers and riding workers.
In addition, he said that disclosing the vote tally of a nomination contest could actually help foreign meddlers by flagging the precise number of ballots needed for a candidate to be chosen.
Irwin, interim executive director of the Greens, said the ideal tactic for a foreign country would be working to get someone in a “position of power” within a Canadian political party.
He said “the bad guys are always a step ahead” when it comes to meddling in the Canadian political process.
In May, David Vigneault, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service at the time, said it was very clear from the design of popular social media app TikTok that data gleaned from its users is available to the Chinese government.
A December 2022 CSIS memo tabled at the inquiry Thursday said TikTok “has the potential to be exploited” by Beijing to “bolster its influence and power overseas, including in Canada.”
Asked about the app, Marty told the inquiry the Greens would benefit from more “direction and guidance,” given the party’s lack of resources to address such things.
Representatives of the Liberal and Conservative parties are slated to appear at the inquiry Friday, while chief electoral officer Stéphane Perrault is to testify at a later date.
After her party representatives appeared Thursday, Green Leader Elizabeth May told reporters it was important for all party leaders to work together to come up with acceptable rules.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
