With the holiday season just around the corner, many are planning to travel, but Saskatoon resident Amir Abolhassani says he and many other Iranian Canadians will be shoveling snow at home.
Abolhassani sold his house in Saskatoon when his U.S.-based employer asked him to relocate to North Carolina. But at the Calgary airport this January, his family was not allowed to cross the border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer told Abolhassani, who is a Canadian citizen, that it was because of time he spent as a conscript in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) more than a decade ago.
The Trump administration labelled the IRGC as a terrorist organization in 2019.
Abolhassani said all men in Iran above the age of 18 have to do mandatory service with one of the arms of the military, and one in three are assigned to the IRGC. He said refusing conscription would prevent a man from getting a passport or accessing civic amenities, and can sometimes lead to further punishment.
He said it’s not fair to be punished for having been conscripted.
“We are not Canadian citizens enough. Are we really Canadians at this point?” he said.
“There are people who are not able to say their last goodbye to their parents in the United States. A sick child who needs to be treated there can’t go.”
Amir Abolhassani was recently asked by his employer about the status of his move to the U.S., but so far is being allowed to work remotely. He says he worries for his future and of his month-old daughter. (Kayla Guerrette/CBC)
CBC spoke with 25 Iranian Canadians who unanimously agreed that they are being treated as second-class citizens. All say their emails to local members of parliament and officials at the federal level have fallen on deaf ears.
Many say they are subjected to a secondary screening involving long, intrusive interviews and an extensive search of their belongings, cellphones and social media, even when entering Canada.
While all welcome Canada’s recent decision to ban senior IRCG officials, they want the government to not put former conscripts in the same basket.
Iranian Canadians with past conscription with IRGC often receive a ‘4S’ designation, which stands for Secondary Security Screening Selection, on their boarding passes. Vancouver resident Navid Sadeghiani and his family were given them in July while travelling to Paris. (Submitted by Navid Sadeghiani)
According to the recent census, there are 213,160 people of Iranian descent in Canada. Abolhassani said some 80,000 could be impacted by this issue, including his daughter, who is barely a month old.
“I’m in contact with over 200 families corresponding to some 600 Iranian Canadians in the same boat,” he said.
Global Affairs Canada declined to comment, redirecting the query to the Canada Border Services Agency.
In a written statement identical to one it provided after a previous CBC inquiry on the subject, CBSA said it does not track instances of Iranian Canadians being denied entry to the United States and other countries.
“The CBSA does not possess any power or authority to intervene in the immigration decisions made by other nations,” the statement read.
CBC News reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and CBP for a comment, but did not receive a response.
‘Canada is offloading responsibility to the U.S.’: Alberta man
Abolhassani said he was recently asked twice by his employer about his move to the U.S., but so far he is being allowed to work remotely.
Mojtaba Siahpoosh, a resident of Okotoks, Alta., said he got a notice from his employer a week ago saying he would lose his position by the end of the year.
“They’ve been waiting for me, as I was hired to cover both Western Canada and the U.S., but I was given inadmissibility [to the U.S.] last October,” he said.
“I tried again this July. We arrived at the border around 8:30 a.m. and were interrogated for seven hours, including my wife and two very young kids, who were born and raised in Canada.”
Mojtaba Siahpoosh says he and other Iranian Canadians are being discriminated against while Canada offloads responsibility to the U.S. (Elena Matkovska Photography)
Before 2019, the 44-year-old had been traveling to the U.S. for years.
Siahpoosh felt he was “being treated like a criminal,” as he was accompanied by the CBP officers even to bring baby formula from their car.
During his conscription period in 2006, Siahpoosh was tasked with archive and journal paperwork.
“I’ve never picked up any arms in my life. That day at the border was the most exhausting day in my life,” he said.
“We are being discriminated against and Canada is offloading responsibility to the U.S. I feel like a third-class citizen.”
‘Crushing a little boy’s dream to raise the Canadian flag’: Vancouver man
Vancouver resident Navid Sadeghiani agrees. His son Arshia Sadeghiani, a Canadian champion in robotics, was not allowed to enter the U.S. with the robotics team from his West Vancouver school district to attend the world championship in Dallas.
The 13-year-old was denied on May 7 because his father had been conscripted in Iran more than 30 years ago.
The family, including their 10-year-old, often has to arrive four hours early when traveling to any country that is a U.S. ally and face extensive secondary screenings before boarding.
“My kids ask me, ‘Daddy, why do they ask us such questions?’ What should I tell them? When Trudeau says a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian, I don’t believe in that,” Navid said.
“Even when returning to Canada, we have to be redirected to immigration when we are Canadians. It feels like we’re being sent to jail.”
Arshia Sadeghiani, 13, does not want to continue his future in robotics after he was not allowed to enter the U.S. with the robotics team of his West Vancouver school district to attend the world championship in Dallas, his father says. (Submitted by Navid Sadeghiani)
The 50-year-old feels sad for his son, who was depressed after the refusal.
“He didn’t want to talk and now he doesn’t want to see a future in robotics because he can’t travel or pursue his higher studies there,” Navid said.
“They are crushing a little boy’s dream to raise the Canadian flag in the U.S. His future is being destroyed. Canada needs to act.”
Sara Ebrahimi, another B.C. resident, had to tell her daughter who wanted to pursue her education in New York the same thing, after the family was stopped last month at the border on their way to Seattle.
“It’s so offensive, after paying all the taxes here, I can’t visit my siblings and family in the U.S. It’s taking an emotional toll on us. I can’t go to most places in Europe and the Caribbean for vacation,” she said.
“We Iranian Canadian women have to pay the price. We thought we had independence here, but no we aren’t free.”
Canada bans top Iranian revolutionary guard members in new sanctions
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced a new round of sanctions on Iran, banning the top 50 per cent of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members from entering Canada.
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.
