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OTTAWA – The federal government is expanding a measure that bans tens of thousands of Iranian officials from entering Canada as part of an effort to hold the regime accountable for human-rights violations.

On Sunday, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced that any senior official who served in the Iranian government at any time since June 23, 2003 is now inadmissible to Canada. The decision extends a previous ban, announced in November 2022, that denied entry to those in the top echelons of the Iranian regime dating back to 2019.

“We are sending a strong message that those involved in terrorism, human rights violations and atrocities are not welcome here,” LeBlanc said in a statement. “Canada will always stand up for human rights and fight for justice, at home and around the world.”

The new cutoff date for admissibility reflects the day on which Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was arrested in Tehran. She died in hospital almost three weeks later, in July 2003, after being tortured and raped.

The move comes on the eve of the second anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in hospital on Sept. 16, 2022 after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly. Her death sparked global protests.

The announcement was met with praise from Kourosh Doustshenas, spokesperson for the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims. The Ukraine International Airlines flight was shot down over Tehran in January 2020 by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of the Iranian armed forces. All 176 people aboard the flight were killed, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.

“Justice for Zahra Kazemi and so many others is long overdue,” Doustshenas said in a statement on social media. “This amendment is a crucial message that Canada will not be a safe haven for human rights violators. It’s a step toward accountability and justice for victims of the Iranian regime’s atrocities, including those affected by Flight PS752.”

Ottawa first labelled the Iranian government as “a regime that has engaged in terrorism and systematic and gross human rights violations” under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in November 2022, shortly after Amini’s death. The measure denied entry to senior officials who’d served in the government since Nov. 15, 2019. That date marked the start of nationwide protests that prompted a violent government crackdown. At the time, Reuters reported 1,500 people were killed during less than two weeks of unrest.

The designation means that current and former officials present in Canada can also lose their temporary or permanent resident status and can be removed from the country.

According to the Canada Border Services Agency, 82 visas had been cancelled as of Aug. 26, and 15 people have been reported inadmissible by the agency. Of those 15, two have been found inadmissible and were issued deportation orders following hearings at the Immigration and Refugee Board, and one person has been removed from Canada.

The tribunal ordered the deportation earlier this year of Seyed Salman Samani, Iran’s former deputy interior minister, and Majid Iranmanesh, a former director general in the regime.

The agency did not immediately respond to questions about how many more officials might now be targeted by the expanded measure.

Critics have accused Canada of providing safe haven for top-ranking Iranian officials, including after Morteza Talaei, who served as Tehran’s police chief when Kazemi was tortured in 2003, was photographed at a Toronto-area gym in 2021.

In a statement posted on social media Sunday, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs called the government’s latest move “a positive step.”

“Iran’s terror extends beyond its support for violence abroad,” the group said. “The regime’s violence includes the oppression of its own people, especially women.”

In June, the Canadian government listed the IRGC as a terrorist organization under the Criminal Code, following years of pressure from Iranian Canadians and opposition parties.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.

— By Maura Forrest in Montreal

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

VANCOUVER – British Columbia will be opening secure facilities to provide involuntary care under the Mental Health Act for those with severe addictions who are mentally ill and have sustained a brain injury, the premier announced Sunday just days ahead of the start of a provincial election campaign.

David Eby pledged a re-elected NDP would change the law in the next legislative session to “provide clarity and ensure that people, including youth, can and should receive care when they are unable to seek it themselves.”

Eby told a news conference in Vancouver that involuntary help would be aimed at people struggling with overlapping addictions, mental illness, and brain injury concerns who are not able to ask for help for themselves.

“For people with these three overlapping conditions, we know that the current response that we offer is not adequate,” he said.

“It is costly for people struggling with these conditions. They are not safe, and increasingly, I’m concerned that the way that they are interacting in our communities is making everybody less safe.”

The premier’s promise comes ahead of Saturday’s anticipated launch of the provincial election campaign, in which concerns about the toxic drug crisis are expected to play a significant role, and three months after he appointed Dr. Daniel Vigo as B.C.’s first chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, toxic drugs and concurrent disorders.

Vigo said Sunday that most people with addictions in British Columbia are not mentally impaired and are able to seek help voluntarily.

“However, the system breaks down if services operate under the assumption that all the patients should be able to actively seek help, endure taxing intake processes where comorbidity is not considered, input from providers … is not valued, and impairments affecting their ability to consent become an exclusion criteria,” he said.

Vigo said that in order for a person to be treated involuntarily under the act, they currently have to have a mental disorder that leaves them unable to interact safely with others and regulate their own behaviour.

Eby said the province’s hospitals interpret the current Mental Health Act inconsistently, so Vigo will be sending out clarifications on how it can be applied in cases involving addiction before the legislation is formally changed.

Eby said the first site providing care for those with addictions, mental illness and brain injuries will open in Maple Ridge on the grounds of the Alouette Correctional Centre “in the coming months,” adding there are plans to expand throughout the province.

This is not the first time the B.C. government has proposed involuntary care for youth with addictions.

In 2022, a plan that would have forced youth to undergo treatment for up to seven days after an overdose was scrapped following public criticism.

Eby said Sunday he understands the concern that youth might be less likely to ask for help if they fear being taken to treatment against their will.

“So these are the things we’re trying to balance as a society. It’s incredibly challenging, and our goal is to work with … the experts in this area, because I think that we need to keep revisiting these decisions and make sure that they’re taking us in the right direction,” he said.

Last week, B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad said if elected, he would introduce legislation to allow for involuntary treatment and build secure facilities.

In a statement Sunday, Rustad said Eby was being inconsistent and “flip-flopping” after years of not acting on the issue.

B.C. Greens Leader Sonia Furstenau accused Eby in a separate statement of following “John Rustad off every reactionary cliff” and said she was concerned about an over-reliance on involuntary care.

Furstenau said the province already has thousands of people receiving some form of involuntary treatment annually.

“Where are the investments in prevention and addressing the root causes of what we’re seeing in our communities? There’s also no focus on long-term, community-based care after discharge,” she said.

A government statement said the NDP is building more than 400 mental-health beds at new and expanded hospitals in B.C. by modernizing approximately 280 outdated beds and adding more than 140 new ones “with more to come.”

It says all of these facilities will also provide both voluntary and involuntary care under the act.

The announcement comes after a series of stranger attacks in the province alleged to have been committed by those who are mentally ill.

A man was arrested earlier this month in Vancouver for separate attacks that left one man dead and another with a severed hand. Police later said the suspect had a history of mental illness.

Eby said the province will also be setting up a designated mental-health unit in a B.C. correctional centre, starting with a 10-bed facility at the Surrey Pretrial Services Centre to provide rapid treatment for people with mental-health and addiction challenges who are being held in custody.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. It clarifies that the facilities are aimed at people with concurrent mental health and addiction concerns. An earlier version said the facilities would be for those with severe addictions or who are mentally ill.

HAIDA GWAII, BRITISH COLUMBIA – The northern British Columbia coast was rattled by two earthquakes below the ocean floor on Sunday.

Natural Resources Canada said the first quake hit at 3:20 p.m. and measured 6, while the second came about an hour later and measured 4.5.

It says no damage was reported and none would be expected.

The U.S. Geological Survey set the magnitude of the quake at 6.5, and says it was centred at about the midway point between Haida Gwaii and Port McNeill on the northern end of Vancouver Island.

The American Tsunami warning centre said no tsunami was expected to be generated.

Ben Wilson, the food and beverage manager at the Willows Golf Course in Sandspit, B.C., says he was home on his break when he felt the ground shake, long enough to know what it was, but not long enough to concern him.

“This one was definitely more noticeable than some, but not by any means, the biggest one I’ve ever felt here.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.