Human rights activists are calling for Canada to get tougher against Iranian regime agents as five more senior members of the regime face deportation from Canada.
All five suspected members are alleged to have held senior positions in the Iranian government, according to the Canada Border Service Agency, who called for the Immigration and Refugee Board to hold the hearings.
Deportation hearings generally take place in public, unless the person has made a refugee claim. These hearings are taking place behind closed doors.
Salman Sima, an Iranian who fled the country after being imprisoned and tortured there, doesn’t believe deportation is enough, should that be the outcome.
“You know what is going to happen when they get back to Iran? The regime is going to welcome them as a hero.” Sima, who now lives in Canada, told True North. “They should be in jail.”
Canada banned ten of thousands of top Iranian officials from entering the country under sanctions implemented in 2022, including and most recently members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Liberal government officially declared the IRGC a terrorist organization under Canada’s Criminal Code last month, six years after the House of Commons initially called for such a designation.
The sanctions were imposed in response to the arrest and death of Mahsa Amini by Iran’s morality police for showing her hair in public. She was later killed while in their custody, sparking a wave of mass protests that the regime suppressed using brute force.
Iranian science advisor Majid Iranmanesh and deputy interior minister Seyed Salman Samani have since been deported under the government’s 2022 policy.
However, those two hearings were held publicly, whereas the five facing hearings now are doing so behind closed doors, with the Trudeau government refusing to release their names.
“According to Canadian law, we have the rule to put these guys in front of a trial. The Ontario Supreme Court ruled against the IRGC. We know that the IRGC shot a missile in an intentional act of terror to flight 752 and they killed 55 Canadians,” said Sima.
“These are the members of the same organization, so why just deport them?”
Canada severed diplomatic ties with Iran in 2012, and tensions further increased in 2020 after the Iranian military shot down Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752, allegedly mistaking it for a cruise missile.
The missile killed all 176 passengers on board, 85 of whom were Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
The IRGC also trains, funds and arms the Palestinian terror group Hamas, who were responsible for the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
According to the CBSA, 87 investigations have been launched into suspected senior Iranian regime members living within Canada.
CBSA officials said that 43 of those investigations have since been closed due to the individuals in question no longer being in Canada or were deemed not to be senior Iranian officials.
The CBSA told True North that while “admissibility hearings before the IRB are generally open to the public,” they may not be if the immigration board decides not to “or is required to conduct the proceeding in private” based on the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.”
Former Senior Policy Advisor on human rights to Global Affairs Canada Kevin Shahrooz said that if it’s not a matter of national security, then the public should have access to the hearings.
“Unless these individuals have made refugee claims and have sought private proceedings, it is very unusual for such hearings to be held behind closed doors,” Shahrooz told True North.
“It’s possible that there is a national security dimension that requires the information be kept from the public. Otherwise, these deportation hearings should be public as a matter of usual procedure and because there is a significant public interest in these cases. I’m glad that Canada seems to finally be taking some action against those with ties to Iran’s regime, but it is important that such actions be taken in a transparent manner.”
