Canada’s Iranian diaspora has growing concerns about the country becoming a safe haven for high-ranking members of the Iranian regime, revealed documents from the Hogue Commission.
The Hogue Commission on foreign interference received hundreds of submissions during its public consultations period last year after asking what threats Canada faced from outside hostile forces.
Among those were many Iranian-Canadians who expressed the need for the government to take more action to stop the Iranian regime from meddling with Canada’s democracy.
Canada’s Iranian diaspora specifically called for better security screening when it comes to stopping regime officials from arriving in Canada after serving the country’s dictatorship.
For example, two Iranian brothers convicted for skirting sanctions on Iran by exporting restricted materials back to their home country in the U.S. managed to legally resettle in Canada shortly after their sentencing with new identities.
“Certain attendees talked about the presence of Iranian government officials who were involved in criminal activities and human rights abuses in Canada,” wrote the commission.
One witness suggested the government create a section within the immigration and foreign affairs departments to better “scrutinize immigration applications from Iran.”
Several submissions from the public consultations also noted that “Iranian Canadian community organizations have been infiltrated and taken over by persons acting on behalf of the Iranian regime.”
An Iranian police chief was seen in Richmond Hill, Ont. testified one witness and a former Iranian cabinet minister was spotted in Montreal where he was enjoying a “summer vacation.”
An anonymous witness told the inquiry that Iran’s regime “wants to exert influence in Canada because there is a large and well-educated Iranian diaspora.”
Iranian human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay told the commission that Canada “is known as a safe haven for Islamic regime officials and their families.”
The experience for Iranian Canadians having to see former IRGC officials living in Canada is “very traumatizing,” she said, citing an incident that involved “Iranian nuclear officials” being invited to the University of British Columbia.
Afshin-Jam MacKay went on to describe the “feelings of despair” she endured upon “seeing the children of Iranian regime officials driving fancy cars around Vancouver” who she claimed were aided by realtors who helped officials “to park their money” in the province.
She also expressed the need for border agents to undergo further training, suggesting that they familiarize themselves with the online database Faces of Crime, which is publicly available and documents abuses inflicted at the hands of the Iranian regime.
Ottawa accused Iran of targeting dissidents in the diaspora with threats and intimidation along with several other countries, including China, India and Russia.
The government banned senior officials within the Iranian regime from entering the country in 2022 in response to Tehran’s brutal suppression of protests advocating for women’s rights.
However, it’s known to Canadian authorities that as many as 18 Iranian senior officials are currently residing in Canada.
The RCMP thwarted an Iranian plot to assassinate the former attorney general of Canada and minister of justice, Irwin Cotler last fall. Cotler is an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime and a prominent human rights advocate.
The RCMP warned him last October of an imminent assassination plot to be carried out within 48 hours. Cotler has been under constant RCMP protection since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
According to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Cotler has been a high-profile target of Iran since 2008, after he launched a global campaign to have the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps listed as a terrorist entity.
Ottawa ultimately did list the IRGC as a terrorist organization last June, along with the United States, while diplomatic ties with the country were severed over a decade ago.
