Dozens of Iranian regime officials denied entry to Canada, says border agency

The Canada Border Services Agency has denied entry to dozens of senior Iranian regime officials and is investigating about 100 people with status in Canada for potential ties to Tehran.

The agency also has referred the cases of nine individuals with status in Canada to the Immigration and Refugee Board to determine their admissibility to Canada.

The denials at the border and the investigations stem from a measure the Liberal government adopted last year in the midst of widespread protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman. Amini died while in the custody of Iran's "morality police."

The sighting of a former Tehran police chief at a Toronto-area gym in 2021 led many Iranian-Canadians to claim that Canada serves as a haven for high-ranking members of Iran's regime.

Under pressure from the opposition Conservatives and members of the Iranian-Canadian community to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist entity, the Liberal government instead opted to take action through immigration laws.

In November 2022, then-public safety minister Marco Mendicino designated the Islamic Republic of Iran a "regime that has engaged in terrorism and systematic and gross human rights violations" under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

That designation made tens of thousands of Iranian regime officials — including many members of the IRGC — inadmissible to Canada.

In a statement provided to CBC News, the CBSA said that as of Nov. 20, 2023, the agency had reviewed approximately 17,800 visa applications for potential inadmissibility to Canada under the IRPA designation of the Iranian regime. As a result, 78 individuals were denied access to Canada.

The CBSA also said that, based on referrals from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and tips from the public, it opened investigations into 141 individuals with status in Canada.

The CBSA closed 38 of those 141 cases, either because the individuals were out of the country or the border agency had determined the individuals were allowed to be in Canada.

The CBSA deemed ten individuals inadmissible under the Iranian regime's IRPA designation. Nine of those people are presently in Canada and are now facing hearings before the Immigration Refugee Board of Canada, which will decide whether their status in Canada must be revoked.

The CBSA would not identify any of the individuals under investigation or those denied access to Canada, citing the Privacy Act.

"I'm glad that some people have been deemed inadmissible because it had not been clear to me that the government had taken any steps," said Kaveh Shahrooz, a human rights activist, lawyer and senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

"I think any member of the IRGC that willingly served — not conscripts, but willingly served — should be kicked out of the country. But ultimately, it doesn't take away from our goal of making the entirety of the IRGC a terrorist organization."