The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is currently investigating how dozens of suspected Iranian officials have managed to enter Canada, with three individuals already issued deportation orders and one removed from the country. This comes amid heightened scrutiny of the Iranian regime’s activities globally, particularly in the context of the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict.
In 2022, Canada designated the Iranian government as a regime that “engages in terrorism and systematic or gross human rights violations,” effectively barring senior government officials, security and intelligence agency members, and individuals from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from entering the country. Furthermore, Canada has listed the IRGC as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code.
Since this 2022 designation, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has cancelled 131 visas, and the CBSA has opened 115 investigations. Of these, 49 have been concluded, determining the individuals were either not in Canada or not senior Iranian officials. The remaining 66 investigations are ongoing. So far, 20 people have been “reported inadmissible” by the CBSA for being senior Iranian officials, with 19 sent for admissibility hearings. Three individuals have received deportation orders, and one has been removed from Canada.
Former CSIS director Ward Elcock acknowledged the difficulty in identifying such individuals, noting that information about their past activities isn’t always readily apparent and requires thorough investigation.
However, some experts argue that Canada needs to do more. Irwin Cotler, a former federal justice minister and special envoy, stated that Iran is a “leading architect of transnational repression and assassination,” and he anticipates increased activity from IRGC members in Canada. Cotler, who has been under 24-hour security protection since 2023 due to an alleged foiled assassination plot by Iranian agents last November, asserts that IRGC members in Canada are allegedly complicit in threats, intimidation, harassment of Iranian Canadians and their families, as well as trafficking and money laundering. He advocates for more prosecutions of Iranian officials and IRGC members already in Canada, and the establishment of a dedicated agency to investigate transnational repression.
Mojdeh Shahriari, a Vancouver-based lawyer and co-founder of the group StopIRGC, echoed these concerns, calling the current number of CBSA investigations “extremely low.” She believes that any IRGC member, regardless of their current Canadian citizenship status, is complicit in “crimes of terroristic nature” due to the IRGC’s terrorist designation. Shahriari urges the federal government to expand investigations to potentially hundreds of individuals who may have already settled in Canada, stating that “no Canadian should feel safe when we have people who have been involved in crimes against humanity, in terrorism, in trafficking, in money laundering, living amongst us as if that’s normal.”
A recent Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference report, released in January, identified Iran as engaging in transnational repression in Canada, primarily through psychological harassment online and the use of criminal groups, though it noted Iran is not a “significant” actor in broader foreign interference in Canadian democratic processes. The report highlighted concerns that Iran likely monitors, influences, harasses, and intimidates the Iranian diaspora in Canada to suppress criticism of the regime.
The “Strong Borders Act,” currently in proposed form, has drawn criticism for its potential to grant expanded powers to immigration authorities, with some former CBSA officers expressing pessimism about its efficacy in improving public safety. Its stated purpose is to strengthen existing laws and enhance border security by allowing for immediate changes to immigration documents and increased information sharing in matters of national security.