It is absurd for Prime Minister Mark Carney and his cabinet ministers to claim that confidentiality prevents them from explaining how a former intelligence commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was granted a temporary resident visa by Canada.
Visa Granted to IRGC Commander
Mehdi Taj, president of the Iranian Football Federation, was turned away by the Canada Border Services Agency upon arriving in Toronto last month en route to a FIFA meeting in Vancouver. However, the Carney government has failed to explain how he obtained a visa in the first place.
Canada designated Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism and classified the IRGC's Quds Force as a terrorist organization in 2012. In 2022, senior officials of the Iranian government and its security agencies were designated as inadmissible to Canada. In 2024, the entire IRGC was classified as a terrorist organization under pressure from Conservatives and Iranian human rights activists.
Iran's Atrocities
This is not just about the Iranian leadership being responsible for the murder, torture, and imprisonment of tens of thousands of Iranian citizens and waging terrorism throughout the Middle East via proxies. On January 8, 2020, the IRGC shot down a Ukrainian civilian airliner with two surface-to-air missiles shortly after takeoff from Tehran, killing all 176 people on board, including 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents of Canada. CSIS has identified credible death threats by Iran against Canadians, including a failed assassination attempt on former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler.
Systemic Failure
No one affiliated with the IRGC is supposed to be allowed into Canada, and if they are here, they must be deported. The inexplicable granting of a visa to a former IRGC intelligence commander raises the issue of the federal government's failure to deport possibly hundreds of Iranian regime agents living illegally in Canada. So far, only one has been removed, with the government citing complexity. However, human rights activists and a 2023 Global News investigation suggest there could be hundreds of such individuals.
What is the point of declaring terrorist organizations if no one is deporting the terrorists?
