Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Wednesday it’s her “understanding” that Iranian soccer officials saw their permission to enter Canada revoked ahead of the FIFA Congress in Vancouver.
“It’s not my personal lead, but my understanding is that there is a revocation of the permission. It was unintentional, but I’ll leave it to the minister to indicate,” Anand said when asked about the situation on her way into question period.
Tasnim, an Iranian news agency associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Iranian Football Federation president Mehdi Taj and two other Iranian officials were denied entry due to “inappropriate behaviour of immigration officials” at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.
The online news outlet Iran International first reported that Taj had been granted a visa on Monday and that he had been removed from Canada late Tuesday evening due to his connections to the IRGC, a listed terrorist entity in Canada.
Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner credited that reporting for Taj being denied entry to Canada and said she’s left to wonder if he would have been able to enter Canada without it.
“How did the guy get on a plane? He’s an Iranian regime official, like, clearly documented. I think a simple Google search would have told them that,” Rempel Garner said after question period.
“So it’s either gross incompetence or something worse. And the government’s going to have to answer for that because there’s a lot of members of the diaspora who are persecuted by regime officials.”
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Rempel Garner said she’s “flabbergasted” that Taj managed to get to Canada in the first place and doesn’t know why the immigration minister hasn’t spoken publicly about the situation.
An emailed response from Immigration Minister Lena Diab’s office said all visa applications are reviewed on a case-by-case basis by trained officials.
“While we cannot comment on individual cases due to privacy laws, the government has been clear and consistent: IRGC officials are inadmissible to Canada and have no place in our country,” said Taous Ait, Diab’s press secretary.
“We have taken strong action to hold the IRGC to account and will continue to do so, while protecting the safety of Canadians and upholding the integrity of our immigration system.”
When asked about Taj at a Toronto press conference Thursday, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said he couldn’t speak about specific cases due to privacy legislation but people with ties to terrorist organizations are not welcome in Canada.
“Members of the IRGC are not admissible to Canada, they’re not welcome in Canada. There are a number that, as you’re aware, we’re trying to remove, we will have them removed expeditiously. But let’s make no mistake, IRGC members are not admissible, nor are they welcome here in Canada,” Anandasangaree said.
The Canadian Press has reached out to the Canada Border Services Agency and the Iranian Football Federation for comment.
CBSA data shows that as of March 5, about 17,800 visa applications have been reviewed for inadmissibility due to connections to the Iranian regime.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has cancelled 239 visas and 174 investigations had been opened by the CBSA. Of the completed cases, 79 involved people who were found not to have links to the Iranian regime that would result in them being deemed inadmissible.
Thirty-two people have been deemed inadmissible by the CBSA for their connections to the Iranian regime. The agency says 20 of these cases will be sent to its immigration division for hearings.
Three people who were the subjects of completed hearings were deemed inadmissible and were issued deportation orders. Only one has been removed.
Five people were not declared inadmissible and the CBSA says it is appealing four of those rulings.
— With files from Dylan Robertson in Ottawa and Kathryn Mannie in Toronto
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