Iranian Regime Officials 'Packing Their Bags' for Canada

"We know that over the last several years, many, many senior officials of the Iranian regime, despite inadmissibility laws, have already made it in here."

"[If the Islamic Republic's ruling class finds itself sent into exile, they] know how to get into Canada." 

Security Analyst Casey Babb, senior fellow, MacDonald Laurier Institute think-tank

 

"Canada is known as a safe haven for Islamic regime officials and their families."

"It is very traumatizing for Iranian Canadians to see officials from the Islamic regime in Canada.

Nazanin Afshin-Jam Mackay

A handout picture provided by the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's office shows him greeting the crowd before addressing the nation on the first anniversary of the death of Iran's former president Ebrahim Raisi, on May 20, 2025 in Tehran.  Photo-/KHAMENEI.IR/AFP via Getty Images

 

Canada has a record of hosting Iranian regime officials in a covert mutual 'understanding', never publicly expressed, but fairly well known, given the fact that Iranian-Canadians -- who emigrated from Iran following the downfall of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlevi and the ascension of Ayatollah Khomeini when Persia was transformed from a moderate Islamic kingdom to a fundamentalist Islamist regime -- have been calling out the presence of members of the regime entering Canada to live unmolested with their families in the safety and obscurity of an under-the-radar 'friendly' Western nation.

 

This, even though Canada has officially recognized the Islamic Republic of Iran as a supporter of terrorist groups, and a theocracy that maltreats and oppresses its population, while fomenting hatred and discrimination against the West and particularly the United States and Israel. According to the Government of Canada: In 2024, Canada listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code, in response to its terrorist acts both, on its own and in knowing association with listed terrorist entities, such as Hizballah and Hamas. 

 

So it is puzzling that given this reality, the Liberal government of Canada appears singularly unperturbed that a regime known for its support of Islamist terrorism can have a presence, however unacknowledged, by the casual and covert residency permitted members of the repressively dangerous regime. Now that Israel has launched an aerial campaign to destroy Iran's nuclear designs nearing the completion of atomic warheads, Iran is bleeding its top officials and IRGC members as they leave for safer environs.

 

And Canada appears to be the destination of many, although Russia has indicated its willingness to give safe haven to those fleeing the aerial bombardment the Ayatollahs have brought about by their adamant refusal to completely surrender all intentions to build nuclear armaments to match its rhetorical promises to attack and demolish Israel.  

 

The Canada Border Services Agency in April reported that twenty Iranians living in Canada had served in high-level positions with the government in Tehran, one of whom has been deported, the others having left voluntarily. Since 2022, Canada has barred Iranian officials from entering the country, part of a measure "to keep war criminals out of Canada". That order barred any "senior officials" who served the regime since 2003, when Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was detained, imprisoned and tortured to death in Iran.

 

Seyed Salman Samani, when he was spokesperson for Iran’s ministry of interior. Global News

 

A former Tehran police chief, Morteza Talael, active in deadly crackdowns against anti-regime protests was seen and reported in 2021 while working out at a Toronto gym. Iran's former deputy interior minister, Seyed Salman Samani, was subject to a Canadian removal order. One of the world's largest expatriate Iranian populations exists in Canada, representing opponents of the regime. From that community have come warnings to the government by activists, that the regime was embedding officials in Canada.

 

Volunteer lawyers founded a group -- Stop IRGC in 2022 -- collecting dossiers on Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps members along with other regime figures, present in Canada. They have reported 91 such instances to Canadian law enforcement. Investigator Casey Babb spoke in an interview, of regime officials living illegally in Canada, who claiming asylum, can become legal residents. A former director general of an Iranian government department claimed asylum in 2022 when he arrived to Canada.

 

Asylum claimants in Canada seeking eligibility for permanent resident status are disproportionately comprised of Iranian nationals. Iran was the second-largest source for Canadian asylum claimants in the first quarter of 2025, according to the Association for Canadian Studies.  

 

Source: Wikimedia Commons