The New York Post recently reported that up to 1,000 former members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are embedded across Canada, and that the Liberal government is not doing enough to address the problem.
On June 19, 2024, Canada officially listed the IRGC as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code. This designation makes it a crime to knowingly support, fund, or assist the IRGC in any way, triggers asset freezes, enables prosecution for such support, and renders its members inadmissible to Canada. It also makes it more difficult for IRGC members to use Canada as a base or to access Canadian-linked financial systems.
Yet, according to Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner, regime-affiliated figures continue to exploit Canada's lax immigration policies to gain entry and use the country as a safe haven.
What is most disturbing, particularly in light of the regime's recent brutal crackdown on protesters, is that Canadian citizens were among those murdered by Iranian authorities. Why, then, is Canada not taking a firm and uncompromising stance against members of this terrorist entity who are living safely within its borders?
There are too many examples to ignore. In 2021, Morteza Talaei, a retired IRGC brigadier general and former Tehran police chief, was seen freely attending a gym in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Talaei oversaw Tehran's police in 2003, the same period during which Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was beaten to death in custody. He was casually exercising on a treadmill, unbothered and unaccountable, standing next to a woman whose attire would have subjected her to violent punishment under the very regime he helped enforce.
It was only one year later, nearly two decades after his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity through the IRGC, that the Canadian federal government announced sanctions against Talaei, along with three other individuals and five entities, under the Special Economic Measures Act for gross and systemic human rights violations in Iran. This raises a fundamental question: how was someone implicated in such crimes able to enter Canada in the first place, and how many more like him remain in the country, undetected and unaffected by what they have done?
The Canadian government under Mark Carney has stated it would be willing to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, yet it appears to turn a blind eye to individuals tied to the IRGC who are living within its own borders.
According to the New York Post, the Canadian government has identified 32 high-ranking Iranian officials living in Canada and has flagged them for deportation. However, deportation is not enough. Ottawa can take immediate steps by opening investigations and prosecuting Iranian regime officials who are present in Canada and implicated in crimes against humanity.
Rather than defaulting to deportation, which returns perpetrators to the very system that enabled their abuses, Canada can act under its Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. This law allows Canada to initiate investigations and prosecutions for atrocities committed abroad, even when they involve foreign nationals and foreign victims. This principle of universal jurisdiction enables Canada to investigate and prosecute such individuals when they are found on Canadian soil.
Canada has already applied this framework in cases related to the Rwandan genocide and in ongoing prosecutions involving ISIS members. Choosing prosecution over deportation would not only advance justice, but also affirm that crimes against humanity are offenses Canada is prepared to confront and punish, regardless of where they occur.
The Islamic Republic is known to maintain sleeper cells around the world, and there is growing concern in Washington about the possibility of a coordinated terrorist attack carried out under IRGC direction. Reports indicate that U.S. authorities intercepted an encrypted message suggesting that these sleeper cells are stationed as an "operational trigger" following the outbreak of war involving the United States and Israel.
How many more synagogues, kosher restaurants, or Iranian diaspora businesses must be attacked or vandalized before Canada finally acts? Are we waiting for a mass-casualty attack before taking this threat seriously?
More broadly, what does it say about Canada as a country if individuals affiliated with the IRGC are able to live safely within its borders? By failing to act, Canada risks signaling to both the world and the Iranian people that those responsible for crimes against humanity can find refuge here without consequence, and that the rule of law will not be enforced.
Canada has both the legal authority and the evidentiary basis to act now. The question is whether it has the leadership and political will to enforce its own laws, protect its citizens, and deny safe haven to those implicated in crimes against humanity.
