Overview

• The Canada Border Services Agency has opened investigations or enforcement actions in 66 cases involving individuals believed to be senior Iranian government officials seeking entry or residency.
• Twenty of those suspects have been deemed inadmissible, resulting in one removal and two deportation orders with further appeals underway.
• Ottawa expanded the inadmissibility measure last September to cover Iranian officials who served since June 2003 following the death of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi in Tehran.
• CBSA has allocated additional resources to border screening in response to escalated tensions between Israel and Iran that began on June 12.
• StopIRGC has flagged 92 suspected cases of Iranian officials residing in Canada and human-rights activists, including former justice minister Irwin Cotler, are pressing for enhanced intelligence sharing to thwart potential sleeper cells.