A government strategy to prevent Iranian regime members from resettling in Canada is struggling to show results after border security officials lost their fourth deportation case.
Afshin Pirnoon, a former director general in Iran’s roads ministry, was denied permission to be deported, according to a decision obtained by Global News. Pirnoon came to Canada on a tourist visa in 2022 and was working as an Uber driver when the Canada Border Services Agency launched deportation proceedings against him.
The CBSA alleged the 50-year-old was not allowed in Canada because he was a longtime senior functionary and “political asset” of the Islamic Republic.
But on Aug. 12, Madona Mokbel, a member of the Refugee Board, ruled that Pirnoon did not qualify as a “senior official” despite his position and more than two decades serving the regime. Though his title may suggest on its face that he had a high-level position within the civil service, when examining all of the evidence, the panel finds that he did not exert significant influence on the exercise of government power,” she wrote.
The case is the latest in which an IRB judge has rebuffed the CBSA’s attempts to oust Iranian officials from Canada under a program the government put in place to stop them from using the country as a safe haven.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government banned senior Iranian officials from entering Canada in 2022 on the grounds they were part of a regime engaged in terrorism and rights abuses.
With the latest loss, only one regime member has been successfully removed in the almost three years since Ottawa launched the program, according to the CBSA website, which said the agency was appealing two cases in the Federal Court.Iran is the state sponsor of terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis. The theocracy also targets critics in Canada, among them activists, journalists and former MP Irwin Cotler, whom police have warned of an assassination plot.On Sept. 12, Global Affairs Canada warned that Iranian intelligence services “have increasingly attempted to kill, kidnap, and harass political opponents abroad, following a disturbing and unacceptable pattern of transnational repression.”“ Other malign activities include operations to obtain and disclose the personal information of journalists and attacks designed to divide societies and intimidate Jewish communities.”
Since the federal government banned senior regime members from Canada on Nov. 14, 2022, border officials have identified 23 suspects living in the country and sent 21 of those cases to the IRB for hearings.
Canada’s attempt to deport Iranian regime members fails again
