Conservatives Call to Expel an Estimated 700 Iranian Regime Agents From Canada

Conservative MPs are calling on the federal government to do more to evict Iranian regime agents and officials from Canadian soil, amid hostilities in the Middle East and acts of violence on Canadian streets.

Tories said on March 9 they will table a motion in the House of Commons immigration committee calling on Ottawa to ensure individuals linked to Iran’s regime or Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) are swiftly removed from the country.

Ottawa added the IRGC, an Iranian armed force whose core mission is to protect the regime, to its list of designated terrorist entities in 2024. The government also deemed regime officials inadmissible to Canada in 2022.

Media reports in recent years have pointed to the presence of Iranian regime officials or IRGC agents in Canada. The figure often cited is 700, which apparently comes from a Global News investigation published in 2023.

Tory MPs pressed the Liberal government on the matter during question period in the House on March 9.

“Can the minister confirm that there are still 700 of them on Canadian soil and that he will do whatever it takes to remove them immediately and rid the country of these terrorists?” said Pierre Paul-Hus, an MP from Quebec. “Iranian Canadians are telling us that the presence of IRGC members on Canadian soil is a huge problem for their community.”

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree replied that members of the IRGC are “facing consequences.”

“There are a number of members who are going through our process to be removed,” the minister added.

Anandasangaree said the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) reviewed 18,000 applications for inadmissibility. “We have opened over 170 investigations, and approximately 240 visas have been cancelled” by Immigration Canada on the grounds the individual was linked to the IRGC, he said.

Tory MP Michelle Rempel Garner, her party’s immigration critic, cited a recent Globe and Mail report saying the CBSA had only removed one Iranian official from Canada so far, and asked the minister when deportations will begin.

Anandasangaree replied that CBSA is working “expeditiously” to remove members of the IRGC from Canada.

The CBSA told The Epoch Times that as of March 5, about 17,800 Iranian regime-related applications were reviewed for potential inadmissibility, with 239 visas cancelled by Immigration Canada. As for investigations, 174 were opened and 79 were concluded when it was found the applicant was not in Canada or was not a senior Iranian regime official.

The border agency says that so far only one senior Iranian official has been removed from Canada, while three are under deportation orders.

The Tory MPs calling for more action from Ottawa on the file have blamed the government’s immigration and public safety policies, and have linked the issue to acts of violence on Canadian streets.

“Last week three different synagogues were shot at in the Toronto area,” said Toronto MP Roman Baber on March 9 in the House. “There was always conflict abroad, but it never spilled onto Canada’s streets like it has under this Liberal government.”

The synagogue shootings took place in the days following the attack on Iran from a joint operation by the United States and Israel.

The U.S. consulate in Toronto was also targeted by gunfire on the morning of March 10. A Toronto-area gym owned by an Iranian-Canadian activist was shot at 17 times on March 1. The shooting investigations are ongoing and police have not arrested any suspects.

Baber also noted how police believe a missing Iranian activist in Canada was murdered. The RCMP in B.C. started investigating the disappearance of Masood Masjoody in February, which is now being treated as a homicide investigation.

The Tory push to remove Iranian agents from Canada comes as Iran is under air attack by the United States and Israel.

In an emergency debate in the House of Commons on March 9, opposition parties asked the government to clarify its stance on the conflict.

On the first day of hostilities, Feb. 28, Prime Minister Mark Carney backed the strikes against Iran, saying diplomatic efforts had failed to rein in the regime. He later said he had taken this stance with “regret” and called for de-escalation.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said during question period on March 9 that Canada “supports all efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” adding that “all parties have to comply with the rules of international law.”

Anand’s department has been coordinating efforts in recent days to get Canadians out of the region, as countries around Iran have been targeted by Iranian missile and drone attacks.

Global Affairs Canada said on March 10 that 4,300 Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and family members arrived in Canada from the Middle East from March 4 to March 8, while Ottawa facilitated the departure of 871 others from the region to a safe third country.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on March 9 he believes the war campaign is nearing its end, with his country and Israel’s militaries having “shot everything they need to shoot.”

“I think the war is very complete, pretty much,” Trump told CBS. The same day, however, the U.S. Department of War posted on social media that “we have only just begun to fight.”

Editor’s note: the article was updated with information from CBSA.