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 Canada has become a cesspool of incompetence, a festering wound of governmental failure that allows the Islamic Republic of Iran’s insidious tentacles to slither unchecked through its borders, terrorizing Iranian Canadians and mocking the very notion of national security. The National Post’s damning exposé lays bare a chilling reality: Canada is not just a haven but a playground for Iranian regime operatives, who waltz into the country with impunity, shielded by a border agency and government so spineless they might as well be complicit. This is not mere negligence; it’s a betrayal of every Canadian who values safety and justice, a grotesque abdication of responsibility that demands accountability from the highest echelons of power.

The rot begins with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), an outfit so woefully inept it has allowed dozens, if not hundreds, of senior Iranian regime officials to slip through its porous defenses. Since 2022, Canada has barred entry to anyone who served as a senior official in Iran since June 2003, when Iranian Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was tortured and murdered in Iranian custody. Yet, the CBSA’s enforcement is a sick joke. By June 2025, they had reviewed 17,800 applications for potential inadmissibility, canceling a pathetic 131 visas and opening just 115 investigations. Only 49 cases were concluded, with most individuals either not in Canada or deemed not senior enough to warrant action. Meanwhile, 66 cases linger in limbo, a testament to the agency’s lethargic response to a clear and present danger. Rebecca Purdy, the CBSA’s mouthpiece, has the gall to claim they’re working “closely with partners” to secure the border. What partners? The ones asleep at the wheel alongside her?

Take the case of Mahdi Nasiri, a former managing director of Iran’s hardline Kayhan newspaper and a senior regime figure, who strutted into Canada in spring 2025 like he owned the place. This man, a mouthpiece for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had the audacity to post on Instagram about his arrival, flaunting his presence in Calgary and Toronto. Nasiri claims he’s now a “liberal” critic of the regime, a convenient rebrand that reeks of deception. He secured a visitor visa in mere days from the Canadian consulate in Istanbul, exploiting a system that didn’t even bother to probe his decades-long service to a terrorist state. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), under the stewardship of Minister Marc Miller, offers no excuse, only a mealy mouthed “we can’t comment on specific cases.” This is the same IRCC that rubber stamps visas for regime loyalists while denying entry to relatives of Flight PS752 victims, shot down by Iran in 2020, killing 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents. Miller’s silence is deafening, his inaction a slap in the face to every grieving family.

The RCMP, led by Commissioner Mike Duheme, is no better. Their refusal to disclose the number of complaints about Iranian interference, citing “operational reasons,” is a cowardly dodge. Marie Eve Breton, the RCMP’s spokesperson, insists they take threats “very seriously,” but their track record screams otherwise. The Mounties have done precious little to investigate the harassment and intimidation faced by Iranian Canadians like Hamed Esmaeilion, a Toronto dentist whose wife and daughter perished on PS752. Esmaeilion, branded a “murderer” by Iran’s Farheekhtegan newspaper alongside figures like Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, lives under constant threat. He calls Iran’s reach a “borderless empire of terror and fear,” and he’s not wrong. Yet, the RCMP’s response is to twiddle their thumbs, leaving dissidents to fend for themselves against a regime that’s already tried to assassinate critics like former Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, who’s been under police protection since the RCMP thwarted an Iranian plot against him.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), under Director David Vigneault, is equally culpable. The Hogue inquiry into foreign interference revealed CSIS’s awareness that Iran monitors its diaspora to suppress dissent, yet they’ve done nothing to curb the influx of regime operatives. Vigneault’s agency has failed to intercept these actors, allowing them to embed themselves in Canadian society, some even cozying up to conservative politicians to gain legitimacy. The Middle East Forum reports that figures like Sadeq Ziyaei Bigdeli, a former deputy director under President Hassan Rouhani, have rebranded as opposition figures to dodge deportation. This isn’t just a failure of intelligence; it’s a betrayal of trust, a green light for Iran to extend its campaign of terror onto Canadian soil.

The government’s hypocrisy is staggering. Prime Minister Mark Carney, who succeeded Justin Trudeau, has the nerve to preach about human rights while his administration lets IRGC members and regime cronies roam free. In 2024, Canada finally listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity, a move championed by then Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc. But what good is a designation when enforcement is a farce? Over 700 IRGC members are reportedly operating in Canada, yet only 20 have faced any consequences. LeBlanc’s promises of “decisive action” ring hollow when former IRGC officials like Morteza Talaei, a Tehran police chief involved in deadly crackdowns, can work out at a Toronto gym without a care. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, wringing her hands at a NATO summit in June 2025, admitted fears of Iranian sleeper cells but offered no concrete action. Her calls for Iran to “de escalate” are laughable when her government can’t even secure its own backyard.

The financial angle is just as infuriating. The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), under Director Sarah Paquet, reports a surge in suspicious transactions involving Iran 19,572 in 2024 25, up from 6,866 the previous year. Money exchange businesses in Iranian Canadian neighborhoods are laundering millions daily, according to Esmaeilion, yet FINTRAC’s response is to “plan” tighter monitoring. Plan? The time for planning passed when the Iranian embassy was shuttered in 2012, yet regime money still flows like water. Paquet’s agency is either incompetent or willfully blind, enabling a regime that funds terrorism to thrive in Canada’s financial system.

Iranian Canadians like Kaveh Shahrooz, a human rights lawyer, and Mojdeh Shahriari, a Vancouver attorney, are screaming into the void. Shahrooz faced an organized smear campaign during his 2024 Conservative nomination bid in Richmond Hill, with online attacks falsely tying him to the Mojahedin e Khalq (MEK), a group Canada once labeled terrorist. The campaign’s precision, referencing a relative’s MEK ties, suggests access to Iranian security files. Shahriari has documented hundreds of senior regime officials obtaining Canadian visas, while Zarezadeh, another activist, plans to report IRGC members to authorities. Their efforts highlight a community under siege, abandoned by a government that prioritizes appeasement over action.

This is a national disgrace. Carney, Miller, Duheme, Vigneault, LeBlanc, Anand, and Paquet must answer for their failures. Canada’s designation of Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism in 2012, under then Foreign Minister John Baird, was a bold step, but it’s been rendered meaningless by successive governments’ cowardice. The IRGC’s presence, the unchecked flow of dirty money, and the harassment of dissidents are not just policy failures, they’re moral failures. Canada is complicit in allowing a terrorist regime to terrorize its own citizens on foreign soil. The blood of Zahra Kazemi, the victims of Flight PS752, and every Iranian Canadian living in fear stains the hands of those who refuse to act. This isn’t just infiltration; it’s an invasion, and Canada’s leaders are rolling out the red carpet.

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