Iran’s former deputy interior minister has been deported from Canada. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) confirmed in a statement that it has removed Syed Salman Samani from the country after finding that he was “inadmissible” for being a “prescribed senior official in the service of a designated regime.” Samani was deported under sanctions introduced in 2022, which formally designated the Iranian regime “as one that engages or has engaged in terrorism and systematic or gross human rights violations,” the CBSA says. Under those sanctions, all senior officials who served in the regime from June 23, 2003, are considered inadmissible to Canada. “Our strong response to suspected senior officials in the Iranian regime remains in place and the CBSA continues to take action to stop them from seeking or finding safe haven in Canada,” a statement from the CBSA notes. The CBSA says that while a person’s border and immigration information is considered personal information under federal legislation, it can confirm the removal of foreign nationals when “public interest in disclosure demonstrably outweighs any invasion of privacy that could result.” In March, CTV News reported that the CBSA had deported just one person for being a senior member of the Iranian regime following the 2022 sanctions. The agency said that two others had been ordered to be deported but had not yet been removed from the country. At the time, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree insisted the federal government’s approach to people associated with the Iranian regime in Canada is “aggressive” in an interview with CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos. “We have investigations that are credible, that are not ad hoc, that we spend an enormous amount of resources into investigating,” Anandasangaree said. “And once the finding of inadmissibility is met — and that is the threshold internally to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) — then they’re referred for removal, and we’re going through the process of removing those individuals.”
