They came to Canada for safety. Now they’re suspected of supporting the regime they fled

2026/09/15 Leave a comment

Not the first time for this reporting. Valid concerns regarding conscripts who had little choice:

…Hundreds of applicants received similar letters on Aug. 6 and 7, according to Nahid Rahmati, a representative of the Unheard Conscripts Advocacy Network. 

The group seeks to represent people conscripted to the IRGC and advocate for them within the Canadian immigration system.

Rahmati said she’s never seen anyone receive a PFL and be accepted into Canada.

“I have seen lots of cases that have been rejected,” she said. “They got the PFL and they got rejected.”

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said in a statement it could not confirm the number of letters sent to permanent residency applicants in relation to potential IRGC ties.

CBC News spoke with several recipients of the letters, many of whom declined to speak on the record for fear of retribution from the government of Iran.

Letters part of ‘normal’ process

In a statement, Canada’s immigration and citizenship department said the listing of the guard as a terrorist entity prompts an “assessment of inadmissibility concerns where applications indicate a connection to the IRGC.”

“This is a normal part of applying Canada’s immigration law and does not mean that every person who served in the IRGC is automatically inadmissible.”

Conscripts said it is difficult to prove they did not participate in the IRGC after their mandatory service ended. The IRGC does not keep a list of people who left, according to Hossein Raeesi, a criminal and human rights lawyer who practiced in Iran for two decades.

“Someone who served compulsory military service with the IRGC is not considered as a member of the IRGC,” he said.

CBC News asked the Canadian government which documents it would accept as proof that an applicant was not a member of the IRGC beyond mandatory service. 

“There is no single prescribed set of documents that applies to every case,” the agency said in a statement.

Conscripts served under duress, lawyer says

Many of the conscripts served under duress, according to Arghavan Gerami, an immigration lawyer based in Ottawa. 

Two of her current clients have received PFLs and she worries Canada is expecting them to prove they tried to resist conscription….

Source: They came to Canada for safety. Now they’re suspected of supporting the regime they fled

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They served in an Iranian force Canada lists as terrorist. They say they were conscripts — but now may face removal

2026/08/27 Leave a comment

Of note. Legitimate distinction between conscripts vs regular members:

…On a single day, a large number of Iranian immigration applicants were notified by the Immigration Department that they may be inadmissible because they previously were conscripted to serve the organization. The Unheard Conscripts Advocacy Network believes the number to be several hundred. 

“Conscription is mandatory in Iran and we cannot flee from that,” said Gharehchahi, 35, who has a background in engineering and was assigned to IRGC’s dam-construction projects in 2014 and 2015, after his undergrad studies in Iran. “We all get punished if we don’t do our conscription over there.”

Since Ottawa’s listing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, immigration officials have begun flagging individual Iranian applicants for inadmissibility over alleged ties to the force. But the recent mass notifications — based on possible IRGC membership as a result of service in the force — have shocked the community. People worry the approach is capturing innocent conscripts who have never participated in terrorism.

Is Canada targeting the right people?

The Liberal government’s response to IRGC has been prompted by the group’s downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 in 2020, alleged involvement with other designated terrorist groups and brutal repression of Iranian people. The federal government has also been criticized for admitting IRGC officials in Canada.

With concerns over the regime’s harassment and intimidation of the diaspora in Canada, the Conservatives have urged stronger enforcement to ensure non-citizens are deemed inadmissible if “involved in regime-linked businesses, spreading propaganda, or human rights abuses.” The opposition also wants inadmissibility be extended to immediate non-citizen family members of regime officials.

“The government of Canada has wanted to show the Iranian community in Canada and the rest of the world that it takes the issue of the human rights violations in Iran seriously,” said Toronto lawyer Lorne Waldman, who has had more than 30 consultations with anxious applicants in Canada flagged for potential inadmissibility since Aug. 7….

Source: They served in an Iranian force Canada lists as terrorist. They say they were conscripts — but now may face removal

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