A deportation hearing got underway in Toronto on Monday for an alleged senior member of Iran’s repressive regime who has been living in Canada.
Abbas Omidi served in a high-ranking government position in Iran before arriving in Canada in 2022, according to allegations made at the hearing.
The Canada Border Services Agency said he spent 27 years working for the Iranian public service, and was a deputy in the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade.
As a “senior official” in the Iranian government, the 55-year-old is not allowed to remain in Canada, the immigration enforcement agency said.
The two-day hearing before the Immigration and Refugee Board will decide whether Omidi will receive a deportation order.
Omidi is one of 32 suspected past and present high-level officials of the Iranian government identified during an immigration crackdown.
The CBSA alleges they are not permitted to remain in the country because of a 2022 policy that bars them due to their government’s abuses.
Monday’s hearing began with questions about his employment history.
Forms he submitted to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said he had worked for the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization, which is sanctioned in the United States.
But Omidi denied working there and said the organization appeared on his forms because of an error by Google Translate.
Omidi’s hearing is the first held in public since pro-regime forces killed thousands of demonstrators taking part in nationwide protests against the government in January.
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A war launched by the United States and Israel on Feb. 28 is also now in its third week, and has brought renewed attention to Iran’s cleric-controlled government.
Iran has responded to the attacks by firing missiles and drones at its Middle East neighbours and attempting to choke off oil and gas shipments passing its coastline.
Global News first reported on Omidi’s deportation case last month but at his hearing on Feb. 4, the Immigration and Refugee Board banned reporters from observing.
The Board did so after Omidi asked to have his deportation conducted behind closed doors. He then asked to ban the press from reporting his name or his lawyer’s name.
But Global News fought the extraordinary restrictions, and the Refugee Board ruled on March 10 that the matter would proceed in public.
“For all Canadians, I find that transparency regarding the type of allegation Mr. Omidi is facing is an important safeguard that enables accountability, deters impunity, and reinforces public confidence in Canadian legal processes and institutions,” the Board wrote.
“In this context, hiding Mr. Omidi’s identity would have a strong deleterious/negative effect on the public’s interest in the open court process.”
The Refugee Board also said there was no credible evidence that Omidi or his family would be at risk as a result of a customary open hearing.
Ottawa announced more than three years ago that senior Iranian officials and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members were not allowed in Canada.
The policy was a response to the killing of Mahsa Amini, who died while in state custody after Iran’s religious police arrested her for showing her hair in public.
Her killing sparked a women’s rights movement that was violently quashed by the theocratic regime of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei was killed in an airstrike at the outset of the Iran war, but has now been replaced by his son Mojtaba, signalling the regime has no intention of reforming.
But while border officers have identified more than two dozen Iranians living in Canada whom they believe are senior regime members, removing them has proven challenging.
The IRB has allowed five of the alleged officials to stay in Canada, while only one has been deported so far, although several have also left voluntarily.
Others are still in the queue for hearings. Only five of the cases have been held in public, including Omidi’s. Global News appealed to open them.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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