A senior Iranian sports official with alleged ties to a listed terrorist organization was denied entry into Canada on Tuesday night, but there are questions as to why Mehdi Taj was allowed to get so far as he did.
“He’s inadmissible, as per our own laws,” said Negar Mojtahedi with Iran International.
“So how is that even possible?”
Mojtahedi broke the story that Taj was on his method to the FIFA congress in Vancouver on Thursday, but was put back on a plane shortly after landing in Toronto.
While Taj is currently the top of Iran’s soccer federation, he also has links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
That could be a branch of the Iranian military that Canada lists as a terrorist organization.
Nonetheless, Taj was granted a short lived resident permit to enter Canada.
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“A short lived resident permit now that permits the Canadian government to override their very own inadmissibility towards this individual, to offer him special permission to come back and in,” Mojtahedi said, “and so they are available in with this, , they arrive into the country through sports, and ultimately, they’ll spy on dissidents and collect information that they then send back to the Iranian government.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says Canada’s position on Iran and the IRGC is obvious, but says the permit mustn’t have been issued.
“My understanding was there was a revocation last night of the permission… it was unintentional,” She said.
Canada’s Conservatives say this case illustrates a much larger problem.
In accordance with Michelle Rempel Garner, there have been quite a few cases of IRGC members slipping through the cracks.
“It’s a fairly serious lack of screening and process to have the media doing security vetting on Iranian regime officials,” Rempel said.
The problem is prone to resurface for Canada through the World Cup.
U.S. Secretary of State Marc Rubio indicated that there are not any concerns with Iranian players, but there are questions on people surrounding the team.
“The issue with Iran isn’t the athletes; it’s around among the people they’d wish to bring with them,” Rubio told reporters on April 23.
“Including individuals with ties to the IRGC. We may not give you the option to allow them to in.”
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