Canada’s federal government has formally banned members of the Iranian regime from the country over the Islamic Republic’s human rights abuses.
Cabinet ministers confirmed on November 14 that the measure brought in through the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act promised more than a month ago has come into effect.
It allows Canadian authorities to investigate any Iranian officials who are already in Canada, the ministers confirmed.
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser suggested that the government’s previously signaled number of 10,000 affected Iranian officials could prove to be an underestimate.
The move comes as Iran has been swept by protests since the death of a 22-year-old woman in the custody of the morality police nearly two months ago.
Security forces have responded with a brutal crackdown on the mainly peaceful protests. At least 326 people have been killed, including 43 children, according to one human rights organization. Several thousand people have been arrested.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said that the new measure “means that the senior echelons of the Iranian regime, the decision-makers, the power-brokers, the henchmen, those who are most responsible [for abuses], will be rendered inadmissible to Canada permanently.”
“This means that the architects of oppression including members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps will never set foot in Canada again.”
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