Canada’s intelligence agency is pointing to escalating aggression by Iran in Western countries, ranking the country among the foremost perpetrators of foreign interference and espionage.
In its annual report released this week, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), says Iran has continued to conduct hostile activities in Canada and will “continue to target its perceived enemies even when living in foreign countries in support of its ultimate goal of regime preservation.”
CSIS called Iran’s external operations in Western countries “aggressive and expansive,” including lethal plots in the US, the UK, and several European countries.
Those activities included elicitation, cultivation, coercion, illicit financing, malicious cyber activities, and information manipulation.
“Iran and its intelligence services are interested in influencing and clandestinely collecting information on the Iranian community, including anti-regime activists and political dissidents; human, women’s and minority rights activists; and fugitives wanted by the regime,” the report read.
Earlier this week, Canadian parliamentarians unanimously voted on a non-binding motion calling for the Iranian regime’s paramilitary force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), as a terrorist entity and expelling approximately 700 Iranian agents from Canada.
While the Liberal party, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, supported a similar motion in 2018, the IRGC has not been listed as a terrorist organization. The government and experts often mention that some Iranians are obligated to join it during their mandatory military service.
In November 2022, CSIS first acknowledged that it was actively investigating what it called multiple "credible" death threats from Iran aimed at individuals in Canada, as reported by CBC News.
Subsequent reports by CBC News that year highlighted how Iranian dissidents in Canada said they were being watched and are under threat from the regime in Iran. Global News similarly reported in 2023 that Iranian dissidents live in fear of imminent harm from the Islamic Republic's agents.
Adding to those fears, the Iranian-Canadian diaspora has long warned the government that Canada harbors regime-affiliated officials on its soil.
Over a year following the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran in 2022 – and the diaspora’s continued calls not to allow regime-affiliated officials into the country – the government began taking some action to bar individuals from entering and began proceedings for deportations.
The diaspora has maintained that the current measures do not suffice and that if the IRGC were on the terrorist list, members who have gained Canadian citizenship would be responsible for crimes committed abroad and subject to much harsher penalties.
After Wednesday's vote, activists have urged to follow-through and finally designate the IRGC.
That included Iranian-Canadian dissident Hamed Esmaeilion, who lost his wife and daughter in January 2020, when the IRGC shot down Ukrainian Flight PS752 minutes after takeoff from Tehran.
The downing killed all 176 people onboard, which included 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.
During the 4-year commemoration ceremony for the victims of the downing of PS752, Trudeau said his government is looking "for ways to responsibly list the IRGC as a terrorist organization."
The CSIS report also said that cyber attacks carried out by the Islamic Republic target Canada.
“Iran combines offensive cyber operations with cyber-enabled influence operations to assist in the pursuit of its geopolitical goals,” according to the CSIS report. “Canada remains a target for opportunistic credential harvesting, phishing attacks, and exploitation of digital infrastructure to facilitate future targeting opportunities against individuals of interest.”
According to Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center (MTAC), Iran, Russia, and China will likely try to influence elections in the US and elsewhere in 2024.
In February, Iranian-Canadian MP Ali Ehsassi called for an investigation into Tehran's possible interference in the election.
“Given the catalog of malign and illegal activities committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran on Canadian soil, it would be naïve to believe that the Iranian regime has any compunction to shape public opinion in Canada,” he wrote to the Foreign Interference Commission, requesting testimony and relevant documents from Iranian-Canadians and others with substantial interests in the case.
