Photo credit: the Canadian Times
Immigration Minister Lena Diab says she’s accountable after a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps official was granted a visa.
The Canadian Press however reports that she says she didn’t know about the decision made by her department.
Online news outlet Iran International reported Monday that Iranian Football Federation president Mehdi Taj was granted a temporary resident visa that allowed him to enter Canada, despite his ties to the IRGC, which is a listed terrorist entity in Canada.
Speaking to the House of Commons public safety committee Thursday, Diab said the official’s permit was annulled before he landed in Canada.
“We are very much looking forward to learning what happened in this case to ensure it doesn’t happen in the FIFA Games,” she said. “I’m definitely accountable but I would not have been part of that decision making process.”
Ted Gallivan, deputy minister at Immigration, TRefugees and Citizenship Canada, said at the meeting that stopping a high-frisk file at the right time is ideal and that it would have been better to ask swiftly.
Earlier Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney insisted that his government is doing an effective job of keeping Iranians associated with the Islamic Revolutionary GuardCorps out of the country.
When asked Thursday about Taj being denied entry to Canada, Carney said he can’t talk about individual cases due to privacy legislation.
