Federal Government Extends Ban on Senior Iranian Officials Back to 2003

Demonstrators protest against Iran outside the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, on July 26, 2004. The Canadian Press/Fred Chartrand

The federal government is expanding a measure that bans tens of thousands of Iranian officials from entering Canada as part of an effort to hold the regime accountable for human-rights violations.

On Sunday, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced that any senior official who served in the Iranian government at any time since June 23, 2003 is now inadmissible to Canada. The decision extends a previous ban, announced in November 2022, that denied entry to those in the top echelons of the Iranian regime dating back to 2019.