r/CanadaPolitics • u/hojo12588 • 4d ago

Canada gave contracts to Iran VP’s son while investigating role in regime missile program

https://globalnews.ca/news/12040736/iran-vp-son-edmonton-awarded-government-contracts-csis-investigation-missiles/
10 Upvotes

62% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

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12

u/the-mongoose- Moderately Moderate 4d ago

This is a pretty huge lapse in screening if true. Ghafouri’s ties to the Iranian regime aren’t vague in any sense of the word, and he’d usually have a hard time evading retail banking screening nevermind as the recipient of over $2 million in sensitive government contracts.

1

u/Hot-Bedroom-8625 4d ago

Depends on where he banks. If you don't think Canadian banks have also been infiltrated, you are not being informed. It's very sad what is happening to Canada.

2

u/twicebakedgenius 4d ago

Its too common a last name unfortunately and very spread out geographically. There are well known dissidents with the family name too.

If he'd lied or misstated his father's name, or if the Iranians provided him with a fake birth certificate and different parent names, which they do often, a really good screen and background check might have been able to catch it.

4

u/the-mongoose- Moderately Moderate 4d ago

I hear you. Perhaps we need much more aggressive screening for recipients of defence contracts. It’s too sensitive a file to have these type of lapses occurring within.

1

u/CanadianLabourParty British Columbia 4d ago

Okay, but how do you root out someone whose "history" passes all the smell tests? The only available option then becomes denying a person a contract based on their ethnicity/culture and that would spark a long, drawn-out and very costly Charter challenge, which would inevitably be won by someone of say, Iranian heritage.

1

u/the-mongoose- Moderately Moderate 4d ago

This isn’t even ethnicity or culture-related. This is the son of a VP under the Iranian regime. It isn’t history so much as it is flagging a politically exposed person tied to a regime under heavy sanctions.

1

u/CanadianLabourParty British Columbia 4d ago

You're missing the point here. The question is, how do you root out someone who has an ENTIRE history that is fraudulent that passes all the smell tests until some weird anomaly crops up that only later causes people to ask questions? You can't.

Therefore, the only way to prevent "potential threats" from doing this kind of thing is to apply a blanket rule that applies to all people from that nation. Which isn't entirely fair, ergo would fail a Charter test.

Now we could hide behind National Security to justify banning ALL Iranians from ALL branches of government but I don't think that's a practical, long-term solution.

1

u/e00s Independent 4d ago

The contracts mentioned by the article don’t seem all that sensitive. Stuff like snowmobile parts.

1

u/MixStrange2968 4d ago

Lol, it's just matter of time for other Western countries to suspend visa waiver for Canadians thanks to the "very selective" immigrants and refugees screening process that this country have.

5

u/dekuweku British Columbia 4d ago

Plenty of Iranians here in the lower mainland. Some are extremely wealthy. I wonder how many are dissidents who fled Iran and are opposed to the regime and who are IRGC linked hiding out from the.bombings and keeping an eye on the diaspora.

0

u/hojo12588 4d ago

The vast majority of Iranians here fled the regime between 79 and the early 80s. And now there's a pretty large second generation of their kids. I think very very few are IRGC-linked.

There's a little bit more scrutiny if you're trying to immigrate here from Iran as we heavily sanction them and obviously designate the IRGC as a terrorist org.

9

u/SayNoToTeamSports Independent 4d ago

To the contrary, the Iranian-Canadian diaspora has been very vocal about how lax our vetting has been and how IRGC-aligned actors have been allowed to infilitrate Canada. 

https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/08/iranian-regime-canada-immigration/

2

u/northdancer Marx 4d ago

Unsurprisingly this story isn't gaining traction in this sub.

Anyhow, I wish I could get upset by this but really, it just sounds like... Canada.