A senior member of the Iranian regime has been deported from Canada after a judge dismissed his last-minute appeal, Global News has learned.
The Canada Border Services Agency said it had removed Syed Salman Samani, Iran’s former deputy interior minister and official spokesperson.
“As a matter of public interest, the CBSA can confirm that it has removed Syed Salman Samani from Canada,” the agency said in a statement.
He is the second regime official to be expelled under a 2022 policy that banned high-ranking members of Iran’s repressive government from Canada.
Before arriving in Canada in October 2021, Samani was a “career politician” in the Islamic Republic from 2007 to 2021, according to the CBSA.
“The subject demonstrated his commitment and loyalty to the regime throughout his career,” the CBSA wrote in its report on Samani.
The Immigration and Refugee Board ordered his deportation in 2024. The Federal Court rejected his appeal in a decision released this week.
Federal Court Justice Sébastien Grammond wrote that Samani had told the CBSA he “had significant power and influence over government decisions.”
Further, Samani’s ministry oversaw “police forces, which were responsible for the widespread killing of civilians and other human rights abuses,” Grammond wrote.
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As a government spokesperson, Samani “publicly defended the ministry’s conduct” during its 2019 deadly Bloody November crackdown on protesters, the court added.
He also “publicly threatened politicians who were questioning that conduct,” but maintained to the CBSA that he “did nothing wrong during this period.”
Samani had claimed he had decided to leave Iran because of its killing of demonstrators, and said he feared he might be harmed if Canada sent him back to Iran.
But the judge ruled that was unlikely to happen, and was outweighed by Canada’s interests in expelling “those responsible for systematic human rights violations.”
Samani had tried to keep his court appeal secret, but the judge dismissed his application, although it agreed to seal the files on his case due to their sensitivity.
Samani also tried to ban the press from his 2024 deportation hearing, an effort which Global News successfully fought.
Iranian-Canadians have long complained that members of the regime they fled have been turning up in Canada and treating the country as a safe haven.
Ottawa banned all “senior” officials of the Iranian government from entering Canada four years ago but has struggled to deport them.
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According to figures released on June 30, the CBSA has launched 181 investigations into suspected “senior officials of the Iranian regime” living in Canada.
“To date, the CBSA have identified 37 individuals that are believed to be senior officials of the regime,” the agency said on its website.
Eight of them left Canada before their deportations hearings began. The IRB has issued deportation orders against three more on the grounds they were top regime members.
Another seven were found by the IRB to not be senior regime members. Nine remain before the IRB, while the CBSA is preparing cases against another ten.
Fifty-five are still being investigated.
“Samani’s deportation is a welcome and necessary enforcement,” the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights said in a statement Wednesday.
“However, he is only the second senior Iranian regime official to be removed since the government’s 2022 designation. The law must now be enforced consistently against other senior regime officials who may be present in Canada.”
A CBSA spokesperson said the agency continued to take action to stop Iranian regime members “from seeking or finding safe haven in Canada.”
A record 23,160 foreign nationals were removed from Canada in 2025, and the agency is currently “currently executing approximately 400 removal orders per week,” the spokesperson said.
The agency has hired more enforcement officers “to expedite the processing of inadmissible foreign nationals facing removal from Canada,” the CBSA added.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
One less Liberal voter in Canada. It’s a start.
I support Israel and I refuse to turn a blind eye to what certain surrounding countries have subjected Israel’s people to over the millennia.
Just ask yourself, what would ISRAEL do, then do the same
Israel will take care of him, they do things RIGHT
Trumpmeister will get him
Clowny and turdeau ate out his azz before he left
Yeehaw hahaha 😂
My Canadian governments are corrupt Zionists and complicit in genocide! Who do they think they fool. Free Palestine!
One down, 699 to go.
Interesting to see all the attacks on Poilievre event though he is not the Prime Minister and doesn’t have the power to guide the trade negotiations.
Some people say if there is no trade deal Canadians will demand an election and that’s why the attacks on Poilievre have already started.
He’ll be 69ing supreme leader mile underground next week, till Trump gets those facks with Nuke
Still not enough they need to send more criminals and illegals home
Benoit aka Bendover, Benyimen, etc. HOW IS carney protecting us? One terrorist deported? One?! I hat about the bishnoi gang, what is that 2,000? Your posts are more deranged every day.
Funny listening to old clips of PP’s view on immigrants. He was showcasing Vietnamese students and hope they will eventually reside in Canada and told reporters how the students plan to become Conservative members. Funny stuff and there are more clips.
Good riddance , hopefully unalive soon
@mike
Despite the long list of court rulings against them there are still Canadians stupid enough to believe the LPC cares about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canada is being invaded and ruined because we are afraid of hurting peoples’ feelings. If that were the plot of a movie, everyone would call it terrible and unrealistic writing, but here we are.
why doesn’t Canada expel Canada from Canada for all its human right violations like imports from China and supporting child labour? why not ban all Canadians for their hypocrisy from Canada ?
Just one? This is what we get after 11 years of incompetence.
He should have sucked trumps cork
Glad to see the Carney government is protecting us.
Good riddance. These terrorists with their garbage Islamic ideology have no place in Canada.
Good
Now round up.all the other terrorists and wanabees and ship them out as well
lots more to go