him against the government over allegations he worked for an organization run by the Pasdaran and also spied on Iranians in Canada.
Mohammad Jahazi was a scientist at the Canadian National Research Council’s Institute for Aerospace Research in Ottawa. In 2008, Jahazi left Canada after Ottawa rejected his immigration application. citing security issues.
Federal immigration officials informed the Iranian scientist they suspected he had been a part of Tehran’s efforts to acquire arms; they also accused Jahazi of supplying information to Tehran on Iranian dissidents in Canada and Europe.
But in a March 8 ruling, Justice Yves de Montigny of the Federal Court of Canada set aside the Immigration Department’s ruling against Jahazi and sent it back for another determination.
Alykhan Velshi, spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, told Canada’s National Post, “We’re disappointed by the ruling. As ordered, this matter will be considered by another decision-maker in accordance with the Federal Court’s decision.”
He said, “The government’s position before the Federal Court was that Mr. Jahazi was inadmissible to Canada under section 34(1)(f ) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act as a member of an organization engaged in subversive activities and was associated with groups engaged in terrorist activities and subversion.”
While Justice Montigny allowed Jahazi’s appeal, he did not allow Jahazi to return to Canada while the case is under review, saying his dispute with Ottawa “does not extend him any right of entry.”
According to Velshi, Ottawa found discrepancies in Jahazi’s account of his past and travel history. Ottawa also reportedly found that publicly available documentation linked his Iranian employers with arms sales to terrorist groups. But Justice Montigny ruled that the government’s case against Jahazi had relied on “dubious information found on the Internet and on inconclusive reports from other government agencies,” and therefore allowed the defendant’s appeal.
Jahazi was born in Iran in 1959 and immigrated to France in 1977 to pursue his education. He eventually moved to Canada and received his Ph.D. from McGill University in Montreal. He remained in Canada for several years, where his oldest son was born in 1989. Jahazi returned to Iran in 1990 and worked at Tarbiat Modarres University, which was founded in 1982, while also working part-time at the Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IRO).
In 2001, he went back to Canada on a work permit and was employed at McGill University and then at the NRC.
He applied for immigrant status in 2001. After being interviewed by Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) officers, his application was rejected on security grounds for allegedly being a member of an organization engaged in espionage, subversion and terrorism.
The government did not name the terrorist organization, but immigration officials claimed the university in Iran where Jahazi had worked was under the control of the Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guard).
Immigration officials also said the IRO where Jahazi worked in Iran was implicated in the production of weapons of mass destruction. The case was based partly on confidential information that Jahazi was not allowed to see.
The CSIS interviewed Jahazi at the Canadian consulate in Buffalo, New York, the closest he was able to get to Canada. The National Post said CSIS asked him whether he had been approached by the Iranian intelligence service, whether he had contact with Iranian diplomats, whether he had links to Islamic student associations, and what role he played at Iranian research facilities that he was employed at.
According to the National Post, Jahazi claimed he held only a junior position in Iran, that he had never been asked to provide information to Iranian authorities and that he was a specialist in his field and could make an important contribution to Canadian industry.