Iran wants Canada to let it open consulates across the country, something a Canadian policy currently blocks.
It’s a move some Iranian diaspora members say they would welcome, as it’s inconvenient to now have all their consular services routed through Iran’s single four-floor Ottawa mission.
But they also recognize potential risks. They point to potential security problems and the possible monitoring of Canadian activists. Canada should only do it if it is in Canada’s best interests, they say. And that may mean negotiating for Iranian concessions.
At a time when Canada-Iran relations are strained, the Canadian government does not appear to be budging from its current limited engagement policy.
As part of a wide-ranging interview late last month, Iranian Chargé d’Affaires Kambiz Sheikh-Hassani told Embassy his mission wants to open consulates in different Canadian cities. Vancouver—more than 4,000 kilometres from Iran’s Ottawa embassy, and home to a sizeable Iranian community—is the first priority location.
By Mr. Sheikh-Hassani’s estimates, Canada is home to 400,000 Iranians, including more than 150,000 in Toronto, about 120,000 in Vancouver, and about 70,000 in the Montreal area.
Others say those numbers are too high.
“My understanding is that there are fewer than 100,000 ex-pat Iranians in Canada—which includes individuals of Iranian descent,” said Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, in an email.
Statistics Canada counted an Iranian immigrant population of about 92,000 in 2006. But it also marked an upward trend in the number of Iranians immigrating to Canada in recent years. Citizenship and Immigration Canada figures show between about 6,000 and 7,000 Iranians per year were accepted as permanent residents to Canada in the last decade.
Iranians in Canada must now maintain government documents in Canada through the country’s Ottawa embassy. Most can be processed by mail from faraway places, but some people feel uncomfortable sending their passports or birth certificates through the mail. And the embassy noted in a follow-up statement that the issuance of an Iranian birth certificate or power of attorney for valuable transactions must be completed and signed in person.
“To respond to such urgent needs, [the embassy] at times has to go to the extra mile, like [through] our October 2011 visit to Vancouver in which 400 cases of in the field service was provided in a [48-hour] tour,” said the statement.
The embassy has in the past set up shop to conduct consular services out of a hotel remotely.
Acknowledging there are “very few” Canadians living in Iran, the embassy noted that if Canada were to accept Iran’s consulate request, it would give Canada the opportunity to have a consulate in an Iranian city, “but, our offers so far have been rejected by Canadian governments.”
Controlled Engagement Policy
Canada currently has a Controlled Engagement Policy governing its economic and political relations with Iran. The policy limits Canada’s contact with the Islamic republic. It prohibits the opening of Iranian consulates and cultural centres, and bars the establishment of direct air links between the two countries.
In 2005, Canada tightened the policy so that now, from Canada’s perspective, official contact between the two countries is limited to only four subjects: human rights in Iran; Iran’s nuclear program; the case of a Canadian killed in an Iranian prison in 2003; and Iran’s role in the region.
Canada in 2010 adopted a controlled engagement policy to govern its relations with North Korea as well. North Korea, however, doesn’t have an embassy in Canada. Canada also doesn’t count as large a North Korean immigrant community.
Canada’s relations with Iran have slumped further in recent weeks. Canada on Nov. 21 imposed deeper sanctions on Iran than the ones it had already.
The Canadian government said it was responding to an international nuclear watchdog agency’s report, which said “Iran has carried out…activities that are relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device.”
After the subsequent storming of the UK embassy in Tehran, a Canadian official met with Mr. Sheikh-Hassani to express Canada’s concerns.
Canada’s chargé d’affaires in Tehran, alongside European ambassadors, visited the ransacked British residential compound and embassy grounds.
In that tense context, Iranian-born Royal Military College of Canada professor Houchang Hassan-Yari, said he doubts the Iranians will get their way anytime soon.
“It would serve the Iranian-Canadian community by creating maybe two or three consulates. But I don’t think it’s going to happen, especially now that the Conservatives are in power in Ottawa and they are much more forceful in pushing the international community to condemn [Iran's behaviour].”
Mr. Hassan-Yari, who is head of the politics and economics department at the college, noted that if Canada were to consider the request, it should consult the Iranian-Canadian community to see whether they want the consulates.
Behnam Esfahanizadeh, president of the Iranian Canadian Congress, wrote in an email that “The opening of an office that issues certified documents for Iranian-Canadians will certainly save our community time and money, especially for those Iranians who travel frequently to Iran for visit.”
But, he noted, “In a city-region with a large and diverse Iranian-Canadian community, such a move poses its own challenges.”
There is the danger that more consulates would mean more embassy staff who conduct a degree of intelligence activities in the host country, said Mr. Hassan-Yari. That could mean, in an extreme case, the spying on diaspora community members, he said.
Other community members noted that Canada would have to think about the additional security it would be required to provide to such a controversial country.
Mr. Fogel said he doesn’t see a need for an expanded Iranian presence in Canada, and there is a legitimate concern about new consulates serving as platforms for monitoring activities of Iranian activists.
If Canada considers the request, said Mr. Hassan-Yari, it could use the opportunity to raise its concerns about Iran and get concessions from the Iranian government.
Deepak Obhrai, a parliamentary secretary to the foreign affairs minister, when asked whether he was open to allowing consulates, said on Dec. 5: “At this current time…we have a controlled engagement [policy] with Iran. We will continue with our controlled engagement.”
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