See No Evil, Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil

"Allowing Morteza Talaei to freely enter Canada sends a dangerous message, a message that is an affront to Iranians who have themselves sought refuge in Canada."

"Human rights violators must not be included in the Prime Minister's 'everyone is welcome' campaign."

"[Canada should not be offering a safe haven and] impunity abroad [to individuals like Talaei]."

Coalition of Iranian rights groups, open letter to Canadian government

 

"In our campaign, we will confront women showing their bare legs in short pants."

"We are also going to combat women wearing skimpy head scarves, short and form-fitting coats and the ones walking pets in parks and streets."

Morteza Talaei, former Tehran Chief of Police, former IRGC member

 

"I have a lot of q1uestions for [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau."

"this is a scandal ... It threatens Canada's security when you permit someone like this to enter the country."

Iranian jouranalist Abdollah Abdi, Switzerland

Then-Tehran police chief General Morteza Talaei in 2002, left, and at a Richmond Hill, Ont., gym last year. Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl / Reuters // Abdollah Abdi / Abdimedia

Canada's former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper had no illusions over the role of the Islamic Republic of Iran in sponsoring terrorist groups, in ordering their proxy militias to commit brutal acts abroad on their behalf, in stalking and intimidating Iranians who declared themselves refugees from Iran to settle in Canada as Canadian citizens. The Iranian embassy in Ottawa and its consular division in Toronto were engaged in propaganda harmful to Canada and to democracies everywhere. He took the required steps to usher Iran's diplomatic corps out of Canada and to shutter their diplomatic missions.

 

When Justin Trudeau became prime minister of the country in 2015 he expressed an intention to restore relations with Iran and invite them to re-open their diplomatic missions in Canada. This, despite Iran's ongoing meddling in the affairs of other countries, its threats against other countries, the actions of its Revolutionary Guard Corps, its proxy Hezbollah, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, destabilizing the Middle East and threatening the area with its expanding fleet of medium--range missiles, and its worrying nuclear program.

 

Iranian-born Canadian photojournalist Zahra Karemi was arrested, tortured and murdered in a Tehran prison in 2003 while Morteza Talaei was the capital's chief of police. No fewer than 176 passengers and crew were killed when the Iranian Republican Guard Corps shot two missiles at a Ukraine Airlines flight leaving Tehran in January 2020. Most of the plane passengers were en route to Canada through Ukraine; Canadian citizens or Iranian students with study visas. Iran refused to take responsibility.

Now, this man is in Canada, having been granted a visa to visit with his daughter who lives just north of Toronto. With an abysmal human rights record, how a visitor visa was granted is beyond belief, particularly when relatives of some of the Iranians who died while returning to Canada were refused visas to Canada to attend their loved ones' anniversary memorials. 

 

Iranian journalist Abdollah Abdi, living in Switzerland, was sent a video taken in a Richmond Hill gym several months back. "I have a lot of questions for [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau. This is a scandal -- it threatens Canada's security when you permit someone like this to enter the country", he said. The brother of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman shot to death by a Iranian militia member at the Green movement demonstrations in 2009 in Tehran, was refused entry to Canada.

The video of this Iranian former chief of Tehran's police working out at the Movati Athletic club in Richmond Hill has been viewed over 1.8 million times, presumably with disbelief, and triggering 9,000 comments. Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad commented: "It made Iranian people furious. I really want Canadians to do an investigation about how he got a visa."

While it is unknown whether Talaei was involved directly or indirectly with the detention and death of Zahra Kazemi, he was an integral part of the law enforcement system at the time in Tehran. In 2006 he deployed 50 cruisers around Tehran to enforce the strict dress code for women, along with rules against dog ownership. As a 'morality' enforcer, he appears to have developed a blind eye in proximity to female flesh revealed in a gym setting.

In contacting Talaei, Abdollah Abdi, the journalist who broke the story, had asked how he had obtained the visa. In response, he said, Talaei made veiled threats, accusing him of being a member of the anti-Tehran Mujahedin-e-Khalq group, telling the journalist that he knew who his parents were, and where they live, in Iran.