They Let a Terrorist In: How the Liberals Issued a Travel Permit to a Former IRGC Commander

Canada's Immigration Ministry issued a temporary resident permit to Mehdi Taj — president of Iran's Football Federation and a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terrorist organization in Canada since 2024. His delegation flew to Toronto before the permit was cancelled mid-flight. Immigration Minister Lena Diab says she's "accountable." She also says she had no idea it happened until after the fact.

Let's be precise about what the IRGC is. In 2024, the Government of Canada formally designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code. That designation was not symbolic. Under Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, senior Iranian government officials — including serving and former IRGC members — are explicitly inadmissible to Canada. Not "discouraged." Not subject to case-by-case review. Inadmissible.

Mehdi Taj has served as a commander in that organization. He is currently the president of the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. On Tuesday, April 28, 2026, Taj and a delegation of Iranian soccer officials boarded a flight to Canada to attend the annual FIFA Congress in Vancouver — a gathering of more than 200 national soccer associations. They did so with Canadian-issued travel documents.

Someone in the Liberal government gave them those documents.

The Minister Had No Idea

Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab spent an hour Thursday in front of a parliamentary committee fielding pointed questions about how this happened. Her answer, repeated in different forms throughout the hearing: she's accountable, but she wasn't involved in the decision.

"I'm definitely accountable. But I would not have been part of that decision-making process," she told Conservative MP Dane Lloyd.

The minister of immigration — the person constitutionally responsible for who enters Canada — was not part of the decision to issue a temporary resident permit to a former commander of a listed terrorist organization. She found out after the fact.

The delegation was eventually turned around at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. Iranian state-affiliated media confirmed Taj and his group were denied entry. Diab told committee that his documents were cancelled while he was mid-flight. "The individual had no status to come into Canada. By the time they landed, they left."

The Liberal government's deputy minister of immigration, Ted Gallivan, went further: "Decisions are made based on the information available. It's clear in this case that the decision made wasn't the one that we wanted." He told the committee this "shouldn't happen again."

Foreign Affairs Called It "Unintentional"

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, asked about the incident a day earlier, offered the government's most candid admission: "It was unintentional." She confirmed the permit had been revoked but said it wasn't her department's lead file.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, asked about it Thursday at a news conference in Oakville, said he couldn't comment on individual cases. He defended Canada's immigration system as having "multiple hurdles" and assured Canadians that IRGC members are "prohibited from entering this country."

They were — in law. In practice, someone issued Mehdi Taj a document that allowed him to board a plane to Toronto.

The System Didn't Catch It. Journalists Did.

The story was first broken by Iran International, which reported that sources inside the Canadian government confirmed Taj had been issued a temporary resident permit — the discretionary document that allows otherwise inadmissible foreign nationals to enter Canada. The Liberal government did not proactively disclose the error. It did not notify Parliament. It did not issue a press release.

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner didn't mince words: "There's no planet on which a high ranking member, a member of a listed terrorist organization, should be given a permit to come to this country. They made a conscious decision." She said Canadians who follow these cases closely are watching a system that looks like a "dumpster fire."

The Liberals' response — "it was unintentional," "this shouldn't happen again," "I'm accountable but wasn't involved" — is the accountability-without-consequences formula this government has perfected over a decade.

Why It Matters Beyond the Headlines

This is not primarily a story about one soccer official. It is a story about the structural failure of Canada's immigration and national security apparatus — and the Liberal government's refusal to take genuine responsibility for that failure.

Canada previously came under fire after it emerged that 24 individuals linked to the IRGC were deemed inadmissible on Canadian soil, yet only one was deported. The system that is supposed to screen, flag, and remove individuals who represent a national security risk has a documented history of failure under Liberal management. When those failures are exposed — by journalists, not by the government itself — ministers appear before committees to offer elegant non-apologies, pledge process reviews, and move on.

A temporary resident permit is a discretionary document. It requires a deliberate decision by a government official. Someone in the Liberal government's immigration bureaucracy made a deliberate decision to issue that document to a former IRGC commander. The minister responsible says she doesn't know who made the call. The deputy minister says the decision was wrong. And the Prime Minister says he can't comment on individual cases.

The FIFA World Cup comes to Canada in June and July. Hundreds of thousands of international visitors will arrive, including delegations from countries with complex national security profiles. If this is the standard of screening the Liberal government operates at — catching errors mid-flight after journalists break the story — Canadians have every reason to ask hard questions about what gets through.