Sawt Falasteen - Unease for Iranian-Canadians after shooting at ayatollah critic's gym

Then, in the early hours of March 1, someone fired 17 shots at his boxing gym, which was empty at the time but is often full of children he teaches to fight.

The bullet holes, marked by numbered police tape, were still visible outside the building in Richmond Hill on a rainy morning three weeks after the shooting, which has drawn renewed attention to the alleged presence of Iranian government officials inside Canada, including members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Gholami is a physically imposing former competitive fighter aged 32 who describes himself as an activist within Canada's large Iranian diaspora. He wants the Tehran government brought down.

His gym includes multiple portraits of Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran's last shah.

Gholami told AFP he was shocked by the shooting.

"I thought Canada is safe," he said, next to sweets spread out on the boxing ring's mat, part of festivities marking the Persian New Year, called Nowruz.

Asked who he believed was responsible, Gholami said: "For sure, (the) Islamic republic."

- 'Top priority' -

York Regional Police told AFP the "investigation into the shooting remains ongoing and the motive behind it is still unknown."

Police say a person observed at the scene wearing dark clothes is considered a suspect but remains at large. They did not share information linking the crime to a foreign government.

Following the shooting, Gholami and other Iranian-Canadians met federal Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree.

Anandasangaree's office did not reply to a request for comment, but in a March 15 interview with CTV he confirmed meeting Gholami and said rooting out IRGC members from Canada "is the top priority of the CBSA (Canadian Border Services Agency)."

- Deportations -

Toronto, and the large suburban communities that surround it, are home to one of the world's largest Iranian diaspora communities -- some jokingly refer to Canada's largest city as "Teheranto."

Concern about Iranian government presence grew after June 2024, when Canada listed the IRGC as a "terrorist entity."

But the issue has received outsized attention since the outbreak of the war that began on February 28 with US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

The CBSA told AFP that as of March 5 it had reviewed about 17,800 visa applications over possible inadmissibility to Canada due to involvement with the Tehran government.

From that group, 239 issued visas were cancelled -- individuals who never came to Canada.

Regarding people in Canada, dozens of investigations are ongoing but 32 people have already been ordered to leave "for being a senior official in the Iranian regime," the CBSA said.

Four left voluntarily after learning Canada intended to remove them, one was deported, and immigration proceedings are ongoing against others.

- 'Tough guy' -

The opposition Conservative Party has accused Prime Minister Mark Carney of not doing enough.

"There have always been conflicts abroad, but we have never seen them spill out onto the streets in the way it has under this Liberal government," deputy Conservative Leader Melissa Lantsman said in a statement.

She charged that "the Liberals have known for years that there are hundreds of Iranian regime officials in Canada," but have failed to act with the urgency required.

Lantsman's office declined an interview request but she told Canadian media this month that Iranian constituents in her suburban Toronto district report feeling "terrified of the (pro-government) activists we have on soil."

Joe Adam George, a national security analyst at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a conservative Ottawa think-tank, has warned of a steadily increasing IRGC presence in Canada and said the country has proven useful for money laundering.

In a March 12 op-ed for the National Post he said "Canada can no longer ignore Iran's dangerous shadow network."

But George told AFP it is "unlikely" the gym shooting was perpetrated by Iranian government agents.

They wouldn't risk getting caught for something like shooting at an empty building, he said.

"These are likely the actions of individuals who are sympathetic to the regime," George said.

Gholami said the shooting would not dissuade him from further activism, even if personal security was increasingly front-of-mind.

"I'm a tough guy," he said. But "for sure I want to protect myself, protect my friends."

H.Darwish--SF-PST