As the travel advisory says, Canada’s ability to provide assistance to Canadians in Iran is non-existent.
Why the false helplessness and mocking? This man has done nothing unexpected in contacting the Canadian government to request help, nor contacting the newspapers if he isn’t being considered.
Again what is outrageous is mocking him for these rational actions.
I’m not sure what Canadian diplomacy with Iran would do in this situation anyways. They’re not prisoners, there just aren’t any flights. The usual maximum assistance for a distressed traveler is a plane ticket (maybe with a loan to pay back after) and that’s worthless right now.
I’m not mocking him. I just find his position to be … unusual.
When war is on, normal government services break down. Governments are limited generally as to what they can do in a foreign country, and given Canada’s history with Iran, that’s even more the case.
When the government warns its citizens not to travel to a foreign country because of the dangers, and warns that the government will not be able to provide assistance to its citizens in that country, that’s pretty serious.
If a citizen ignores those warnings, travels to a country that’s in a state of active hostilities if not war, and then complains that the government isn’t helping them, that strikes me as … difficult to follow.
And I don’t think calling this “red tape” is an accurate description. When war is on, governments lose their ability to provide government services. That’s what war does: a breakdown in government. Poor internet connection, limited telco, closure of the airports; those are all things that war causes. Governments can try to work around those problems, but they’re limited in their ability to do so.
The stupidly “unexpected” thing this moron has done is travel into a war zone in a brutal dictatorship his own country has no diplomatic relationship with, and which his own country has emphatically said not to visit since it will not be able to offer any assistence at all to anyone there. A harsh dictatorship that routinely brutally abuses foreigners as a bargaining ploy. And then plaintively asks “why is no one helping me? I’m stuck in a war zone!” No shit Sherlock, how did that happen?
If he ever gets out, he should also be sacked from his post as a professor. He is too stupid for that.
Unless the visiting professor makes a habit of visiting Iranian nuclear sites, military bases, or government buildings, how much danger is he actually in? Iran is not being bombed indiscriminately or invaded. I’m sure it’s more excitement than he bargained for, but the best course of action would probably be to stay there with his wife and children for now.
Hmmm, looking it up, he is a professor of Applied Sciences and Engineering… (/s, if it isn’t clear)
There’s always the danger of being arrested as a spy. War makes governments paranoid.
I’m sure the current regime’s security forces have tabs on him. He would have been arrested by now if they thought he might be a spy, or wanted to hold him as a political bargaining chip (which would actually be a danger if he were a US Citizen). They aren’t as bad as SAVAK was.
But he knowingly went into a war zone, didn’t he?
I mean, trying to rescue one’s family is a good reason to do so; especially if he had some sort of plan to help them. But if his plan was ‘once I’m there Canada will get us out’, with no advance confirmation from Canada, and in fact clear public warnings that they could do no such thing – that’s not a good plan.
Somewhat inconsistently, but – every time I see that quote I’m reminded of a quote from LeGuin; I think it’s in Rocannon’s World. One character says to another something along the lines of ‘in this situation one person’s life doesn’t matter’. And is answered: “If it doesn’t – what does?”
Possibly informative anecdote: During one of the dust-ups between Iran and Israel in 2024, we had a good friend touring Iran. She is a Turkish citizen, and was traveling with a Turkish tour group. When the bombing started, flights were cancelled and our friend (and the group) got stuck.
Iran and Turkey have a diplomatic relationship (embassies, consulates, etc), but they are not close allies by any means, with competitive interests in Syria and elsewhere. The tour company asked the Turkish government if they could help get the group out. Turkey’s response was, not really, but after a little haggling, they said they could facilitate a land border crossing (Iran and Turkey have a small physical border). The group would be entirely on its own to get to the border, but if they could reach it, Iran had agreed to allow its guards to supervise an exit into Turkish custody. This last didn’t mean Iran expected the Turks to arrest the tourists; it just wanted Turkish officials present to receive the group and confirm they were leaving permanently.
With the help of the tour companies making frantic calls into Iran to guarantee payment, the tour guides managed to secure two buses, which then drove twenty straight hours (drivers working in shifts) to the northwest corner of Iran, where the group finally crossed the border.
This was accomplished due to physical proximity and established business and diplomatic connections, and it was only just achieved. And if Turkey can just barely pull this off, Canada has basically no chance.
Edit to add: It goes without saying the current conflict is much worse than the brief exchanges in 2024. As I mentioned earlier, we have Iranian-American friends currently in Iran, looking for an escape. They can’t even get vehicles to any of the borders. So this Canadian guy needs to hole up, sit tight, and think about his choices.
Wait until he sees his roaming charges from Rogers…
I suspect the online form referred to was for the standard ‘register your stay in a potentially unsafe country and relevant contact data in advance with your nation’s foreign office, just in case’ system. If that was the case, he could have registered with that system at leisure before flying to Iran.
A cursory Web search seems to indicate that there are long distance buses as well as passenger trains (Tehran-Van). Are these closed down for the duration, or booked out? Or is an Iranian visa not valid for the whole country but only for a specified region or preplanned route (as the episode with the Turkish tour group seems to indicate)?
US and Canadian citizens do not need a visa to enter Turkey, so if they could make it to the Turkish border wouldn’t Turkey let them in? Or are there restrictions on the Iranian side limiting where you can leave the country?
We’re not there, but based on our friends’ reports of their status, it’s a combination of factors. Drivers who are willing to be on the road in wartime are scarce (the earlier incidents were much more limited in scale). There’s also no guarantee of getting across the land border; yes, they’re naturalized Americans, but the situation is complex for Iranians, because Iran doesn’t recognize the new citizenship and regards them as Iranians. In everyday circumstances the complexity is winked at and ignored, but these are not everyday circumstances.
The Canadian government would be absolutely stupid risk help someone who traveled to an active warzone in a country that Canada already didn’t have friendly relations with and risk getting into conflict with that country. So it will rightfully not happen.
He needs to learn to take responsibility for his own poor decisions instead of blaming them on his government.
There was a time, a decade or more back when, (may have been Iran, or another troubled mid east site), saw plenty of their wealthy citizens go through the effort to obtain Canadian citizenship. Only to return to a luxurious life back in their homeland. Secure in the knowledge, when crisis comes, the Canadian government is obligated to extract them, whatever the cost. Well it happened, and the government spent a shit ton of money getting out rich folk who had barely spent time in Canada.
Changes were made to immigration policy and to ‘extraction in difficult times’, policy. I believe it’s no longer all on the government dime, and there are now strict limits on how many days you can stay out of the country, to maintain your citizenship in good order.
And limits on mandatory extraordinary lengths, when eminent threats were clear and warnings posted. They’ll still get you out, of course, perhaps not on the schedule you’d like.
Cite?
I can provide an answer to the first question: during the Sadr uprising in Iraq, I took a cab to the Turkish border and was able to walk enter Turkey. The hard part was getting to the border during an uprising.
It was in 2006, during an unsettled time in Lebanon. Garth Turner MP said that many of the Canadian citizens seeking help were just “Canadians of convenience” who never had any plans to live in Canada. It’s not clear if his accounts were correct, or were exaggerated. It resulted to changes to the Citizenship Act, limiting the ability of citizens abroad to pass on their citizenship. Those limitations were struck down a few years ago as being in breach of the Charter. @Eva_Luna can tell you more.
Wikipedia article: