After the airstrikes that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian-Canadian Salar Gholami went to a rally in a Toronto suburb to celebrate the downfall of a leader he fiercely opposed.

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.

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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."

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The CBSA [Canada Border Services Agency] 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.

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