I wanted to get a little history, some perspective as to the relatuons between these countries. The degeneration of any positive coexistance had started to become eroded back in 2003 when a Canadian citizen died in an Iranian prison. "The frosty relations between the two capitals became even more restrained in 2003 when an Iranian-Canadian photographer, Zahra Kazemi, died while in jail in Iran. Iran said she died of a stroke but Canada insisted she died under torture because of a skull fracture. A number of Iranian-Canadians are currently held behind bars in Iran, including Hamid Ghassemi-Shall who is facing execution after being convicted of espionage, a charge his family say is trumped-up."
Further, "Payam Akhavan, a professor of international law at McGill University in Montreal, said the recent row was the worst crisis in bilateral relations between Tehran and Ottawa for many years. "I think the closure of Iranian embassy in Ottawa should be seen in the context of concerns by the Canadian government about the Islamic republic's recent activities in its Ottawa mission, including using it to establish wider presence in Canada through a series of ostensibly cultural activities, at universities and other institutes and infiltrating the Iranian diaspora and neutralising opposition to the regime," he said."
Canada cuts diplomatic ties with Iran | World news | The Guardian
