More than 100 Iranian-Canadians call for party probe of Conservative nomination race

More than 100 Iranian-Canadians sent a letter to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Tuesday calling for an investigation of the party's handling of allegations of Iranian regime interference in an Ontario riding nomination race.

Those who signed the letter include academics, physicians and people who lost loved ones on Flight PS752 when it was shot down by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2020.

Kaveh Shahrooz, an outspoken critic of Iran's regime, announced on social media last month that he was withdrawing from the Conservative nomination contest in the federal riding of Richmond Hill. He said he faced «unprecedented» foreign interference and intimidation during his campaign.

Shahrooz also said his pleas to the party for more time to campaign and push back against the interference went «unheeded.»

«While I wish the party well, I would be lying if I said I was not disappointed with their approach to this issue,» Shahrooz wrote in his media statement on February 22.

Shahrooz launched his campaign on February 14. The Conservative Party told party members in Richmond Hill on February 21 that the vote would happen on March 6 and any new party memberships would have to be received by February 23 in order to allow those new members to vote in the nomination.

Shahrooz said that while the party chooses the date of nomination votes, he was left with little time to campaign. He said he wonders if the party «simply wanted to wash their hands clean of a candidate that had become controversial.»

The Conservative Party has not yet responded to CBC's request for comment, submitted Tuesday morning.

The letter to Poilievre says the undersigned are «deeply disappointed by what we perceive as your party's failure to detect and