Federal cabinet minister Maryam Monsef says she was shocked to find out she was born in Iran — not Afghanistan — but political opponents in her riding are challenging her claim and alleging her true birth country has “been known for quite a while.”
Yet, one of Monsef’s first cousins said Thursday that he and his immediate family members weren’t aware that she born in Iran, and while a “shock” to them, it “is not a big deal.”
Monsef is also facing calls from a Conservative leadership contender to consider stepping aside from cabinet while an investigation can be completed.
ON THE DEFENSIVE
Monsef, the 31-year-old federal Minister of Democratic Institutions, was forced on the defensive Thursday after acknowledging she was born in Iran and that the narrative she has built of being the first Afghan-born Member of Parliament — something trumpeted by the Liberals — isn’t true.
The Peterborough, Ont.-area MP said she learned only last week from her mother that she was born in Mashhad, Iran, and not in Herat, Afghanistan, like she has been led to believe her entire life.
The Liberal minister said Thursday that the first she heard of her birthplace being questioned was last week when the Toronto-based Globe and Mail phoned her office to ask where she was born.
Monsef said in an interview with Postmedia that she then left a phone message with her mother, Soriya Basir.
Monsef said she was shocked.
"It was a lot to take in, all at once," she told Postmedia. "It took me a few hours to get back in that car."
The Prime Minister’s Office, which was caught off guard, did not comment Thursday and directed reporters to a statement Monsef released early in the day.
IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Monsef appeared visibly shaken Thursday night in Prince Edward Island when faced with questions about when she found out she was born in Iran.
Her voice wavered as she described how the controversy about her background has affected her personally.
"I'm experiencing a wide range of emotions over the past week and especially today," Monsef told The Guardian’s Teresa Wright.
"There's been an outpouring of support and I do appreciate it.”
When asked to respond to reports that it was known to some people in her community that she was born in Iran and not Afghanistan, Monsef carefully pointed out she was never considered an Iranian citizen.
"I wish I knew, and if I did have an Iranian background we would have been able to settle in Iran. We were not recognized as Afghan citizens in that country as is the case for many relatives and family friends who still live there as refugees."
‘ABSOLUTELY NOT’ STEPPING DOWN
Monsef said she would "absolutely not" consider stepping down from cabinet.
In an interview, the cabinet minister said she has learned that her family lived in Herat, Afghanistan, for three months in 1987-88, and again for 2 1/2 years from 1993 to 1996.
When Herat fell to the Taliban in September 1995, the widowed Basir fled to Canada with her three daughters.
But Monsef said she was born an Afghan citizen by dint of her parents being Afghan.
It doesn't make her Iranian that she was born on Iranian soil, she said — that's not how it works there. It's the parents' nationality that counts, she said.
And her mother never told her the truth about her birthplace because she didn't think it mattered much.
"Because in her mind, in her culture, legally, I was born an Afghan citizen," Monsef said.
"Our family is Afghan, our clothes are Afghan, our rugs are Afghan — to her, it didn't make a difference."
Monsef said her mother now regrets she didn't tell her daughter the truth sooner.
Yet Monsef's story of fleeing her native Afghanistan was a central part of her campaign when she ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Peterborough in 2014.
MAYOR RECALLS
Mayor Daryl Bennett said he recalls one debate during the campaign, where Monsef described herself as a person “of Persian descent” — not Afghan. It gave Bennett pause that she didn’t mention Afghanistan.
“But in Canada, it truly shouldn’t matter where you are born,” he said.
The story was also a big part of her campaign when she won in the 2015 federal election.
Michael Skinner, who ran as a Conservative against Monsef in the general election in 2015, said he was told during the campaign, by former classmates, that Monsef was in fact born in Iran.
“We definitely heard rumours,” Skinner told Postmedia. “But at no point in time did the campaign have any evidence — it was rumour. So we decided to ignore it.”
“Basically they were saying that she’d changed where she was born, during her school years, because Afghanistan had more recognition,” he said.
Skinner said that at one point, he even received an anonymous letter slipped under his door that repeated the rumour, but he didn’t use it against her.
MONSEF WASN’T BORN IN AFGHANISTAN: DEL MASTRO
Dean Del Mastro, the former Conservative MP who was convicted of overspending on his campaign in 2008, said people who run political campaigns in Peterborough all knew that Monsef wasn’t born in Afghanistan.
“That’s been known for quite a while,” he said. “This story that she’s just learned is not true … It’s not a new revelation. It’s been closely held in political circles. It’s been known.”
Meanwhile, Conservative MP and leadership contender Tony Clement said Thursday an investigation is required to confirm Monsef’s explanation of events, how the birthplace mix-up was missed by the federal security vetting and whether citizenship laws were violated.
“It’s a very strange story and there has to be more of an investigation” into whether a “false affidavit” was used as a statement of declaration for Monsef to be granted Canadian citizenship, he said.
“I’m not saying that she misrepresented, I’m just saying that there was a false affidavit somewhere that was signed that we have to find out what the circumstances were around that,” he said.
Monsef “should consider seriously stepping aside if there is going to be an investigation,” he added.
RIGOROUS VETTING
Incoming cabinet ministers go through a “rigorous vetting process,” the Privy Council Office (PCO) said in a statement Thursday. “The same process is in place for all members of cabinet in this government, and has been in place for a number of years.”
It includes criminal background checks by the RCMP and by the Canada Revenue Agency for bankruptcies or financial insolvencies.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) does automated record checks of its databases for what’s called “adverse intelligence traces” related to non-criminal matters from espionage to terrorism and subversion. The service will typically ask allied security intelligence agencies to check names against their databases, as well.
But CSIS can only go so far, especially in such places as Afghanistan and Iran, where there are either no government records or reliable government agencies on which to rely and where the fog of war lingers.
And unless CSIS has a pressing reason, it would not dispatch intelligence officers to the region to check on something as seemingly mundane as an incoming cabinet minister’s stated place of birth.
With files by Jason Fekete, Ottawa Citizen; Joelle Kovach, Peterborough Examiner; Teresa Wright, The Guardian; David Akin, National Post; and Ian MacLeod, Ottawa Citizen.
Federal cabinet minister Maryam Monsef says she was shocked to find out she was born in Iran — not Afghanistan — but political opponents in her riding are challenging her claim and alleging her true birth country has “been known for quite a while.”
Yet, one of Monsef’s first cousins said Thursday that he and his immediate family members weren’t aware that she born in Iran, and while a “shock” to them, it “is not a big deal.”
Monsef is also facing calls from a Conservative leadership contender to consider stepping aside from cabinet while an investigation can be completed.
ON THE DEFENSIVE
Monsef, the 31-year-old federal Minister of Democratic Institutions, was forced on the defensive Thursday after acknowledging she was born in Iran and that the narrative she has built of being the first Afghan-born Member of Parliament — something trumpeted by the Liberals — isn’t true.
The Peterborough, Ont.-area MP said she learned only last week from her mother that she was born in Mashhad, Iran, and not in Herat, Afghanistan, like she has been led to believe her entire life.
The Liberal minister said Thursday that the first she heard of her birthplace being questioned was last week when the Toronto-based Globe and Mail phoned her office to ask where she was born.
Monsef said in an interview with Postmedia that she then left a phone message with her mother, Soriya Basir.
Monsef said she was shocked.
"It was a lot to take in, all at once," she told Postmedia. "It took me a few hours to get back in that car."
The Prime Minister’s Office, which was caught off guard, did not comment Thursday and directed reporters to a statement Monsef released early in the day.
IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Monsef appeared visibly shaken Thursday night in Prince Edward Island when faced with questions about when she found out she was born in Iran.
Her voice wavered as she described how the controversy about her background has affected her personally.
"I'm experiencing a wide range of emotions over the past week and especially today," Monsef told The Guardian’s Teresa Wright.
"There's been an outpouring of support and I do appreciate it.”
When asked to respond to reports that it was known to some people in her community that she was born in Iran and not Afghanistan, Monsef carefully pointed out she was never considered an Iranian citizen.
"I wish I knew, and if I did have an Iranian background we would have been able to settle in Iran. We were not recognized as Afghan citizens in that country as is the case for many relatives and family friends who still live there as refugees."
‘ABSOLUTELY NOT’ STEPPING DOWN
Monsef said she would "absolutely not" consider stepping down from cabinet.
In an interview, the cabinet minister said she has learned that her family lived in Herat, Afghanistan, for three months in 1987-88, and again for 2 1/2 years from 1993 to 1996.
When Herat fell to the Taliban in September 1995, the widowed Basir fled to Canada with her three daughters.
But Monsef said she was born an Afghan citizen by dint of her parents being Afghan.
It doesn't make her Iranian that she was born on Iranian soil, she said — that's not how it works there. It's the parents' nationality that counts, she said.
And her mother never told her the truth about her birthplace because she didn't think it mattered much.
"Because in her mind, in her culture, legally, I was born an Afghan citizen," Monsef said.
"Our family is Afghan, our clothes are Afghan, our rugs are Afghan — to her, it didn't make a difference."
Monsef said her mother now regrets she didn't tell her daughter the truth sooner.
Yet Monsef's story of fleeing her native Afghanistan was a central part of her campaign when she ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Peterborough in 2014.
MAYOR RECALLS
Mayor Daryl Bennett said he recalls one debate during the campaign, where Monsef described herself as a person “of Persian descent” — not Afghan. It gave Bennett pause that she didn’t mention Afghanistan.
“But in Canada, it truly shouldn’t matter where you are born,” he said.
The story was also a big part of her campaign when she won in the 2015 federal election.
Michael Skinner, who ran as a Conservative against Monsef in the general election in 2015, said he was told during the campaign, by former classmates, that Monsef was in fact born in Iran.
“We definitely heard rumours,” Skinner told Postmedia. “But at no point in time did the campaign have any evidence — it was rumour. So we decided to ignore it.”
“Basically they were saying that she’d changed where she was born, during her school years, because Afghanistan had more recognition,” he said.
Skinner said that at one point, he even received an anonymous letter slipped under his door that repeated the rumour, but he didn’t use it against her.
MONSEF WASN’T BORN IN AFGHANISTAN: DEL MASTRO
Dean Del Mastro, the former Conservative MP who was convicted of overspending on his campaign in 2008, said people who run political campaigns in Peterborough all knew that Monsef wasn’t born in Afghanistan.
“That’s been known for quite a while,” he said. “This story that she’s just learned is not true … It’s not a new revelation. It’s been closely held in political circles. It’s been known.”
Meanwhile, Conservative MP and leadership contender Tony Clement said Thursday an investigation is required to confirm Monsef’s explanation of events, how the birthplace mix-up was missed by the federal security vetting and whether citizenship laws were violated.
“It’s a very strange story and there has to be more of an investigation” into whether a “false affidavit” was used as a statement of declaration for Monsef to be granted Canadian citizenship, he said.
“I’m not saying that she misrepresented, I’m just saying that there was a false affidavit somewhere that was signed that we have to find out what the circumstances were around that,” he said.
Monsef “should consider seriously stepping aside if there is going to be an investigation,” he added.
RIGOROUS VETTING
Incoming cabinet ministers go through a “rigorous vetting process,” the Privy Council Office (PCO) said in a statement Thursday. “The same process is in place for all members of cabinet in this government, and has been in place for a number of years.”
It includes criminal background checks by the RCMP and by the Canada Revenue Agency for bankruptcies or financial insolvencies.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) does automated record checks of its databases for what’s called “adverse intelligence traces” related to non-criminal matters from espionage to terrorism and subversion. The service will typically ask allied security intelligence agencies to check names against their databases, as well.
But CSIS can only go so far, especially in such places as Afghanistan and Iran, where there are either no government records or reliable government agencies on which to rely and where the fog of war lingers.
And unless CSIS has a pressing reason, it would not dispatch intelligence officers to the region to check on something as seemingly mundane as an incoming cabinet minister’s stated place of birth.
With files by Jason Fekete, Ottawa Citizen; Joelle Kovach, Peterborough Examiner; Teresa Wright, The Guardian; David Akin, National Post; and Ian MacLeod, Ottawa Citizen.
