Federal departments paid $2.1 million to an Edmonton firm whose owner CSIS had flagged as a former Iranian military engineer
Global News reported this morning that companies run by an Edmonton man CSIS describes as a former engineer on Iranian military projects won more than $2 million in public contracts. The government's own disclosure portal confirms six federal contracts worth $2.14 million to Melanite Group, the last signed one day before Canada listed the IRGC as a terrorist entity. CBC, which has covered the Iran file closely, had not reported it by the time this issue closed.
What funded newsrooms reported
As of 9 a.m. Eastern on 2 September, CBC had not reported Global's findings. That is not unusual on the morning of another outlet's exclusive, and this issue treats it as an absence, not an omission.
CBC's Iran-in-Canada file is substantial and runs through the border. On 15 September 2024 it reported Dominic LeBlanc's expansion of the entry ban to anyone who served as a senior Iranian official since 23 June 2003. On 27 June 2025 Ashley Burke reported that a former regime official had landed in April despite the ban, and carried CBSA's figures: since 2022 "more than 130 suspected Iranian regime officials' visas were cancelled, 20 people were reported inadmissible and three cases have made it through immigration hearings resulting in deportation letters." On 2 May 2026 Burke reported a former IRGC commander turned away at Pearson. None of that coverage looks at what the government buys, or from whom.
What was already public
- 1.The federal proactive-disclosure portal lists six contracts to Melanite Group Ltd.: RCMP, $68,414, 30 January 2019; Correctional Service of Canada, $104,638, 27 March 2019; National Defence, $103,478, 14 February 2020; ISED, $380,437, 24 February 2021; National Defence, $1,428,774, 24 December 2021; National Defence, $50,285, 18 June 2024. Total $2,136,025. Every entry is a goods contract and every one marked competitive is marked competitively sourced.Government contracts over $10,000, open.canada.ca
- 2.The same portal lists a $15,000 grant to Melanite Group Ltd. from ISED's Canada Digital Adoption Program on 3 January 2024, purpose "develop digital adoption plan." That is just under a year after the date of the CSIS screening report, and five months before the final Defence contract.Grants and contributions, open.canada.ca
- 3.Melanite twice took the government to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal over bids it lost: file PR-2019-016, alleging National Defence improperly disqualified its bid for broadband antennas (notice of 31 May 2019), and file PR-2020-090, alleging irregularities in a Shared Services Canada purchase of laptop docking stations for the Canada Revenue Agency (notice of 26 February 2021). Both are in the Canada Gazette.Canada Gazette, Part I, 15 Jun 2019 and 20 Mar 2021
- 4.Canada listed the IRGC as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code on 19 June 2024. The entry ban on senior Iranian officials, created under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in November 2022, was extended on 15 September 2024 to anyone who served since 23 June 2003.Public Safety Canada, 19 Jun 2024; UPI, 16 Sep 2024
- 5.The timeline inside the government, according to immigration and court records obtained by Global News: flagged by CBSA's intelligence unit for national-security reasons in 2017, months after he applied for citizenship; officials concluded in 2021 there might be grounds to refuse on security grounds; CSIS report dated 13 January 2023; CBSA opened deportation proceedings and withdrew them in November 2025 "due to an inability to use the required evidence"; in May 2026 the immigration department began proceedings to deny citizenship on the grounds that he is a "threat to the security of Canada." These are Global's readings of the documents; the documents themselves are not public in full.Global News, 2 Sep 2026
- 6.Ghafouri disputes the allegations. His lawyer, Bjorna Shkurti, told Global he "has lived in Canada for over a decade and has undergone multiple security screenings," and his court filings argue that the contracts and a trade-mission invitation show the government itself did not treat him as a threat. He has not been charged with any offence.Global News, 2 Sep 2026
What the independents said
The originating account is Stewart Bell's Global News investigation, published this morning and built on thousands of pages of immigration and court records. Its core claims: that the CSIS report describes four years of engineering work at Rabi Kosar on air-defence, jamming and direction-finding projects that reached the Iranian military and the IRGC through a Ministry of Defence satellite company, and a role in a procurement office that sourced sanctioned components through Malaysia; that he told CSIS he met Iran's intelligence ministry twice in 2015; and that the contracts kept coming after all of it was on file. Two experts who reviewed the report for Global supplied the framing that independent accounts carried through the morning. Thomas Juneau of the University of Ottawa: the agencies "are not talking to each other" and the silos are "absurd." Kaveh Shahrooz: "cases like this show that we fail to conduct even the most basic due diligence on those with strong, direct ties to Iran's regime."
Independent authors on various online platforms amplified the Defence figures and the 2017 flag within hours, with Sam Cooper among the first to share the report. By mid-morning the commentary treated the contracts as confirmation of the CSIS allegations. The contracts confirm only that four departments bought goods from the company.
The gap
CBC has reported the Iran file as a border story, who is banned, who landed, how many visas were pulled, and had not, by the time this issue closed, reported Global's findings or looked at the procurement records that sit on the government's own open-data portal and that connect its enforcement-gap reporting since 2023 to a case the enforcement system flagged in 2017.
The independents treated the contracts as proof of the CSIS allegations; the contracts prove that four departments bought goods from a company whose director was under a security review nobody in procurement could see, and the allegations remain an intelligence screening product that no court has tested.
The caveat — against our own framing
Nothing here is a finding. The CSIS report is a screening document, not a charge; the CBSA withdrew its own removal case; the citizenship proceeding is unfinished; and Ghafouri denies the allegations and has never been charged. The contracts were for goods, competitively bid, $2.14 million across five years and four departments, and the procurement system has no lawful way to read an immigration security file, which is a design choice about fairness as much as a failure. And CBC had had a few hours, not a few weeks: the honest test of this issue's first charge is whether CBC reports the procurement records this week, not whether it had done so by 9 a.m.
Sources
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