OTTAWA — Canada is sanctioning more Iranian officials, including a senior military official spotted at a Toronto-area high school earlier this year.

Morteza Talaei, second brigadier general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and former commander of law enforcement in Tehran, is among four Iranians and five organizations banned from doing business with Canada or accessing assets located in Canada.

Earlier this year, he was pictured training at a Richmond Hill gymnasium, prompting criticism from diaspora groups questioning why he was granted a visa.

Others facing sanctions include Hassan Karami, a military commander, Ali Ghanaatkar Mavardiani, an interrogator at the notorious Evin prison, and a former minister who helped with internet censorship whose name has not been released.

Canada has also imposed sanctions on an Iranian commercial airline, Safiran Airport Services, which has accused Ottawa of sending drones to Russia, and on three companies involved in developing drone technology, including the Baharestan Kish Company.

Ottawa also sanctioned the press office of the Javan News Agency, which was accused of spreading anti-Semitic messages and propaganda.

Canada has taken several actions since October 7 in response to Iran’s human rights abuses and threats to peace and security in the region.

“As the Iranian regime continues to violently repress Iranian society, we reaffirm our solidarity with the Iranian people who have courageously denounced the regime for its human rights abuses, particularly those of women and girls,” Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly recalled in a press release on Friday.

Ottawa has already imposed sanctions on 99 individuals and 181 Iranian entities, including the IRGC and the regime’s economic, security and intelligence apparatus.

– With information from Dylan Robertson