After the Islamic Revolution, Canada shut down its embassy. While relations warmed up throughout the 1990s due to the Iran-Iraq war, they were seriously strained in 2003, after Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian photojournalist who was born in Iran, was
killed under a cloud of secrecy after being detained and allegedly tortured in an Iranian prison.
Canada denounced Kazemi's death, and recalled its ambassador to Tehran at the time, but did little else. The Kazemi family's case against the Iranian government is still making its way through the Canadian legal system.
Canada cut diplomatic ties to Iran in September 2012, expelling Iranian diplomats from the country and shuttered its embassy in Tehran. Only a few months before the diplomatic break,
Harper called Iran "the world's most serious threat to international peace and security".
At the same time, the government formally
listed Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism, calling the country "one of the world's worst violators of human rights" and accusing it of "sheltering and [providing] material support to terrorist groups".
"That was a very bold move. They were stepping out ahead of the US on this particular issue in a very obvious way. By announcing it in Russia too… it looked like they wanted to get attention," Devine explained.
lol 
