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But given this new revelation about Monsef’s birthplace, that 2014 visit to Iran took on a new light for many including Candice Malcolm, a columnist for Sun Media who was once press secretary to Jason Kenney when Kenney was the minister of immigration.

Not only does Malcolm know immigration issues inside out but, because her spouse is Iranian, she knows a fair bit about how difficult it can be to get in and out of Iran. And it would have been particularly difficult at the time Monsef was in Iran becauseCanada, in 2012, had broken off diplomatic relations with Iran.

Last weekend, in her Sunday newspaper column, Malcolm wrote about this noting, among other things, that Monsef’s office had refused to say, when asked, what travel documents she had used to get into Iran. To that question, as Malcolm wrote, she got this answer: “Minister Monsef holds both Canadian and Afghan citizenships. She is not, nor was she ever an Iranian citizen.”

Monsef’s staff were essentially pre-emptively answering a question that Malcolm had not asked but which others — Monsef’s detractors, presumably — surely would: Did she have an Iranian passport which listed her place of birth as Iran? Because, of course, if she did have an Iranian passport, a major hole opens in the narrative Monsef and her supporters have used about her arrival and eventual success in Canada as an Afghan refugee fleeing the Taliban.

Ok. So she’s not Iranian. Great. A load off of everyone’s mind. But why not answer the travel question straight up: What travel document did Monsef use to get into Iran?