John Sheardown, key player in rescue of diplomats from Iran, dead at 88

OTTAWA — “Hell yes. Of course. Count on us.”

With those words to an endangered U.S. diplomat in November 1979, John Sheardown, then Canada’s top immigration official in Iran, launched what would become known as “the Canadian Caper.”

For the next three months, Sheardown and Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor sheltered six U.S. diplomats in their private homes.

The six Americans were spirited out of Iran in January 1980 with the help of the Central Intelligence Agency in a top-secret mission, dramatized in the 2012 Ben Affleck movie Argo.

Read more at the Ottawa Citizen