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.
Sheardown, a Second World War bomber pilot and an Order of Canada recipient, died Sunday at The Ottawa Hospital. He was 88.
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