Here’s some news from Canada that, sadly, is not an April Fool’s joke; the day after revelations that Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi was horribly tortured to death by the Iranian government, we learn that Canada planned to allow an Iranian official to be briefed on the new Canadian airline passenger screening system: Canada willing to help Iran, despite Kazemi row. (Hat tip: Mike.)

OTTAWA - While publicly denouncing the killing of Zahra Kazemi in July 2003, Canadian officials were also quietly allowing an Iranian government official to visit Canada, according to documents obtained by CBC Radio.

Iran had requested that one of its officials, Seyed Abu Talib Najafi, be briefed on the workings of Canada’s new Advance Passenger Information database, designed to identify potential threats to civil aircraft before they board.

According to e-mails obtained under the Access to Information Act, Customs officials were concerned about the visit becoming public. One e-mail said: “We should keep this as low-key as possible.”

Two e-mails within Canada Customs suggested there were concerns: “What’s our position about the requesting country? ... in view of the current situation with Iran.”

Absolutely astounding. The briefing didn’t take place, but not because someone in the Canadian government decided it wouldn’t be smart to give inside info on airline security procedures to a terror-sponsoring rogue state; it was canceled because the entire North American power grid went down.

In an e-mail sent after Najafi was already en route to Canada, Chrystiane Roy, Iran desk officer at Foreign Affairs, informed Customs that if Najafi already had a visa, “it would be too late to do any screening.”

In the end, it was only the huge North American blackout of Aug. 14, 2003 that prevented the briefing session.

Instead, Rachelle May, now acting director general of the Canada Border Services Agency, took Najafi across the street for a coffee. In a report sent afterwards to Foreign Affairs, she writes, “He showed interest in Advanced Passenger Information.”

She adds: “He was pleased that I took the time to meet him.”

And everybody smiled, and nobody’s feelings were hurt.