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Six Americans had escaped the militants’ notice. Asking for the Canadian Embassy’s help, they got it, instantly and with the full backing of Clark and foreign affairs minister Flora MacDonald. Two of the fugitives went to live with Taylor and his wife, Pat, in the ambassador’s home; four took up residence with John and Zena Sheardown.

It was Sheardown, the top Canadian immigration official in Iran, whom the Americans first contacted. His response was “Hell, yes. Of course. Count on us.” The cool and courageous Canadians even offered to take in any and all of Tehran’s foreign correspondents should they get into trouble with the unpredictable revolutionaries.

Canada’s American houseguests hoped for a quick end to their exile, but the days and weeks stretched on. Patience wore thin. Scrabble had its limits as a life’s work.

More than that, there was danger. Taylor and the Americans knew that their secret was bound to pop out. When it did, the Iranian authorities would be right on the ambassador’s doorstep.

Jean Pelletier, the Washington correspondent of the Montreal newspaper, La Presse, was the first to figure out what was happening. “The Canadians,” he wrote later in a book on the subject, “were involved in some kind of sanctuary set-up in Tehran, and they were as skittery as barnyard cattle before an earthquake.”

It was a career-making scoop, and Pelletier’s managing editor wanted it in his newspaper right away. But Pelletier refused. “You can’t just simply apply your principle of publish-and-be-damned to each and every situation,” he told his boss, “regardless of circumstance.”

Others might not be so scrupulous. An escape had to be engineered. Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport was carefully scouted. Canadian passports and identity documents were arranged for the six Americans. Canadian Embassy staff, in small groups, quietly returned home.

On January 27, 1980, Canada’s American guests navigated their way nervously through the airport and onto an early morning flight to Frankfurt. Later that day, Taylor and the remaining Canadians shut the Embassy down and left Iran.

Pelletier could finally break his story. News of the “Canadian Caper” was quickly everywhere. With his wild head of hair, broad smile, stylish suits and taste for high living, Ken Taylor was perfectly cast for the role of the rakish mastermind of a daring plot.

Sheardown also received some of the credit, but not nearly as much as he deserved. Nor was it revealed at the time, because it would have put the hostages in peril, that the US Central Intelligence Agency had slipped into Iran to arrange the operation.

The United States celebrated Canada and Taylor. “Thank You, Canada” signs proliferated, letters of gratitude poured into Ottawa and Congress struck a gold medal in the ambassador’s honor. Never had there been an explosion of pro-Canada sentiment like this, and never since.

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I was 9 when this happened, but I remember the signs and the applause. It was almost another year before the rest came home.

So Canada!

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