Here is the harsh reality.

The father (highly educated and a doctor) was politically savvy.   He was a refugee and nurtured close ties with Harper, with Kenney, and with the CPC in power.     Harper and Kenney both gladly posed for pictures with him and they publicly posted these pictures (March 2015).    This was well AFTER the man had an acrimonious divorce (2012) from the mother (in which she claimed he threatened to kill her).   This was AFTER the Harper Govt shut our embassy in Tehran, and expelled all Iranian diplomats from Canada.

The father has likely gone underground, or has used his political smarts to his own advantage in Iran.

By turning this into a political circus, the CPC have actually hurt the mother's cause rather than help.    The closer the mother is seen as a poster child for the CPC, the lower the chance of any progress being made.