July 12, 2021 — Well, thank you very much for the opportunity and Madam Rajavi, distinguished guests, can I say fellow delegates,
It is such an honour to address this gathering which, due to the pandemic, I am familiar with pandemics as former minister of health, unfortunately we must be held remotely with the use of technology. Still, while we’re not together physically, we are together with a common purpose and a common mind.
We are all aware of the trials and tribulations suffered by the Iranian people as a direct result of the Iranian murderous regime. This is a decades-long tragedy now, and the recent national elections, or so-called elections, illustrate no softening of the regime’s authoritarian activities, both at home and around the world. Despite the sometimes conciliatory words used by the regime’s mouthpieces, there can be no doubt of their evil intent. Who suffers? Innocents do. Iranians and non-Iranians who get in the way.
But this forum illustrates there can be hope and there can be justice. As a former senior Canadian government minister in the Stephen Harper government I’m proud of our record of holding the Iranian regime to account. This culminated in the expulsion of Iranian diplomats and spies in 2012, a formal breaking of diplomatic relations, due to Iran’s material support to the Assad Regime during the Syrian civil war, the non-compliance with United Nations resolutions regarding its nuclear program, continuing threats to the state of Israel, and fears for the safety of Canadian diplomats in Tehran. In addition, Canada formally listed the Iranian regime as a state sponsor of terrorism under the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act.
Unfortunately, the response of the Iranian regime was to harden their stance versus Canada and indeed elsewhere. Their state sponsorship of terrorism is well known. Less well known perhaps is their harassment of and threats to the Iranian diaspora, including Iranian-Canadians. I have personally heard accounts of this harassment, designed to quell critical voices and replace with mouthpieces for the regime spouting the established narrative. Suffice to say that, even without agents running this out of a functioning Embassy, this is still a major problem in Canada and around the world.
Meanwhile Canada, through its Parliament and its diplomats, continues to demand accountability. The downing of Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 by the Iranian military, with so many people aboard with connection to Canada, further illustrates how important it is to hold the Iranian authorities to account.
I was pleased as a parliamentarian at that time to participate in the recognition in 2013 of the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners by the Iranian state as a crime against humanity. Since that time parliamentarians, including myself, have raised this issue. We must not forget about past atrocities simply because new atrocities have been committed. They all show a continuing and unabated course of conduct by the Iranian government, really since the Revolution itself.
Since the theme here is of accountability, I know some apologists will say of any Canadian, “you talk of accountability, yet in Canada right now horrible revelations about mistreatment of indigenous children in Residential Schools has been revealed. Canada does not come to this debate with clean hands.” To this argument I would argue and answer the following: that like most countries Canada does indeed have troubling and unacceptable acts that have taken place in the past. But here is the difference: in Canada we do not hide away from uncomfortable truths. We confront them, we acknowledge them and we try to move past them in a spirit of reconciliation. This is not to say that it does not produce anger, far from it. But we have a democratic society with a process by which these issues are resolved.
Where is such a process in Iran? Where is the means by which families who’ve lost loved ones to state sponsored violence can receive accountability? Where does the Iranian regime share information, come to terms with its wrongs, and seeks justice for the survivors? The short answer is this is not a trait of the Iranian regime, nor will it ever be so long as this government is in control. That’s the uncomfortable truth.
That is why all of your work is so important. A voice of justice seeking truth and accountability. While it may seem at times that your work is futile, I firmly believe that the arc of history bends towards freedom, justice and prosperity and this will once again find the people of Iran. Canada will no doubt do its part in that aspiration. I look forward to the day when these conferences are unnecessary and a part of the past, because justice is with Iran in the present.
Thank you et merci.