Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Sir, I think you're—

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  May I answer?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you. I think you have a conception of regime change, understandably so, of 500,000 mechanized U.S. troops invading Iran to take down the regime. I don't support that form of regime change. I opposed the Iraq war and I would oppose an Iran war of U.S. invasion. I support t

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think of Iran like Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and other presidents. If the Iranian regime were to dash to a nuclear weapon and we had no way to stop it, except using military force, I would absolutely recommend that we use military force to stop an Iranian dash to a bomb. I

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Like me, you would—as a last effort, if nothing else worked and we had no other ability to stop a bomb—support military strikes as well. But we're not talking about military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities and a dash to a bomb. We're talking about the question of regime

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  When I talk about regime change, I talk about the regime change that Payam was talking about.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Correct. Many times. I can give you the whole list.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We can talk afterwards. There's a whole long list. Of course. At the end of the day, the only hope for the people of Iran, the only hope for the security of the region, and the only hope of mitigating the nuclear and missile threat to our homeland is that there has to be the en

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  If I could just flesh that out maybe more specifically, imagine a woman is put in jail, in Evin prison, for taking off her hijab, and we're able to determine who is responsible for that decision to put her into prison, to torture her, and to abuse her, and we identify that indivi

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I appreciate someone's reading it.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think there are some cosmetic changes that are taking place, but these changes are not fundamental. If you look at government posts, 137 women were registered to run in Iran's presidential election. The Guardian Council, which screens loyalty to the regime, rejected all of them

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think, first of all, speaking about these issues repeatedly and obsessively is absolutely critical, because without you and others in the Canadian government highlighting the plight of Iranian women, unfortunately, they will too often be ignored, and particularly ignored as the

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Again, I think it's worth calling out Iranian leaders. For example, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, was recently in Washington and New York on what I would call a Iranian regime whitewashing tour. When asked about gay rights in Iran, he specifically denied the

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  From a policy perspective, the Revolutionary Guards are also in control of the Quds Force, who are their overseas thugs, and the Basij, who are their domestic thugs. It's all the more reason why the Canadian government should designate, under SEMA, the Revolutionary Guards in the

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Iran's discrimination against women is clearly something that has provoked a serious backlash from Iranian women, and I think you've highlighted exactly one such incident when, on December 27, a woman, Vida Movahed, waved her white hijab from a stick on a busy Tehran street and s