First of all, I would say it's really important that Iran continue to be listed here in Canada as a state sponsor of terror. I think the issue comes forward every two years that it has to be reviewed. It's absolutely imperative that it continue. Even President Obama, who was, we know, extremely keen on reaching an international nuclear deal with Iran, was just as clear about the fact that Iran was continuing to sponsor terrorism. Forget about under President Trump right now, because lots of things seem to be changing, but even under President Obama, when we were looking at removing lots of nuclear-related sanctions, at the same time they were very clear that Iran would continue to be listed as a state sponsor of terror and that there would be sanctions in place for things like human rights abuses and ballistic missiles.
Here in Canada, our only sanctions are under the Special Economic Measures Act. They relate only to Iran's nuclear behaviour. We're kind of outdated. As I mentioned, the Magnitsky law would allow human rights abuses to be sanctioned as well, so I think we should be using that.
I know we're under time constraints, so I'll mention only one more thing. It has to do with the purported deal between Iran and Bombardier. It's a bizarre situation, in my view, because Iran's unfree media is giving us more information about this deal than the Canadian government or Canadian media is. I don't really understand. There's alleged to be a deal worth at least $100 million for Bombardier to sell at least 10 planes to Iran. Iran has a very clear history, which I'd be happy to share with you later, of using its civilian planes to ship weapons to Syria to help Assad continue to murder his civilians, and to boost Hezbollah's arsenal in Lebanon. They're using civilian planes for that purpose, so something is going wrong. We don't know what this deal is. The Canadian government won't acknowledge it one way or another.
I'm concerned that Export Development Canada, EDC, may be involved as well. A previous witness, Ms. Mora Johnson, came to speak to you. She talked about EDC and about how it's actually at risk for handling the proceeds of crime, because it could be “repaid with proceeds of corruption”. I would be concerned about that potentially happening here.
Again, I could be very wrong. EDC may not be involved. I don't know what the deal is, because I'm only reading about it in Iran's media, but that's something that would be really worth exploring.