Evidence of meeting #140 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was iranian.
A video is available from Parliament.
As an Individual
Yes, and they did not let his wife leave the country.
I think it's of its time. Quiet bilateral diplomacy hasn't worked in many cases, and clearly standing up and saying that this is just a normal.... Of course there are differences between different countries, but it's a norm of a state, though, that you do not hold each other's citizens as leverage. It just doesn't work.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, gentlemen, again.
It's such a divided situation with so many potential solutions here that don't seem to be working very well. We have U.S. sanctions being cranked up, the EU basically trying to avoid the application of them, and the foreign affairs minister travelling to Turkey and Syria. I'm interested in hearing what you think the role of Turkey will be in the future.
Then, specifically, there is a pipeline agreement from Iran to Pakistan that has been delayed for some time. It seems that the Pakistani government has made a new commitment to it. I'm interested in how, from an environmental perspective, you see that, and whether you think it's going to go ahead or is just rhetoric in the face of the sanctions that have now been imposed.
Then, wrapped up in all of that, of course, is this whole atmosphere of corruption that seems to permeate everything as well.
Iranian Canadian Environmentalist, As an Individual
That's right.
Basically, if the IRGC gains money from all these contracts, things will happen, will go forward. That's what I can say based on my experience following the activities of IRGC.
On the other hand, I should point out that Turkey has had a negative environmental impact on the whole region because of blocking the Tigris and Euphrates, actually the tributaries and all the rivers that have to pass through Syria and Iraq and at the end reach a wetland between Iran and Iraq in the south. Because of the work of Turkey, water is not reaching properly to that wetland, and it has caused sandstorms and a lot of problems because it has dried up. I wanted to add this, to have it on the record, about the negative impact of Turkey on the whole region.
At the end of the day, I think we're talking about money. If the Erdogan administration is sure about any interests and money received from different parties that would help its deep pockets, I think they will go forward with it.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Does the Iranian government have the money still to help Turkey as well as some of the other places that they're spending it?
Iranian Canadian Environmentalist, As an Individual
A lot of money has been funnelled to Turkey in the last 10 years, and some people have been arrested by the U.S. in that regard. The international community could possibly monitor things and see how it has gone through to block other monetary actions and transactions between the two regimes.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Mr. Ratcliffe, did you have anything to add?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Michael Levitt
Thank you very much.
I want to thank all four of our witnesses, Dr. Ebadi, Ms. Alinejad, Mr. Kowsar and Mr. Ratcliffe.
If there's one common thread here today, it's the issue of accountability: for the women who suffer under the repressive regime and are forced to wear compulsory hijab; for the Iranian leaders who thrive and profit from corruption with impunity, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and other senior officials and judges; for the prisoners who suffer, like Nazanin, Maryam Mombeini and so many others; for the dual nationals, religious leaders, journalists, academics, environmentalists; for all the people this regime has made to suffer; for the terror that Iran exports around the world, threatening millions of people not just in the Middle East but well beyond.
In Canada, we must continue to push for accountability and an end to this impunity, raising our voice as we do every year as a leader on the resolution on Iranian human rights and repression adopted by the United Nations, but also using the legal and legislative tools at our disposal: the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, Magnitsky sanctions, as we heard here today; and, of course, the issue that has been raised several times, the listing of the full Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist entity in Canada.
These are the tools at our disposal. It's imperative, as we've heard from all of our witnesses, that Canada continue to hold this Iranian regime to account.
I want to point out that there will be two additional meetings happening in the Subcommittee on International Human Rights next week and also that we're working with our partners at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre. There will be a panel happening there this afternoon.
Every year, in the Canadian Parliament, Iran Accountability Week grows, because it's a sad necessity—a sad necessity that we have to continue to work to ensure that this regime is held to account.
I want to thank our witnesses and all my colleagues on the committee.
With that, the meeting is adjourned.