Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the witnesses who are before this committee very much for their incredible work around this very important issue.
Mr. Chair, I have spoken a number of times in Parliament in relation to the incredible and appalling human rights crisis that is taking place in Iran, the appalling conditions, and the situation of execution of minors, the stoning of women. A few days ago I spoke about the two very brave women and several other brave women in Iran who led that Women's Day protest against the stoning of women. They are incredible figures, and there are incredibly courageous people in Iran. I salute all of them.
The more I've learned about Iran and its history, and I've had an opportunity to meet many people in my riding of Davenport who come from a diaspora...I am extremely fascinated by their incredibly rich culture. They are incredibly talented people who unfortunately had to seek refuge all over the world because of the repressive regime they were facing in their country.
We have to do our best for those people, to make sure we work with them and bring about democratic reforms respecting the international rule of law and also human rights.
I have a motion at this time that I believe will be acceptable to all members of this committee. I move:
Be it resolved that the Government of Canada should launch a criminal investigation into the involvement of Iranian Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi in the torture and murder of the Canadian citizen Zahra Kazemi, pursuant to section 269.1 and of 3.7(d) of the Criminal Code, and that this investigation form the basis of an international indictment of Saeed Mortazavi for these crimes.
Mr. Chair, as you know, and as certain members of the committee are aware, the Government of Canada did issue an Interpol arrest warrant for Saeed Mortazavi some time ago, but unfortunately it was not followed through.
We hope with this particular motion to provide some teeth and be able to move forward with this very important and critical issue.
Once again, my sincere congratulations to all those who came forward, because we were very impressed with the witnesses we had today.