Thank you for the comprehensive testimony today. I believe when Canada speaks out, we are at our best.
I come from a labour background. Dialogue and negotiations are something that I've seen day to day, and they have been very effective. When you talk revolution, though, you think of Lech Walesa and Solidarnosc and the fact that they controlled the economy. It was by shutting down the economy that they were successful. I have trepidation about Iran at that level.
I heard you refer to accidents and payments for injury. I was in Saudi Arabia in 1979, working for the telephone company. If we ran over a Saudi by accident, we paid $30,000. If they ran over one of us, it was one riyal, which was 30¢. Of course, the Canadian dollar was worth more then.
I saw examples, too, of the nose-to-nose confrontational style that the fundamentalists had. In fact I was threatened with death by the chief of the secret police myself. In Saudi Arabia at that time, the mullahs were strengthened by what was happening in Iran, and there was a great fear in the regime that it would spread there.
I am going to quote something. I don't suggest that it is precise, but the Prophet, may peace be upon him, said that men go before women in all things. That is roughly the context. This was told to me by a person I worked with in Saudi Arabia. With that kind of view, can we really expect a return to equality for women in this country?
The other side is that with the terrible human rights record of this regime, would not a popular revolution be put down in a way similar to what happened in China?