Thank you, sir, for your kind words.
I'm not prepared at this point to say anything about Canadian companies investing in Iran because I would not want to make any suggestions without having thoroughly researched the matter, which I have not done. But once again, I think there has to be a nuanced approach. There are certain sectors or types of trade in that economy that are problematic and others that are not.
What I can say is that Canada is extremely important to the Iranian community, both to the democrats and human rights activists who have made Canada their home and are proud members of this nation, and also among the elites of the regime who send their children to school here, who have major investments here, and who are also trying to lobby the members of this House of Commons for their own business and other interests. We know that the deputy president to Mr. Ahmadinejad, Mr. Mashaei, was in Canada in March of this year and met with business leaders in Toronto and other cities.
So this is an important place for Iran, which is also why there are so many informants and agents in this country, many of whom I've come to know. All of this is to say that we should take very seriously the leverage that Canada has.
I found out that the son of Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, the spiritual mentor of President Ahmadinejad, a cleric who can only be described as an absolute fanatic and who makes the supreme leader look moderate by comparison, did his Ph.D. at McGill University. That university was called a centre of Zionism and Baha'ism in an article in a government newspaper attacking me. But it's good that the ayatollah is sending his son to a centre of Zionism and Baha'ism.
There are many, many very wealthy individuals in Toronto and Vancouver who are benefiting from this relationship, and we need to rethink how we as an immigrant nation should on the one hand benefit from people with skills and capital, but without becoming, effectively, a haven for criminality on the other hand.
As a final point, in regard to the Sunni-Shia divide, Iran is overwhelming Shiite. I believe that only about 15% to 20% of the population may be Sunni. But the whole problem in looking at the world through the prism of the Shiite-Sunni divide is assuming that all Iranians have the same identity. Iranians are Shiite, but they're also secular, and some of the Shiites are Azeri Turks and others are Persian-speaking Iranians. Also, the Jewish community in Iran is 4,000 years old. Iran is an incredibly diverse and complex society, and throughout its two and a half thousand years of civilization, it has thrived when it has respected its diversity.
The point is that it's the politicization of identity that creates these problems. A democratic Iran would not politicize identity. The Kurdish people, who are Sunni, want a democratic Iran. The Baluch, who are on the border with Pakistan and who are also Sunni, want a democratic Iran.
Once one creates that separation of state and religion and puts an end to authoritarian rule and the use of hate-mongering as an instrument of power, many of these issues will be resolved. So this essentialist view that these people are intrinsically Shiite or Sunni, that there are only these two types, a view that is presented by these forces, only makes myth into reality.