Not a chance, Mr. Chair.
Welcome. We're very pleased to have you here.
You are making it terribly difficult for me, because I agree with practically every single thing you've said, which makes it a little difficult to come up with probing questions. I know that the Iranian people have a 5,000-year history and I know about their sense of democracy. I speak to them in Hamilton, some of whom have been there for 20 years now, and I go to some of their cultural events and see the richness of their culture.
Mr. Cotler hit on something very important about the nuclear issue. There is no other word for it but appeasement. As long as we get that taken care of, we close a blind eye. We had that kind of view in the U.S. for a long, long time towards South America and the regimes that functioned there. It reminds me of my father teaching me about picking up a snake: if you pick up the snake by the tail and you walk with it, you'd better watch the head all the time or you're going to get bitten. We're in that kind of situation.
As well, I agree with you on targeted sanctions to draw attention to human rights and to bring the conversation around to the human rights violations that are happening. Hopefully you have some further examples of how we could target them.
We've been waiting for two years now for the corporate social responsibility document to be tabled in this House. It applies mostly to mining companies, but do you know of Canadian oil companies who are dealing with the Iranian regime? That would be of interest to me.
Another question I have asked several times now is whether the demonstrations in Iran were joint Sunni-Shia demonstrations. Or were there splits along those lines? From the things I have heard, I have grave concerns regarding the potential for an explosion between those two facets of the religion.
I think there's enough there for you to comment on.