Thank you. If I may, I'll call you Professor Cotler, my venerable colleague from McGill.
You have written about the execution binge. We are aware that Iran has the highest per capita rate of executions in the world. Its executions are second only to China's. Unfortunately, that is part of the overall climate of terror and fear, which includes public executions, which are reminiscent of pre-modern Europe and how sovereigns would basically instill fear in people.
Now, the case of Canadian Iranians is somewhat different because there is evidence to suggest that the Islamic Republic has specifically targeted dual nationals. One of the explanations is that it is paranoid about the links between Iranian civil society and Iranians in the diaspora. Another explanation, simply, is that dual nationals are being kept hostage. In effect, Mr. Ghassemi-Shall and Mr. Malekpour are being kept as bargaining chips by the Islamic Republic in order to put pressure on Canada.
My own impression is that Canada and other governments have to exact a cost rather than making concessions. There are various tools in the tool box that Canada can use to send the message that if either of these individuals is executed, there will be very serious consequences for Iran's interest. I would add that Canada has significant leverage because so many of the Islamic Republic's insiders have made Canada their home. This is one of the failings of our immigration policy, where we have condemned human rights abuses but look the other way so long as people are bringing hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in this country.
If the Canadian government, for example, were to say that the execution of these two Iranian Canadians would result in a forfeiture of assets belonging to individuals responsible for human rights abuses and so on and so forth, I think the Islamic Republic would change its posture. That's the language it understands.