Mr. Chairman, distinguished committee members, thank you for your invitation. I am very pleased to have this opportunity to share with you my ideas on human rights in Iran.
I would like to begin by commending the committee for holding a hearing on the human rights situation in Iran at a time when, unfortunately, the exclusive focus of the international community has fallen on the nuclear issue. Many of us in the Iranian human rights movement have argued for a long time that the real issue in Iran is not the question of nuclear capability; it's the nature of the regime.
It is a regime that, because it lacks legitimacy, rules through a systematic campaign of intimidation, violence, and hate propaganda. The international community must appreciate that the human rights situation in Iran is not merely a moral issue but an issue of far-reaching consequence for the broader transformation of the region and the solution to problems pertaining to peace and security.
As Ms. Tamás explained, the Iranian people are perceived by their own government as the enemy. The biggest threat to the power of the Islamic Republic is not the United States. It is not Israel. It is not the cast of enemies that the Islamic Republic demonizes in its official propaganda. It is the mere expression of people's human rights. We have to consider, when a regime criminalizes entire religious communities, be it the Bahá'í community, be it the Christian community, and when a regime expends significant resources to arrest 16-year-old bloggers and to regulate all interactions on the Internet, it is not a sign of its strength but a sign of its own weakness.
In that regard, I wish to speak briefly today about steps Canada can take to help the progressive transformation of Iran into a democratic society while isolating those who stand in the way of the majority of Iranians who want to put an end to human rights abuses.
I would like to begin with the question of Internet access. While the Government of Canada, together with other governments, has recently imposed very significant sanctions against Iran, we also have to appreciate that it is important to help the Iranian human rights movement and civil society by provision of technological assistance that will help them evade all the filters the government has created to prevent the use of cyberspace as a forum in which civil society can gather, organize, and exchange ideas.
The Iranian government has understood the lesson of the Arab Spring. It has understood the lesson of the Green Movement from June 2009, and it has taken steps, through a council on cyberspace established by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khameini, to effectively create what is called a halal Internet, which means there would be a national Internet system that will be able to impose tight control on all uses of cyberspace by Iranian citizens.
In that regard, it's estimated that more than 17 million Iranians use the Internet. This is a very youthful generation that is Internet savvy, that has access to satellite television. The control and suppression of information is a key ingredient in the government's ability to maintain its repression.
In that regard, some five million sites have been blocked by the intelligence ministry of the Islamic Republic, and the Canadian government and others should consider how they can help provide technology to Iranian civil society so it can continue to use this vital medium as part of its resistance to this oppression.
I would also like to add that while the Islamic Republic is blocking access to satellite transmissions for BBC Persian television, for Voice of America, and for other channels that they deem a threat to their own power, the Islamic Republic continues to use the services of Eutelsat, a French-based company, in order to broadcast five out of its six official channels within Iran itself and abroad.
Press TV, the so-called CNN of the Islamic Republic, recently was harshly criticized for televising confessions of prisoners who apparently had been subjected to torture. Once again, if the Islamic Republic is going to deny its own citizens the right to have free access to information, then the international community must deny the same rights to the Islamic Republic of Iran to freely broadcast its propaganda and misinformation.
I would also like to speak once again about the question of targeted sanctions, an issue that has been brought before this committee on previous occasions. We must ensure that the sanctions that are imposed do not punish the average Iranian, but rather they punish those elements of the leadership that are responsible for massive human rights abuses.
Canada, unlike the United States and the European Union, remains the only country in the west that has still failed to adopt travel bans and asset freezes against Iranian officials implicated in human rights abuses. I believe it would be of great significance, in particular because Canada is a destination of choice for the elite of the Islamic Republic, as we know from recent revelations. For example, the head of the Iranian national bank has been living happily in Canada, and even obtained citizenship some years ago.
It would send a very strong message if Canada indicated that beyond sanctions, which very often indiscriminately punish the average Iranian—who already suffers from terrible economic circumstances—the Canadian government will blacklist, through travel bans and asset freezes, all individuals and their families who have been implicated in human rights abuses. In that regard, it's not becoming, on the one hand, to sponsor resolutions at the United Nations General Assembly condemning the human rights situation in Iran and then discover sometime later that the head of the bank that is the financial linchpin for the Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah, and Hamas is sitting happily in a multi-million dollar mansion in Toronto.
I would like to end with one further remark that relates to the question of deportations of individuals in Canada who have made refugee claims. We have a situation once again where, on the one hand, the Canadian government is condemning the human rights situation in Iran, but we have the case of a Mr. Kavoos Soofi in Toronto, who has been fighting deportation to Iran. Organizations such as Amnesty International have submitted formal statements indicating that he's at substantial risk of torture and possibly even the imposition of the death penalty, insofar as he has converted from Islam to another religion and has been critical of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini.
Once again, we cannot condemn human rights abuses in Iran and at the same time be deporting individuals when they face substantial risk of torture and even death.
I would like to end by explaining once again that a regime that has to criminalize freedom of belief, target religious communities such as the Bahá'í, impose the death sentence on a Christian pastor, Youcef Nadarkhani, simply for preaching Christianity, and a regime that expends millions of dollars spying on its own citizens and controlling their thoughts and beliefs is one that is not powerful but suffers from the want of power.
It is for the international community and Canada to adopt policies that punish the perpetrators of human rights abuses, not merely by condemning their actions but by affecting their interests, while at the same time helping empower the majority of Iranians who want to see a democratic transformation of their country.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That concludes my remarks.