First of all, I apologize, Mr. Chair. I didn't really properly introduce myself at the beginning, but I'm an immigration lawyer in Winnipeg. I'm particularly sensitive to the fact that there's no embassy in Tehran, because that means there's no visa office in Tehran. Afghanistan refugees who were in Iran—and there are a lot of them—now have to deal with the the Canadian visa office in Ankara, Turkey. Also, the Afghani refugees in Iran can't get into Turkey, so that's a very practical problem.
When you're talking about diplomatic relations or sanctions, this is an issue that involves more than just Canada. If Canada alone were imposing sanctions, they wouldn't have much of an effect; and if Canada alone were dealing with Iran, it also wouldn't have much of an effect. Canada in isolation is not that important a player politically, economically, or militarily in Iran. I think what we have to do we have to do in concert.
There are sanctions against Iran globally right now, and that's why they're working; that's why they have an impact. It's not just that Canada's doing it. I don't think Canada should be breaking ranks. I think Canada should be joining in on that, and the same is true for diplomatic relations. Diplomatic relations are a bit touchy, because we broke off diplomatic relations when, under the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, we listed Iran as a terrorist state and the Iranian revolutionary guard as a terrorist entity.
Part of the rhetoric of Iran involves perverse mirror imaging. We accuse them of human rights violations; they accuse us of human rights violations. Obviously, there's nothing comparable, but in their distorted rhetoric, that's the way they deal with it. The government, as I understood it, was concerned. If we set up legislation that says they can be sued in Canada, they're just going to seize our assets in Iran on the same kind of perverse reciprocal basis.
So, I can see a logic in doing it. I know that military and security establishments sometimes have private back-channel communications with people with whom there are no official communications. As an outsider and a member of an NGO, I can't say a whole lot about it. But I would say that the official government policy, which involves sanctions and no diplomatic relations, in context even though it causes a lot of difficulty, including for people in my practice, all the same makes sense.