Evidence of meeting #106 for Subcommittee on International Human Rights in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was iran.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
No military strikes at all? Because you've written in favour of military strikes.
Chief Executive Officer, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
I think of Iran like Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and other presidents. If the Iranian regime were to dash to a nuclear weapon and we had no way to stop it, except using military force, I would absolutely recommend that we use military force to stop an Iranian dash to a bomb. I assume you would, too. You probably would deny—
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
Are you in favour of Iran having a nuclear weapon?
Chief Executive Officer, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Like me, you would—as a last effort, if nothing else worked and we had no other ability to stop a bomb—support military strikes as well. But we're not talking about military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities and a dash to a bomb. We're talking about the question of regime change.
As I said, I support a change in the regime: a peaceful change in the regime in the way that Shirin Ebadi and hundreds of thousands of Iranians support it, which is a peaceful, secular constitution, the end of the supreme leader as an office and as a man who is responsible for brutal repression at home and gross human rights violations abroad.
If I take your argument to its logical conclusion, what you're actually saying is if we have a brutal regime, we should do nothing to change it. We should leave it in place.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Michael Levitt
We're right short on time. We've got a minute and a half left for MP Anderson.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
I wish we had more time to talk about this.
You talked quite a bit about Canada's role in financing Iranian investment in Canada. This is going to be asked in a neutral fashion deliberately. Is there anybody in Canada who stands out as being most active in handling those investments, who we might consider talking to and inviting in as a witness to this committee?
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, As an Individual
That's a question I personally would have to reflect on very carefully. There are individuals who have quite detailed knowledge about movements of money, and resources, and particular cliques that have set up camp in Canada. I'd be happy to speak to the subcommittee further about that.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Perhaps the subcommittee should take some interest in that in the future.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Michael Levitt
Thank you very much.
With that, and with it being after two o'clock, I'm going to thank both of our esteemed guests for being here today and starting our two hearings this Iran Accountability Week. This has been quite riveting testimony.
I know that as we move forward with statements in the House and the work of Professor Cotler and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre, we're going to be able to reflect further on how Canadian Parliament can address the issues of ongoing human rights abuses in Iran.
I thank both of you and all the members very much.
The meeting is adjourned.