Again, I think it's worth calling out Iranian leaders. For example, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, was recently in Washington and New York on what I would call a Iranian regime whitewashing tour. When asked about gay rights in Iran, he specifically denied the realities. The realities are that Iranian gays are executed for the crime of being gay. This was notoriously underscored by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, when he was the Iranian president, who joked in New York that they had no gays in Iran. First of all, there's a large gay community, and second of all, to the extent that community is dwindling, it's because the Iran regime is repressing them and in some cases executing them. So I think first is to actually highlight that and call out the mendacity of leaders like Zarif.
The second is, again, that you have these authorities. I'm sorry to sound so repetitive, but you have SEMA and you have the global Magnitsky act. You have the ability to go after Iranian officials specifically for gross human rights violations, whether they be against LGBT or whether they be discrimination against Iranian women, ethnic minorities, or religious minorities. All of those authorities are provided to you under the act and under SEMA. Again, I would strongly urge you to use those authorities. A lot of people ask what the point is of designating Iranian officials for a range of human rights violations. I can tell you that it matters. It matters tremendously. I think Payam is exactly right. We did not focus on and prioritize human rights and LGBT rights and women's rights enough over the past decade. There was a focus on the hard elements of Iran's malign behaviour: the nuclear program, missiles, terrorism, and destabilizing behaviour. I think the Canadian government actually was a global leader on the issue of human rights. There probably wouldn't have been a UN special rapporteur on Iranian human rights without the support of the Canadian government, of both parties.
I would strongly urge you again to use your authorities, designate these individuals, name and shame them, apply visa bans, sanction their bank accounts. Payam is exactly right. There is a lot of Iranian regime money in this country. It is remarkable the amount of money laundering that is going on in Canada through real estate and through other mechanisms. The ability to actually target financial sanctions against those who are responsible for human rights abuses is tremendously powerful and would be consequential if it were actually being utilized.