Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on June 21st, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

I call this meeting to order.

It's great to see everybody.

We're in meeting number 12 of the subcommittee on international human rights. Today we'll be looking at the human rights situation in Iran.

I just want to remind all those present in the room to follow the recommendations from public health authorities as well as the directives of the Board of Internal Economy to remain healthy and safe.

We're going to start off with our first round of panellists today.

Thank you to all of the witnesses for being here and for taking your time and preparing your testimony. This is just a small reminder to all witnesses that you have five minutes. I will give you a hand signal when there is one minute left. When we have 30 seconds, I'll just raise my hand. I'll have to ask you to conclude at the five-minute mark.

With us today we have Maral Karimi, a doctoral candidate here as an individual. From the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, we have Kasra Aarabi, a senior analyst on Iran and Shia Islamist extremism. As an individual, we have Nikahang Kowsar, an environmental journalist and water issues analyst.

Without further ado, we're going to start off with Kasra Aarabi.

Please, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Kasra Aarabi, Senior Analyst, Iran and Shia Islamist Extremism, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change]

Thank you.

Members, Iran is at an inflection point. There are two contrasting realities, and I want to use this opportunity to shed light on both and on how the international community, not least leading democracies like Canada, can help shape the right outcome.

The victory of hardline Islamist cleric Ebrahim Raisi marks a key turning point for the clerical regime, something that's been overlooked by the west. For the ayatollah, Raisi's presidency is about advancing Iran to what he regards as the next stages of the Islamic revolution. The next stages of the Islamic revolution are about forcefully achieving Ayatollah Khamenei's Islamic society and consolidating his grip over the Middle East. To advance these stages, Raisi has been mandated to “purify” the regime. This means empowering the most radical and ideologically committed forces to Khamenei.

The danger that accompanies the new regime in Tehran lies not only in Raisi as an individual but also in the driving force behind him—namely, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC. Against this backdrop, the IRGC has formed the foundation of the Raisi administration, with IRGC affiliates occupying key ministerial roles and many of the 874 government appointee positions. This includes both the interior and foreign ministers. The former, Ahmad Vahidi, is on an Interpol most wanted list for his direct role in the bombing of a Jewish cultural centre in Argentina in 1994. The latter, Hossein Amirabdollahian, is an IRGC Quds Force affiliate who had previously earned the title of Qassem Soleimani's representative.

Domestically, the IRGC is preparing to unleash a new wave of Islamization on the Iranian people to eradicate non-Islamic influences, including western and Persian aspects of Iranian society. Women and youth are primary targets.

As part of the plan to consolidate Khamenei’s grip over the Middle East, the IRGC is working towards two major objectives—one, the forceful departure of the U.S. to isolate Israel, and two, targeting the Abraham Accords. Under this agenda, all Arab states that have ties, or are thinking about normalizing ties, with Israel are targets.

Let's turn to the other side of the story, the other reality. While Khamenei is laying the foundation to forcefully achieve his ideal Islamic society, the gap between the regime and the people could not be further. Since the early 1990s, Iranian society has witnessed a gradual process of secularization and liberalization. Today this has reached unprecedented levels, with polling revealing that as many as 68% of Iranians want a secular state and only 32% identify as Shia Muslim, a clear rejection of the Shia Islamist regime.

Dissent has manifested itself on the streets. Tracking the trend of unrest in Iran, we can see that protests are growing in size and scale and are becoming more violent in nature. The 1999 unrest took place in three cities and left seven people killed. Ten years on, the 2009 protests were in 10 cities, and around 100 people were killed. Iran's latest protests in November 2019, however, saw protests in over 100 towns and cities. As many as 1,500 civilians were killed in just a few days. All the signs indicate that this protest trend in Iran will continue on an upward trajectory.

This new wave of unrest can be traced back to the winter of 2017, and is explicitly about outright changing the system. Crucially, this trend began when the U.S. was part of the JCPOA and 11 months before sanctions were reimposed. This itself shows that the protests are not just about Iran's economic situation. They're about the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic. The slogans are the biggest indicator of this. Right now on the streets, unlike 2009 where calls for reform were still popular, today the Iranian people are chanting, “Mullahs must get lost”, “Down with the Islamic Republic”, and “Khamenei is a murderer, his regime is illegitimate”.

How can Canada help curb the IRGC's plan and advance the Iranian people's aspirations? The first key thing in terms of policy is that the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization is critical. The guard is not a conventional armed force. It started off as an Islamist militia, and has maintained that militia identity. Through the way it behaves, it is no different from other Islamist groups.

First, indoctrination is key in the IRGC. Just as groups like ISIS and al Qaeda spend resources radicalizing their fighters, the IRGC does the same. In fact, the same Quranic verses that ISIS and al Qaeda use to give religious legitimacy to wage jihad against Jews, Christians and Muslims who reject their ideology are the exact same Quranic verses the IRGC uses in its indoctrination material.

Today more than 50% of IRGC training is indoctrination. Just look at the modus operandi of the IRGC—terrorism, hostage-taking, hijackings and insurgency. Of course, the world cannot forget when the IRGC deliberately fired two rockets at a civilian passenger plane, flight PS752, killing all those on board, the majority of them Canadian citizens.

There is added urgency to designating the IRGC. Why? Because it's becoming more extreme and radical. There is a militaristic and apocalyptic cult of Mahdism that is on the rise in the guards. They regard Israel's existence as the biggest barrier to the return of the “hidden Imam”, and this is the clearest and most direct threat to the existence of the State of Israel.

What policy steps, then, can Canada take to advance the aspirations of the Iranian people? Like Putin's regime, the Islamic Republic is corrupt to its core. While the regime enforces a hardline Islamist order on the Iranian people and their sons and their daughters, the noble-born or “aghazadehs”, as we call them in Farsi, live lavish lifestyles in the west, including in Canada. These individuals must be targeted with sanctions.

Secondly, protests are already ongoing in Iran. For the past three weeks we have witnessed them. The next weeks and months will likely see a nationwide unrest on the scale of November 2019.

Agility will be key. Voicing support for the Iranian people, making sure Iranians have access to the Internet and targeting their oppressors through Magnitsky sanctions will be essential.

Finally, Canada can and should lead international efforts to target the IRGC and support the Iranian people.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

Thank you, Mr. Aarabi, for your testimony. We'll continue to engage with you through questions and answers.

Now I'll go to our second panellist, Ms. Karimi, for five minutes, please. Thank you.

[Maral Karimi, Doctoral Candidate, University of Toronto, As an Individual]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

My aim today is to provide an overall view of the direction of social movements, as well as the state of human rights in Iran. I will begin by mapping the waves of unrest that have been shaping up in recent years, marking a significant shift in the direction and social base of protest movements in Iran.

Most major uprisings in modern Iran, including the more recent Green Movement of 2009 and the 1979 revolution, were rooted primarily in the political desires of the urban middle classes. Recent eruptions, however, are largely characterized by economic underpinnings in geographical regions far from urban centres.

Teachers' unions, the Tehran bus drivers' union and other trade unions of various stripes—oil labourers, students, pensioners and shopkeepers—are some of the groups that have displayed their collective dissatisfaction on the streets in recent years. Wages and safe working conditions are among key demands. The government's response is often intense crackdown, including detention, solitary confinement, forced confessions and torture.

During an intense period of unrest in November 2019, many Iranians protested a threefold rise in the cost of petroleum in well over 100 cities. Security forces shut down the Internet. Close to 1,500 protesters were killed, and many more were jailed.

In January 2020, the Iranian public, still mourning the November protests, was confronted with the aftermath of General Soleimani's assassination by the United States and the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, killing all 176 on board. Many were Canadians. The Islamic Republic of Iran's utter disregard for human life and its propensity for violence have, tragically, had far-reaching implications here at home in Canada with the downing of flight PS752.

The new wave of opposition to the regime, however, is characteristically different from prior periods, for it is threatening the ideological base of an ideological system. This is a measure that can prove fatal for the regime.

Since the onset, the IRI has branded itself the “republic of the dispossessed”, and it has managed to legitimize its violent consolidation of power based on that narrative. Loss of legitimacy in the eyes of its base of support is, therefore, no small feat. Ideological regimes are deeply dependent on their base in justifying repression. The current economic crisis further exasperates that crisis of legitimacy. IRI's inability to deliver its promise to materially better their collective lot further disillusions its political base.

In the last year alone, over 4,000 labour and trade protests have taken place. Last week, over 120 teachers were detained. Some have since been released, but as many as 36 remain in detention. At least 10 jailed teachers and countless other activists are on hunger strikes.

The teachers' union is of particular significance, since they have a national organizational and mobilization capacity. Furthermore, women, including the currently detained Reyhaneh Ansari, make up considerable numbers, both in leadership and membership of the union. Union spokesperson Mohammed Habibi, as well as Jafar Ebrahimi and Rasoul Bodaghi, are among the teachers in solitary confinement in the notorious Evin prison.

The list, as you can imagine, is long.

State repression, however, does not end there. The regime frequently resorts to hostage diplomacy by detaining dual and foreign nationals on fabricated charges to justify suppression domestically and to demand concessions in international negotiations. As a case in point, recently, two French teachers visiting their counterparts in Iran were arrested on allegations of espionage.

Dissent also continues to intensify among the regime's long-time opponents, including women, ethnic groups and intellectuals. Examples of such expressions of solidarity come from Narges Mohammadi and Nasrin Sotoudeh, both lawyers and human rights activists. They are among many other rights and civil society activists who have persistently stood by the protesters. Women, the first casualty of the regime's gender apartheid, have also expressed strong solidarity.

The situation in Iran is dire, and the evidence suggests that the systemic repression and state violence, as well as the country's political and economic stability, will only get worse in the foreseeable future. Canada's commitment to democracy within its borders and beyond makes it a moral and political imperative to support these organic, democratic movements from below.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

Thank you, Ms. Karimi. We have reached our time for you, but we'll be able to continue to engage with you in questions and answers. Thank you for that.

Now, we will go to our third and final witness. Mr. Kowsar, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Nikahang Kowsar, Environmental Journalist and Water Issues Analyst, As an Individual]

Thank you, sir.

I will read part of my statement about the state of Iran's water, as well as environment, human rights and related issues.

In 2001, as a water conservationist and journalist, I warned former president Khatami in person about the effects of the flawed policies of his ministry of energy. I briefed him on the impact of his administration's plans to build more dams and transfer water from one basin to another to serve the special interests, while ignoring the importance of watershed management and maintaining aquifers.

Water scarcity in many rural areas has forced millions of farmers and peasants to leave their ancestral lands and homes for the margins of major cities. The lack of proper infrastructure has disappointed these migrants, and the government has no plans to assist the victims of its water and food policies. Based on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's demands, the government is encouraging farmers to produce more grains in a time of an extreme water shortage that, in turn, has turned Iran into a water bankrupt nation.

Based on the result of the recent research, Iran lost twice the amount of its annual renewable water resources between 2003 and 2018. While the government is encouraging population growth, water resources are disappearing, aquifer by aquifer, lake by lake and river by river. This is resulting in a negative impact on Iran's wildlife as well.

As you all may know, Iranian-Canadian wildlife conservationist Dr. Kavous Seyed-Emami was a victim of the regime's brutality. Many in the Islamic Republic have no respect for wildlife and biodiversity, and they cannot tolerate activities led by the likes of Dr. Seyed-Emami.

In the last few years, Iran has witnessed unrest related to water scarcity, and lives have been lost. Major cities in Iran are literally sinking as a result of land subsidence caused by groundwater depletion. Iran's leaders have continuously demanded that farmers produce grain so that they could prove to the world that the regime is self-sufficient and does not need to obey international norms. Instead of importing products with high water consumption, Iran is using more than half of its groundwater resources to produce wheat and other grains.

While we understand that the continuation of a water shortage will eventually turn into unrest and revolt, I'm concerned about the unpreparedness of the opposition forces to manage the water and environmental resources after the fall of the Islamic regime. I believe that Canada can have a great role in assisting Iran in the future. There remain knowledgeable Iranian-Canadian water experts who can build a sustainable bridge between the two nations.

However, there are also a number of Iranian-Canadians who have assisted the regime in destroying the environment, and Canada should take a stand. Most of the projects that led to this disaster were constructed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Camp headquarters and the Mahab Ghodss consulting firm. Mahab Ghodss is currently on the United States sanctions list.

It should be noted that many employees of Mahab Ghodss are now citizens of Canada, and the head of Mahab Ghodss has travelled freely to Canada to visit his loved ones.

It has been stated that a number of people associated with the Revolutionary Guards have lived and invested in Canada. Per an Iranian regime news agency, Alireza Razm Hosseini, an associate of General Qasem Soleimani, has previously lived in Canada. Mr. Razm Hosseini, a former IRGC commander during the Iran-Iraq war and a former cabinet minister under Rouhani's administration, was once referred to by General Soleimani as “our man in Canada”.

Interestingly, before entering Rouhani's administration, Mr. Razm Hosseini became the governor of two provinces. He had a very bad environmental record in Kerman and Khorasan Razavi provinces.

In short, I can say that, given the state of the environment and water resources, the Islamic regime cannot be sustainable. After 43 years of the rule of ayatollahs and 42 years of hostage taking, the rulers of civilized and democratic countries must be smart enough to know that not resisting the hostage takers and terrorists will result in nothing but defeat.

Ignoring the views of Iranian intellectuals who have not complied with the wishes of the Ayatollah cannot be in the interest of the democratic world, especially Canada. A regime that does not recognize women and that imprisons scientists and protectors of the environment does not deserve any sort of compromise.

We have a saying in our region: We will not give into force unless it is very forceful. Governments and representatives should also learn from strong individuals who did not give in to the very strong IRGC.

Today, at the next meeting, Hamed Esmaeilion is going to present his case. I strongly believe that Mr. Esmaeilion and other individuals who lost their loved ones have shown us how strength and perseverance against the powerful elements that shot down PS752 could break the camel's back that is the Islamic regime.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

Thank you, Mr. Kowsar.

We'll now be going to questions and answers, starting with the Liberal Party.

Mr. Ehsassi, you have seven minutes.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you also to the three people who presented today. I'm very grateful for your insights.

What we have heard is very disturbing. All three of you have actually highlighted the role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the IRGC. We know that they're responsible for terrible things within the region, whether it be in Syria or Iraq. We know that they are the group that actually cracks down on civil society every time there are protests in Iran. We also know, thanks to our last speaker, that they are essentially looting the country by building dams and creating all sorts of different problems.

Allow me to start off with Mr. Aarabi. What are the lessons to be learned for Canada and indeed the international community as the IRGC consolidates its hold over Iran?

[Kasra Aarabi]

Thank you, Mr. Ehsassi.

In terms of lessons to be learned, the first key thing is that the Islamic Republic is becoming more ideological. There is no doubt that it's becoming more ideological. Khamenei is empowering the IRGC because he regards the IRGC as the sotoon-e kheimeh-e enghlab, which means the main pillar of the Islamic Revolution.

Contrary to some assessments, this is not going to lead to the Revolutionary Guard undertaking a military coup against the regime. The clergy itself, the hardline clergy, is empowering the IRGC, and what we see today is an IRGC government, an IRGC deep state, and really their DNA is tied to the hardline clergy.

Moving forwards, without taking action against the IRGC, so if we look at the way Ayatollah Khamenei pursues foreign policy, Khamenei pursues a dual foreign policy for diplomacy and militancy. Previously the diplomatic wing was controlled by the Iranian government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the technocrats, and the militancy aspect was controlled by the IRGC.

Today we see that the IRGC has occupied the diplomatic wing as well. So far the west has only really attempted to engage with that diplomatic arm, leaving the IRGC's actions unchecked. That's essentially why we saw during the 2015 nuclear agreement that the IRGC effectively used the 2015 nuclear agreement as a bargaining chip over the west. In doing so, it was able to conduct and escalate in the Middle East, so its footprint during the JCPOA years expanded across the Middle East. We saw that the number of IRGC-manufactured militias—these are militias created by the Revolutionary Guard—increased as sanctions were eased, and domestically we saw that the IRGC was able to enrich its pockets even more. Each time the Islamic Republic stepped out of line, including by the way, in terrorist operations on European soil, assassinations on European soil, the west would essentially bite its tongue for fear that the Islamic Republic would walk away from the nuclear deal.

Where we are today is that the IRGC de facto controls the Iranian government and has control of the deep state. Unless we take action and counter it, this problem is only going to escalate. If we look at sanctions relief today, there's no doubt that rather than seeking to alleviate the pressure on the Iranian people, Ayatollah Khamenei and the IRGC are digging in their heels and bolstering their security forces.

If sanctions are eased on the Islamic Republic, much as in Putin's regime, that money won't end up in the pockets of ordinary Iranians. Rather, it will serve to bolster the very forces that suppress the Iranian people on the streets.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you ever so much.

I will turn to Ms. Karimi.

Ms. Karimi, over the course of the past several years, we have watched as organic protests have occurred throughout Iran in numerous cities, I think more than 100 cities. At the forefront of these are teachers' unions, pensioners and workers from the transportation sector.

Given the terrible state of the Iranian economy, what are prospects as we move forward?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

Ms. Karimi, you have two minutes at most to answer.

Thank you.

[Maral Karimi]

Thank you.

As I tried to point out in my remarks, the regime is suffering from serious economic crises. Essentially, there is a lack of political will as well as economic will. The coffers of the regime are essentially empty, or at least they're empty when it comes to infrastructure and spending on the masses. In the absence of the regime being able to meet the economic demands of its people, these protests are going to continue to happen.

As we have seen since 2017 and early 2018, these waves of protests are continuing to occur. Most of them have economic underpinnings. I'm also trying to point out that these links of protest are becoming more and more connected. We see expressions of solidarity amongst various groups, not only the working class but also the middle class, women, ethnic groups and so on.

These protests are going to continue to happen. They're organic. They're organized nationwide, especially by the teachers union. We expect the democratic world, particularly Canada, to stand by those democratic movements.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Finally, you said that it behooves Canada to support civil society in Iran. How do you think we can do so?

[Maral Karimi]

Well, both Iran and Canada are signatories to multiple worker unions and syndicates across the world, including the ILO, the International Labour Organization, and Education International. Iran currently is not meeting its obligation to facilitate but is actually criminalizing the various activists from within the country to meet their counterparts outside in the international community.

As I mentioned, there are two French nationals, a husband and wife—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

Thank you, Ms. Karimi. We've gone overtime. You'll potentially be able elaborate through other questions and answers.

We will now move to the Conservative Party.

Mr. Cooper, you have seven minutes.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses for their testimony.

Mr. Aarabi, I concur with you fully in your recommendation that the Government of Canada list the IRGC as a terrorist entity. Four years ago, the House of Commons, including the Prime Minister, voted overwhelmingly to do so, and yet four years later no steps have been taken in that regard—not even after, as you note, the IRGC is responsible for the blood of 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents in the takedown of PS752. Now, why the government hasn't acted, I don't know. Often the response from the government is to simply say, well, we designated the Quds Force of the IRGC as a terrorist organization.

Perhaps you could elaborate on why it is completely inadequate to simply say that the Quds Force is designated and therefore we're addressing this.

[Kasra Aarabi]

Thank you.

The Quds Force is a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Like other branches of the guards, it makes no sense to target just the Quds Force. If you look at the Revolutionary Guards' DNA, first of all, it started off as an Islamist militia, as I explained, and it's maintained that militia identity throughout in the way it behaves.

The IRGC as a whole uses terrorism, militancy, hostage taking and hijackings. It's not just the Quds Force. The entire Revolutionary Guards Corps undergoes ideological indoctrination. Radicalization accounts for more than 50% of the Revolutionary Guards' training, and that's for all Revolutionary Guard members. It's not just the Quds Force.

The content in that indoctrination material—I've assessed this and published a report on it—is explicitly clear that it is violent and extremist in nature, and no different to the content that prescribed groups, from the likes of ISIS and al Qaeda to Hezbollah, use to indoctrinate their fighters.

On Hezbollah, it is designated in Canada. The IRGC created Hezbollah. The IRGC wrote its charter. Hossein Dehghan, IRGC commander in the 1980s, wrote the Hezbollah charter. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp today is Hezbollah's biggest support financially and militarily, and in terms of training and logistics. If Hezbollah warrants being on the list, there is no reason why the IRGC, its main arm and founder, should not be on the list too.

You cannot draw a distinction between the Quds Force and the Revolutionary Guards. The Quds Force is a mere branch of the Revolutionary Guards as an entity.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Thank you for that.

In addition to listing the IRGC as a terrorist organization, the government has at its disposal Magnitsky sanctions. Two years ago, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights recommended that the list of those who should be targeted include President Raisi, as well as the head of the judiciary. President Raisi, of course, played an integral role in the 1988 massacre of more than 30,000 civilians.

What are your thoughts on that? What measures can the Government of Canada take to hold those who are responsible for gross human rights violations accountable?

[Kasra Aarabi]

The Magnitsky sanctions are a key lever for Canada, and all liberal democracies, to take against human rights violators in the Islamic Republic of Iran. It's really important because, as I mentioned, much like the former Soviet Union and Putin's regime, the Islamic Republic is a regime that is corrupt to its core.

Magnitsky sanctions can act as a deterrent for future human rights violators. Why? Because the sons, daughters and families of these same individuals—the same elites who enforce these hardline Islamist policies on the Iranian people and who commit human rights violations—travel to the west. They live abroad. They live lavish lifestyles across the west, including in Canada.

Using Magnitsky sanctions, which impose travel bans and freeze assets, can act as a deterrent. For future protests—and there will be future protests, by the way—using those sanctions could make that individual think twice before ordering a massacre on Iranian streets.

Magnitsky sanctions are an essential tool for Canada to use in targeting Islamic Republic officials.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Do you think President Raisi should be included on that list?

[Kasra Aarabi]

It is absolutely clear that President Raisi was involved. He says he's proud to have been involved in the heyat-e marg, the death committee, which was responsible for the deaths of as many as 30,000 Iranians.

He has been designated by the United States, and I think the other western nations should follow suit.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Very good.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

Thank you for that, Mr. Cooper.

Now we're going to continue on with our next questioner.

You have seven minutes, Mr. Trudel. Go ahead.

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you to all the witnesses for being here today. Your presentations were very informative.

I'll start with you, Ms. Karimi. In previous studies, we've seen how dictatorial regimes leverage social media, particularly to spy on the enemies of their governments. I believe networks such as Facebook and Twitter are banned in Iran.

Could you tell us how the Iranian government or state uses social media to silence potential opponents of the regime?

[Maral Karimi]

I'm so sorry. I just learned how to turn on the translation. Could you quickly tell me again what the question was?