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

[Maryam Shafipour, As an Individual]

Hello. Thanks for having me. This is my second attendance as a witness at SDIR.

My family in Iran has been under attack and pressure since my first testimony in 2018. I reported this to CSIS a few months ago. I return today because.... I mention this, because I want to say how important this is for me—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

Mrs. Shafipour, if you could pause for a moment, we'll correct the audio. There is some background noise.

[Maryam Shafipour]

Okay, sure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

Do you have anything running in the background—any audio in the space where you are, Mrs. Shafipour?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Erica Pereira]

Do you have ParlVU turned on?

Does somebody have ParlVU turned on to watch the meeting in the background?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

We're going to suspend for a few moments.

[Maryam Shafipour]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

We're going to restart.

You have about four and a half minutes, Mrs. Shafipour. Please go ahead.

[Maryam Shafipour]

This is my second attendance as a witness at SDIR. My family in Iran has been under attacks and pressures since my first testimony in 2018. I reported this to CSIS a few months ago. I am attending again today, and I mention this because I want to say how this is important for me and how much I appreciate this opportunity.

Unfortunately, Canada has become a safe zone for Iranian authorities in recent years. This is so disappointing for me as a human rights activist. It's not only about human rights violations in Iran; it's about Canada's domestic security, and the Government of Canada should take it seriously. We will continue our efforts to make sure that Canadians are safe and respected.

Today I will do testimony on behalf of my friend Narges Mohammadi. She is a very well-known human rights advocate in Iran and is currently being held in Qarchak Prison in Iran. She wished to do it on her own, but, unfortunately, she was arrested for the 14th time on April 12 to serve a sentence of 30 months and 74 floggings.

Today I will read two parts of her writing. One of them was published in The Globe and Mail and one part is from her private letter to Canadian MPs.

She wrote that:

Any transformation in Iran must be driven by the Iranian people, although democratic governments, human rights groups and the international community may play a crucial role. Holding human-rights violators in Iran accountable, whether by using the legal tools available, such as Magnitsky sanctions, or through diplomatic pressure, legislation or drawing international attention to the issue and embarrassing the Islamic Republic's authorities, would undoubtedly pave the way for our fight for justice and freedom, warming our hearts and bolstering our steps.

Also, she wrote a private letter to Canadian MPs, and I will read part of that. She wrote:

It will happen until Canada officially bars Iranian officials from entering the country. Just a few months ago, the IRGC commander and former Tehran police chief was spotted in Canada and definitely, many other Iranian governments and military officials travel to Canada freely and may have permanent residency status in Canada and they just have been so smart or lucky that they have not been yet captured by citizens' cameras. This is not called security for Canadians. As long as the ban does not become legal, not only Iranian-Canadians but all Canadians will not feel safe. Certainly no Canadian wants his family to be a neighbour to a terrorist or a murderer. They can travel to Canada legally today and invest their bloody money there. We don't call on Canadian government to liberate Iran or to do anything specifically for the Iranian people outside of Canada's border. We urge Canada to protect the security and well-being of its own citizens. Canadian[s] deserve better than this.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

Thank you, Ms. Shafipour.

Now we will continue to the first and only round of questions and answers. Given that we have to end at six o'clock sharp, we'll have four minutes per questioner per party.

We'll be starting again with Mr. Ehsassi from the Liberal Party, please.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you to the extraordinary panellists who are joining us today.

There's very little time, and there are numerous questions.

I'd like to start off with Professor Moore-Gilbert. Professor Moore-Gilbert, you were a pillar of strength while you were held for over two years in Iran, so I want to acknowledge that. I also want to congratulate you for the new book you have authored, The Uncaged Sky, which is is truly incredible, because not only do you talk about your own harrowing experience but you also share the plight of others who were held arbitrarily in prison in Iran.

Given that your book is essentially a window into the Iranian prison system, is there anyone you'd like to mention today that you expect Canadians and other countries to remain focused on?

[Dr. Kylie Moore-Gilbert]

Thank you so much for those comments. It's so lovely to hear that. I'm amazed that my book reached the attention of anybody in Canada, so I really appreciate it.

Building on what Karim said, Niloufar Bayani is somebody I would absolutely like to mention. She's a Canadian permanent resident, as Karim said. She went to McGill University, where she studied biology and conservation. She has a lot of connections to Canada. All of her family members are permanent residents there and still, to this day, routinely travel to Canada for business purposes, as well as seeing family.

I also know that the family of Houman Jokar, who is another Iranian in this same case.... I'll mention that this is the same case as Kavous Seyed-Emami, the Canadian professor who died under IRGC interrogation, and the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation group of conservationists who were arrested in 2018 and charged with espionage.

Several of them have links to Canada. Houman Jokar's family, including his sister, migrated to Canada and are citizens. Several members of this group—not just Professor Seyed-Emami, who passed away—have links to Canada.

Niloufar Bayani is a permanent resident. She studied there and returned to Iran to do good in her home country. She only returned for nine months before being arrested. She also used to work at the UN Environment Programme. She has a master's from Columbia University. She's one of Iran's best and brightest, and she is very committed to saving Iran's endangered species, particularly the big cat species of Iran. She has gone on the record quite bravely as having been not only tortured in prison, but sexually assaulted and sexually harassed on a number of occasions, including as mechanisms to extract a false confession from her, which she has very vocally retracted since then.

I really hope that the Canadian Parliament and the Canadian public remember not only Kavous, who was their citizen, but Niloufar Bayani, who is a permanent resident and is still, more than four years later, suffering unjust incarceration in Evin prison.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you very much.

I am afraid I'm out of time for more questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

You have 20 seconds, but it's up to you.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Professor Sadjadpour, you have truly been a font of erudition and insight for many years. In Foreign Affairs last month, you said the “Islamic Republic has proved too rigid to bend and too ruthless to break”.

What are the implications of that for the international community?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

Answer in about three sentences, please.

[Karim Sadjadpour]

Essentially, this is a regime that has proven incapable of reforming. It's been around for 43 years and has proven incapable of reforming. My view on it, and this is both the analysis and a policy prescription, is that the fate of the Islamic Republic is going to be similar to that of the Soviet Union—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

Thank you.

[Karim Sadjadpour]

—so we should think about a western strategy to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

Thank you for that.

I apologize. It's out of fairness to all the members here. Maybe you can elaborate further.

We'll continue with the Conservative Party and Mr. Cooper.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses.

I'm going to ask my questions of Dr. Esmaeilion. You spoke about some level of frustration that you've had with inaction of the Liberal government in seeing that justice is done for the victims of PS752. There were 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents.

Can you speak to some of your frustrations and what it has been like engaging with this government? On the specific issue of designating the IRGC as a terrorist entity, why do you believe the government continues to drag its feet?

[Dr. Hamed Esmaeilion]

I can start with IRGC and the Magnitsky sanctions. We had a meeting with Minister Joly yesterday. All of the family members were invited to the call, and we asked that question several times. Why is IRGC not designated as a terrorist organization?

We see a mysterious resistance to doing that. We have a list of more than 50 people who were involved in shooting down the plane. We have offered it to the government. Nobody has acted to subject them to Magnitsky sanctions.

As Mr. Sadjadpour said, the head of the police department in Iran at the time of killing Zahra Kazemi was going to the gym a few hundred metres from where my wife and daughter are buried in Richmond. This is surprising to us.

Why has Canada been a safe haven for the criminals of the Islamic Republic of Iran?

Going to an international forum, the government is not transparent with us. They haven't given us any time frame. Now I think it is a political decision to delay going to ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization.

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

Thank you for that.

You spoke about Canada being a safe haven. In that regard, could you elaborate on IRGC affiliates and their activities within Canada and the security threat they pose?

[Dr. Hamed Esmaeilion]

The victims' families who live in Canada have faced a lot of threats and intimidating actions from the Iranian regime. CSIS has twice prepared a report—this year and last year—saying that the families have been targeted by the IRGC.

I can say that the families receive phone calls and messages on different social media platforms. We have shown that to the RCMP and to the other parties, but we haven't seen any action. Nobody has been arrested. We don't know what they're doing.

I know that the RCMP has started an investigation about foreign interference, but we are not aware of the outcome of this.

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

Going back to your meeting the other day, what was the response of the minister?