Thank you.
As I was saying, the UN's fact-finding mission report covers the timeframe of September 2022, after the death of Mahsa Jina Amini at the hands of the regime's morality police, which sparked the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprisings in which more than 600 peaceful protesters were killed, 71 of whom were children. Twenty thousand were imprisoned. There was intentional blinding, targeted shooting, torture, rape and death sentences of peaceful protesters on top of the existing systematic discrimination against women and the persecution of ethnic, religious and sexual minorities, among other abuses.
I organized a delegation of experts and survivors of these abuses who gave testimony at the UN, and I would be happy to organize a similar panel for your subcommittee if you were interested.
The most important part of the FFMI report was the conclusion that the abuses of human rights by the regime amounted to crimes against humanity—in other words, an international crime, grounds for the International Criminal Court and grounds for UN member states with universal jurisdiction, like Canada, to try the perpetrators of these crimes in a tribunal. The report recommends opening structural investigations for these crimes against humanity.
Journalist Negar Mojtahedi, who is with Global News, did an investigative piece revealing that 700 such regime affiliates are in Canada, nine of whom have been called to be deported, but instead of deportation they could be on trial, setting the precedent for accountability, as in the case of Hamid Nouri in Sweden.
With each of these regime affiliates comes a trail of dirty laundered money and evidence of foreign interference, including threats to Iranian Canadians and political interference. My organization, the Iranian Justice Collective, was here on the Hill a couple of weeks ago providing policy recommendations on foreign interference, on the PS752 file, on upping the number of Iranian refugees, on actions to get the IRGC onto the terrorist list and on the expansion of sanctions we call Toomaj sanctions. I will table this as well, if permitted, and I would be happy to elaborate.
Shortly after the trip to Ottawa, my colleague received a call at her family's home in Iran from a regime official who threatened that she would end up like the women she was trying to defend if she continued with her activism.
Let me pause and really stress that concentrating on Iranian human rights issues is not an altruistic pursuit; it is in the national self-interest of Canada and the Canadian public. Former Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Zarif said in his book that while he was in office, there was no bigger pressure on the regime than human rights pressure. That is why we hope you support our campaign to end gender apartheid in Iran and Afghanistan, as Canada did to end racial apartheid in South Africa.
This regime has no legitimacy. Eighty per cent of the population want an end to the regime, and in recent parliamentary elections in the capital, Tehran, there was only an 8% voter turnout.
I say this as a proud Canadian who was born in Iran, for the benefit of both people and for lasting change, not just to have stability in the Middle East by cutting off the main sponsor of terrorism for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis and not just to halt the export of military equipment from Iran to Russia to use against Ukraine, but also for the safety of our Canadian public here on Canadian soil. We cannot risk not having a strong Iran policy. We are not safe.
A government's main objective is to ensure the security of its people. I recommend that Canada join its G7 allies to host a conference or to convene a task force to draft a strong Iran policy with human rights at its core, in which there are real costs, economically or diplomatically, for non-compliance. For our safety and that of our children, we need a comprehensive strategic plan to weaken the regime and empower freedom-loving Iranians.
Thank you very much. I look forward to answering any questions.