Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on Feb. 2nd, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you.

Now I would like to invite Madame Atena Daemi to take the floor for four minutes, please.

The floor is yours.

[Atena Daemi, Human Rights Defender, As an Individual]

[Witness spoke in Farsi, interpreted as follows:]

Thank you very much for inviting me. I would like to speak directly about the current human rights situation in Iran.

These days, many people inside Iran repeat a sentence that clearly shows the depth of the tragedy: “I am ashamed to be alive; I wish I had been killed too.” It reflects a deep wound and a heavy psychological burden on the collective memories of Iranian society.

Following economic collapse, the sharp fall of the national currency and severe pressure on daily life, widespread public anger emerged across the country. Nationwide protests and strikes spread quickly but, from the very first days, they were met with violent repression. Security and military forces acting on direct orders from Ali Khamenei fired live ammunition at civilians. At the same time, the Internet and even phone communications were completely shut down to prevent people from sharing information or asking for help.

During this crackdown, security forces attacked hospitals. They either killed injured protesters with final shots or abducted them from medical centres. The fate of many of these people is still unknown. Among many of my own friends and acquaintances alone, at least 11 people were killed, including Aida Aghili, a woman who was shot twice in the head with live ammunition.

According to data published by a well-known human rights organization, HRANA, the number of confirmed deaths is 6,479, including 118 children under the age of 18. I must stress that this figure includes only cases that could be fully verified despite widespread Internet shutdowns. In addition, more than 17,000 deaths are still under investigation, and at least 11,020 people have been reported injured. Existing estimates indicate that between 30,000 and 50,000 people have been killed. These numbers are not just statistics. Each number represents a human life and the destruction of a family.

After the street protests decreased, repression entered a new phase: violent arrests, summons and fabricated charges, the presence of security forces in schools, pressure on students and their families, and tighter control over hospitals and medical centres. At the same time, security forces carried out house-to-house raids to confiscate satellite dishes and Starlink equipment.

The Islamic Republic has demanded and collected large sums of money from families to return the bodies of those killed, and from people simply for owning satellite or Starlink equipment, while the monthly minimum wage of a worker in Iran is extremely low.

The situation of detainees is also extremely alarming. I speak from personal experience, having spent seven years in prisons of the Islamic Republic, and I know very well what detainees are facing today: systematic torture, beatings, solitary confinement, denial of contact with families, and fast-track trials without access to a lawyer, often leading to death sentences based on fabricated charges. So far, at least 281 forced confessions have been broadcast on state-affiliated media. Many reports also describe denial of medical care, forced injections or the administration of unknown drugs, and inhuman detention conditions caused by severe overcrowding and lack of water, food and basic necessities. More than 20,000 protesters—lawyers, nurses, doctors, university students and school students—have been arrested so far.

For years, Iranians have peacefully demanded an end to the Islamic Republic, yet again there has been repression. What has unfolded in recent days amounts to an unprecedented—

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Can you wrap it up, please? We have exceeded the time.

[Atena Daemi]

Okay, no problem.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you.

Now I would like to invite Mr. Kaveh Shahrooz to take the floor for four minutes.

The floor is yours.

[Kaveh Shahrooz, Lawyer and Senior Fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon, and thank you to the subcommittee for inviting me.

Over the years, I have appeared many times before this subcommittee to speak about human rights abuses in Iran. Each time, I warned that the situation was awful. Today, I'm here to say that the situation is catastrophic. Iranians face a human rights crisis with few parallels in contemporary history. It's an emergency that should compel Canada and the entire democratic world to act.

Governments that truly represent their people do not need to slaughter their citizens and hide what they're doing from the world by shutting off the Internet. The more a regime's legitimacy drops, the more it's forced to use violence and fear to make up for that deficit. Iran's regime is lashing out today because it has lost all legitimacy. All it has left is naked violence and state terror.

For years, the Islamic regime claimed that it could protect Iran from foreign threats. That illusion is gone, thanks to the humiliation it suffered during the 12-day war with Israel. In that war, Israel showed the world that Iran's regime cannot control its skies, protect its top military officials or even provide its citizens with bomb shelters.

For years, the Islamic regime tried to project strength through its proxies. These proxies, like Hezbollah and Hamas, have now collapsed or have been severely degraded. Gone also is Bashar al-Assad, who killed hundreds of thousands of his own citizens at the Iranian regime's say-so.

Domestically, too, the regime is desperate and out of options. In 1979, when this regime took power, one U.S. dollar bought 70 rials. Thanks to sanctions imposed because of the regime's criminally foolish efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon, thanks to its utter incompetence and mismanagement, thanks to the nation's wealth being squandered in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, and thanks to truly staggering levels of corruption among the upper ranks of the regime, today that same U.S. dollar buys over a million rials. This is economic destruction. Iran's people are increasingly, and in large numbers, falling into poverty.

It doesn't end there. Because of criminal levels of mismanagement and corruption by what has been called a “water mafia”, Iran is literally running out of water. The so-called president of the country has talked about moving the capital because there is not enough water for the people of Tehran.

It's not diplomatic to use such language, but for all the reasons I just stated, and many more, Iran's regime today is like an aggressive, rabid animal that is cornered. Because it is cornered, it's lashing out in ways that are hard for those of us who live safely in Canada to even fathom. When Iran erupted in late December and early January with anti-regime protests, this rabid, illegitimate and cornered regime did the only thing regimes like this do to maintain power: It opened fire, and it did not stop until the country was overrun with blood.

By the very conservative estimates of the Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, 6,842 people were killed by the regime over the span of just a few days, with 146 of them under the age of 18. HRANA also reports over 11,000 injured. As I said, these are very conservative estimates. Now that the Internet is beginning to return to Iran, we're hearing about casualty rates in the tens of thousands.

For the crime of wanting an end to dictatorship, for the crime of wanting to end gender and religious apartheid, and for the crime of wanting to be able to feed their kids and have drinking water, thousands upon thousands of Iranians were killed and dumped in morgues, put in what has become the dark, enduring symbol of the Iranian regime's crimes against humanity: the black body bag.

In the face of this crisis, I ask—nay, implore—Canada's government not to be silent. I implore you to loudly say that this regime has committed mass human rights violations and that its leaders must face international criminal justice. Iran is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, but there are ways, through the UN Security Council, that its leaders can still be indicted by the ICC. Canada should push the global community for such an outcome.

I implore you to work to provide funding for Starlink terminals for Iranians, because the Islamic regime will continue to shut off the Internet to commit atrocities. I implore you to use legislation we already have to identify and deport regime officials who have come to Canada and brought their families here, and to seize the assets of those who have brought money here. This is blood money that's pumping through our housing markets and banks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Could you wrap it up, please? You have already exceeded the time by one minute.

[Kaveh Shahrooz]

I will, for sure.

I implore you to allow—after proper vetting, of course—more refugees in from Iran. Each time there are mass protests in Iran, brave men and women have to escape to nearby countries. Let Canada be a safe haven to them and not to the rich regime officials and their children.

Most importantly, I implore you to say loudly and publicly, as a matter of formal Canadian policy, that the Islamic regime in Iran is illegitimate and needs to go. Adopting a policy like that is not common in international relations, but we did it with another repugnant regime of the modern era—that of apartheid South Africa. There, we clearly recognized evil and stood up to it. Iran's regime, a regime that puts thousands in black body bags solely for their wanting their rights, is no less evil. I implore you to stand up to it.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you.

I would like to invite Mr. Brandon Silver to take the floor for four minutes.

[Brandon Silver, Director of Policy and Projects, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights]

Honourable members, thank you for the opportunity to join you today.

As legal counsel to victims of atrocities and political prisoners, we have seen the horrifying human stories that underpin the staggering statistics of abuse in Iran.

Iran has the highest rate of child executions in the world, the highest per capita rate of executions more generally, the highest rate of state hostage takings and the highest per capita rate of imprisonment of journalists.

This has real and tangible costs for Canadians. It meant the murder of Montreal photojournalist Zahra Kazemi; the hostage takings of Professor Maryam Mombeini and Saeed Malekpour; the killing of the Canadian passengers of flight PS752; the murders of eight Canadians on October 7, 2023, and the atrocities that are ongoing as we speak, wherein the authorities are confirmed to have killed Canadians and likely will continue doing so.

None of these Canadians received justice, and their killers and kidnappers enjoy impunity. They are now committing these crimes again as we meet here today.

Canada has the authority to investigate and prosecute these crimes. The criteria established by the RCMP for opening a structural investigation have clearly been met. These crimes against humanity that are occurring have a strong nexus to Canada: There are Canadian victims; many in the Iranian community here in Canada can provide evidence to the RCMP; and perpetrators are likely to be caught in Canada.

Announcing the opening of an investigation would send a message of solidarity to victims and of accountability to violators and assert the value of Canadian citizenship. It would protect our sovereignty, establishing consequences for murdering Canadians and demonstrating that their murderers are not welcome in Canada. The gathering of evidence through a structural investigation would assist with prospective prosecutions in Canada or with mechanisms abroad. It would also assist the Canada Border Services Agency to identify and deny entry to perpetrators, many of whom are likely to come to Canada as conditions in Iran continue to deteriorate.

Again, two separate United Nations independent expert bodies have determined that the actions of these perpetrators may constitute crimes against humanity. They should be investigated and prosecuted as such.

Canada has an opportunity and a duty to lead on behalf of the victimized Canadians left without justice, on behalf of the brave Iranians on the front lines of the fight for our common humanity, and on behalf of our country's foundational principles of justice and the rule of law, which are currently under global assault.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you.

I'd like to invite Ms. Kimberly Lenz to take the floor for four minutes, please.

[Kimberly Lenz, Program and Policy Officer, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights]

Thank you.

My remarks today address the urgent need for a decisive Canadian response to the Islamic Republic's widespread crackdown on peaceful protesters and its external aggression abroad.

The sheer scale of the regime's systematic brutality is unprecedented. By conservative estimates, as we have heard, at least 33,000 Iranians have been massacred, with credible assessments ranging far higher. Experts describe it as the worst mass killing in Iran's modern history, and others conclude it meets the legal threshold for crimes against humanity. The killings continue, and the regime's judiciary has announced the imminent execution of thousands of detainees.

Alongside this, Canada and liberal democracies face escalating threats from the Islamic Republic and its proxies. CSIS, the G7 and a broad coalition of democracies have warned of growing transnational repression and lethal threats.

This is a historic and pivotal moment. Canadian leadership would build on mounting political momentum to deny the regime the freedom to operate with impunity.

We urge the Canadian government to target the architect of these threats, the IRGC, by dismantling its networks through two key measures.

First, Canada should promote and support proscription of the IRGC as a terrorist entity with like-minded partners, particularly the U.K., where parliamentarians are pressing for the rapid adoption of enabling legislation and the group's designation.

Second, it should deepen coordination with allies, including the European Union, which unanimously agreed on its designation last week. Enhanced intelligence-sharing, law enforcement and judicial collaboration, as well as sanctions alignment, would strengthen national and global security.

Iranians continue to rise up against the regime's tyranny and risk their lives in pursuit of a secular, democratic Iran, grounded in human rights. Canada must respond with urgency and resolve.

Thank you for the opportunity.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Now, I would like to start with the first round of questions and answers.

I would like to invite Mr. Majumdar to take the floor for seven minutes.

The floor is yours.

[Shuv Majumdar, Conservative, Calgary Heritage, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to all of our witnesses for bearing testimony to a people who are under such brutal subjugation by a brutal regime.

Ms. Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay, I would like to ask you my first question.

You cautioned about regime propaganda that is being deployed in its own self-preservation. You mentioned in your testimony that they might use deceased victims—victims they murdered and massacred—and pre-position them, in light of a potential attack on their own regime brutality and infrastructure. Could I ask you to take a couple of minutes to expand upon what Canadians and the world need to prepare to see, in how the regime intends to propagandize the murdered in its own self-defence?

[Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay]

Absolutely. I was speaking earlier about families having to root through body bags. What we've noticed is that there are fewer women and children. Iranians started to ask the question, where are the women and children? It wasn't just because of the disproportionate number of men who were out on the streets, because what differentiates this round of protests from the last one is that it involved a cross-section of society, from all ages, classes, ethnicities, etc. It was a full national revolution, and when they were searching, they weren't finding the women and children. What was discovered was that they are preserving these bodies in refrigeration trucks and warehouses so that in the event of a foreign intervention they can use these bodies as evidence of the deaths committed by foreign countries, like the United States or Israel.

They will use every means and opportunity to point the blame at someone else or another country other than themselves.

[Shuv Majumdar, Conservative, Calgary Heritage, AB]

It's brutal testimony to offer, and I'm grateful for your candour. I know it's not easy to talk about human beings suffering this type of abuse by, one, being murdered, and two, being victimized as a prop to protect the regime.

I've had experience with confronting this regime as early as 2006 in Iraq and in Afghanistan, where they have pursued some of the most vile tactics we've ever seen in the history of warfare. The imagination and ambition they bring are based upon a values set that I think many in the western world don't necessarily appreciate. It is not a culture of life; it is a celebration of death, a nihilistic ambition to eradicate people and a sectarian ambition to control the world, if not the region, to start.

Mr. Shahrooz, I'm going to turn to you now.

Your powerful testimony implored Canadian leaders to do more than talk, to do more than issue statements. From January until now, the Government of Canada has been abysmally silent. I want to give you a minute to expand upon your thinking about what, in a real world, you would have preferred to see your government do. It's a government that is supposed to represent the families of murdered victims of flight PS752, murdered prisoners, tortured prisoners, prisoners who are still held in Evin prison. Tell me, tell us, share with Canada your perspective, please, sir.

[Kaveh Shahrooz]

Thank you, Mr. Majumdar.

Yes, what we've heard from our government has been, in my view, woefully inadequate. We've heard statements of condemnation, which are welcomed, but there really needs to be much more.

Canada has a unique role to play. Canada is home to a very large Iranian Canadian population, as we can see from the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, on the streets in the last few weeks. Canada should take a leadership role in the world. A lot of what I mentioned in my testimony is what Canada should be doing.

First and foremost, Canada, regrettably, has become a safe haven for regime affiliates. I think that's where we should begin. We now have the tools, with the IRGC terror listing and with certain changes to our immigration policies, to go after folks who have ties to the regime, to seize their assets, to kick them out of the country and to ensure that those with ties to the regime don't come here.

Regrettably, there has been too little enforcement of that. Since those laws came into effect, as far as I know, very little has been done to combat the many regime affiliates in this country. Regrettably, our IRGC listing has made life very difficult for conscripts who didn't want to serve in the IRGC. Their lives have been made difficult, but those with more substantial ties to this terrible, terrible institution have not been prosecuted, so that's a place to start.

Also, Canada should take a leadership role globally. We took this step many years ago when we closed our embassy and we kicked out the Iranian ambassador. That's something the rest of the democratic world needs to do, and Canada should take a leadership role in that. We have been too silent on that. I think our general policy ought to be, as I mentioned in my testimony, that this regime is illegitimate and needs to be treated as a pariah state in every sense. Canada should play an important role in that.

[Shuv Majumdar, Conservative, Calgary Heritage, AB]

Thank you for your testimony.

I'll give my remaining minute to MP Kronis.

[Tamara Kronis, Conservative, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

I'm going to ask a quick follow-up on your comments.

You mentioned regime affiliates. I'm wondering if you can comment on the ways the IRGC is using other issues and those affiliates to support its campaign in Canada.

[Kaveh Shahrooz]

The IRGC, aside from being a brutal military force, is also a very powerful and corrupt economic force in Iran. It has affiliations with all sorts of bad actors around the globe, terrorist organizations, criminal gangs and so on. Through that economic power, it has managed to engage in all sorts of nefarious activities in the region and globally.

In Canada, what it has done is.... There are people with ties to that organization who have found their way here, who have stashed their money in our banks. They've invested it in property and businesses and so on. That's really what we ought to be combatting. We now have the tools to do it. We just need the political will to actually take action.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Kronis.

I would like to invite Mr. Ehsassi to take the floor for seven minutes, please.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you also to all the witnesses. You have been focused on human rights violations in Iran or more broadly for many, many years, so we all owe you a great debt of gratitude. You're here not just because of the events that have taken place in the course of the past month, but for the hard work you've been doing year in, year out.

If I may, I'll start with Ms. Afshin-Jam MacKay. You pointed out, rightly, how important technology is and how we should harness all the tools at our disposal to make sure that the horrific practice of this regime to cloak everything in darkness never happens again.

You spoke about Arvancloud—I had never heard about this specific organization—and the fact that the U.K. and the U.S. have already listed it. It's a very good suggestion that we start there, but would you mind sharing with us what the significance of this organization is?

[Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay]

Thank you, Mr. Ehsassi.

Arvancloud played a huge role in the regime's intranet project. They controlled and censored versions of the Internet inside Iran. They were directly involved and implicated in these Internet blackouts, when thousands of people were murdered—not just this time, in these protests, but during “Bloody November”, when 1,500 people were killed in a matter of days.

I don't know too much about the tech that goes behind it, but I would encourage your subcommittee to one day invite Mr. Mehdi Yahyanejad, who leads a technology guild, so to speak, with a lot of different Iranian diaspora groups that are involved in the tech sector. He's an expert in this, and he would be very well suited to answer some of these questions.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

That's a great suggestion, and I will follow up on your recommendation. I will reach out to Mr. Yahyanejad. I'm sure he has very compelling evidence as to why the U.K. and U.S. did this, and I'm sure—

[Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay]

By the way, he is also responsible for delivering thousands of Starlinks inside Iran.