Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to follow up on a question I recently asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs about the consequences of the elections in Iran.
About a year ago I had the great opportunity of visiting Iran and met a lot of the young people and the authorities. I was extremely impressed by the young dynamic population of that country. More than 50% of the population is under the age of 25. These young people want changes. That was obviously indicated in the consequences of the recent elections.
The president, Mr. Khatami, is a very positive individual. He wrote a book called “Dialogue of Civilizations”. He is very interested in having a dialogue with other countries and has a very positive view of what Iran can do and the role it can play in the world today. We see a real change in attitude.
In the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade this morning, we had a group of responsible Canadian businessmen who are presently very active in this area. They told us that they could see real signs of change in Iran. There is co-operation between the Iranian and western authorities about controlling the drug trade with Afghanistan. There is a lot of effort on behalf of the Iranian authorities to collaborate with other countries.
On the other hand, there are very disturbing indications in that country. The army is still in control and in the hands of the supreme leader, the Ayatollah. The security apparatus is not in the hands of democratically elected officials. The courts consist of clerics who are not responsive to change and the police carry on rather arbitrary activities which threaten the lives of ordinary citizens. We see arbitrary actions of authority. We see things like the way in which tax laws are applied. I was told by a group of businessmen when I was there that the arbitrariness of the tax laws is such that it is very hard to get foreign investors in the country because they do not really know the nature of the regime they are going into. They do not have the juridical security they would like to have.
We now come to today's situation and we are looking at some months since the last elections. There is a parliamentary majority in favour of reform. I would like to follow up my earlier question by asking the parliamentary secretary if he could tell us a bit about the changes that are taking place.
We still read in the newspapers about how they are seized. The morality police are still harassing young people. There is a question as to the courts and how responsive they are. There is a concern which I raised in the House today about the trial of a group of Jewish citizens of Iran which is taking place on Thursday and the nature of the protection they will receive and the nature of religious freedom that is taking place in the country.
It looks as if this is a case of two steps forward and one step back. I suppose that is true in all political situations. I would like to know what we are doing about it. What are we doing to encourage change? How are we helping Iranians who want change to get change? What visits are MPs, ministers and trade officials making? It seems to me that now is the time to move. Now is the time to encourage those in authority in Iran to open their country.
I would like to suggest that we might be a bit more active. I would like to encourage the government to help and encourage the forces of change in Iran, and restrict the movement of those who wish to stop change, for the benefit of all Iranians.