Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to address the subject of Motion No. 410 as it relates to Iran.
The government shares the opposition's outrage and alarm regarding the situation in Iran. Our current approach to Iran is quite intensive in its scope, and clearly reflects a deep and justifiable concern about Iran's behaviour, domestically, regionally and internationally. We fully and completely agree with the member that the time has come for further action. We fully support this motion.
My colleague from Crowfoot will speak about the situation in Sudan.
I want to take a few minutes today to remind the House of what our government is already doing to bring pressure on the regime in Tehran, but first let me outline why we feel it is so important for pressure to be brought on Iran to change its behaviour.
Canada believes Iran's continued support for militant groups threatens regional stability and raises the spectre of further conflict. Tehran's support for terrorism is longstanding and poses a consistent threat to regional stability, peace and security. It is vital that the international community engage and exert pressure on Iran to stop its destabilizing influence and end its support for militant groups in the region such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The defence minister's expressed concern over support for the Taliban coming from Iran is a testament to Iran's spoiler role in the region. Canada must continue to work with the international community and with its multilateral partners to address its concerns on Iran's role in the region.
Canada remains very concerned and has shown a great commitment toward addressing the poor and deteriorating human rights situation in Iran. The persecution of religious and ethnic minorities, such as the Baha'is, continues unabated. The recent four year sentences given to three members of the Baha'i faith, combined with the sentences issued to 50 other Baha'is for their involvement in a community youth development program, attests to this fact.
Women's rights are oppressed, freedom of expression and the media are severely restricted, and efforts have been made to intimidate academics and journalists. All of these examples attest to the unacceptable human rights situation in Iran.
For five straight years, Canada has worked with more than 40 co-sponsors and successfully led a resolution on the situation on human rights in Iran at the UN General Assembly.
Canada demonstrates great leadership in this respect as it leads one of the most difficult country specific human rights resolutions at the General Assembly. It should be noted that Canada has achieved success with this resolution despite attempts by Iran to pass no action motions which, had they been successful, would have adjourned the debate on the resolution.
The adoption of the Canadian led resolution signals that the international community is deeply concerned about Iran's serious human rights situation, and that concrete steps must be taken to address it.
Iran's nuclear program and its continued defiance of the demands of the international community on this issue have generated considerable international concern through most of this decade. A nuclear armed Iran would be a grave threat to regional peace and security, and we have fully supported the efforts of the United Nations Security Council to press Iran on the scope and direction of its nuclear program.
Since 1996, Canadian relations with Iran have been governed by a policy of controlled engagement. This policy reflects Canada's ongoing concerns about the Iranian government's opposition to the Middle East peace process, its support of terrorism, its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, and its atrocious human rights policies.
Following the death of Canadian-Iranian Zahra Kazemi in 2003, and the lack of progress in punishing those responsible for her death, Canada tightened the controlled engagement policy. As it stands now, the controlled engagement policy limits official bilateral dialogue to the following four topics: the case of murdered Canadian-Iranian Zahra Kazemi, Iran's human rights performance, Iran's nuclear program, and Iran's role in the region.
Within the confines of the controlled engagement policy, Canada also prohibits the opening of Iranian consulates, cultural centres and Iranian banks in Canada.
Furthermore, it prohibits the establishment of direct links and any high level visits. The Canadian government's control engagement policy has shown great foresight in that it already bars cooperation between any Canadian government agency and its Iranian counterpart. For example, Canada does not facilitate trade and investment between Canadian private firms with any Iranian state entities.
In addition to maintaining a controlled engagement policy with Iran, Canada has fully implemented the binding economic measures called for under the United Nations Security Council resolutions 1737 and 1747. These sanctions reflect many of the international community's concerns and send a strong signal to Iran that it must change its behaviour with respect to uranium enrichment activities or continue to face stringent multilateral sanctions.
Canada is supportive of these sanctions and believes that they are an effective approach in attempting to force Iran to end its uranium enrichment program. The Security Council is currently deliberating on a third sanctions resolution which, if approved, would further put international pressure on Iran. Should this resolution be adopted, Canada would fully implement the new measures decided upon within the resolution.
The Government of Canada has also supported and responded to the warnings of the financial action task force on the risks posed to the international financial system by Iran's lack of an anti-money laundering and counterterrorist financing regime.
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions recently issued an advisory drawing attention to the FATF recommendation for heightened attention to transactions related to Iran as a result of these concerns.
We welcome the interest and advice of the hon. member for York Centre. We fully and completely support the motion and we can see the value in placing economic pressure through measures such as those we have already imposed and the divestment measures proposed in the motion.
Let me conclude by stating that our government will continue to work on strategic, focused and ultimately effective actions to respond to the situation in Iran.