Mr. Speaker, earlier this week in Tehran, over 70 student protesters who had been peacefully protesting the government's plan to rebury fallen soldiers on their campus were arrested and detained by police.
The reburial plan they were protesting is a cynical ploy to turn part of the campus into a war grave, thereby providing the police with a convenient pretext to crush any future political activity at the university. It is appalling that the government is misusing the remains of Iran's heroic war dead as tools with which to crush freedom of assembly and freedom of speech.
This cynical action follows a raid earlier this year on the offices of Iran's Nobel Laureate, the human rights activist, Shirin Ebadi.
All Canadians condemn these actions and call for the immediate release of the detained student protesters. The Canadian government continues to urge Iran's government to respect fundamental human rights and end the crude stifling of dissent.
We stand in solidarity with those in Iran who risk their personal safety to stand up for freedom.