Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity to speak on the topic of Iran Accountability Week.
Canadians I have spoken with across my entire community of Scarborough—Rouge River and all across Toronto stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Iran in their aspirations for freedom, peace, democracy and the rule of law, and not just rule of law, but the rule of a just law. I know we will continue to stand with them. New Democrats definitely continue to stand with them and speak out when their voices are unfairly silenced.
As for my personal journey, I started off as an 11-year-old child activist against human rights violations that occurred in many parts of the world, starting from the country I was born in, which is Sri Lanka. I was shot at as a child because I was born an ethnic Tamil, so I understand the importance of standing up for a people whose voices are silenced. I made a promise to myself that I would be one of the many voices for the voiceless people in the world.
Today, the people of Iran who want to speak out continue to be oppressed and continue to face censorship with respect to the Internet and the media. I was doing some research and I learned that Iran is actually the seventh most censored country when we talk about Internet access. This is from the website of the CPJ, the Committee to Protect Journalists. We also know that over 200 journalists are currently imprisoned in Iran, which goes to show how much our activists are working. I call journalists activists because they are putting their lives on the line when they are trying to report what is happening in their country. They are trying to get the message out to the world and their lives are at risk for doing this.
It is not just the journalists themselves, but it is also the journalists' relatives who are being put in a position of fear, continued intimidation and threats. To quote from CPJ's website:
In Iran, journalists' relatives have been summoned by authorities and told that they could lose their jobs and pensions because of the journalists' work.
It is not just the people putting themselves in the line of duty by being journalists who are being imprisoned or persecuted and prosecuted, but it is also their family members who just by association are now being threatened with the loss of their employment, their pensions and their livelihoods, just for the work these journalists are doing.
In a country as great as Canada, we need to make sure we are standing up and being that voice for the voiceless around the world.
I want to go through a bit of a timeline of some of the recent events in Iran, focusing specifically on the human rights angle.
In June 2009, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared to have won a resounding victory in the presidential elections. We know that all rival candidates who challenged the results alleged there was vote rigging. At least 30 people were killed and more than 1,000 were arrested in those protests.
In January 2010, Iran executed two men who were arrested during the period of unrest that followed the presidential election.
In July 2010, an Iranian woman was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, prompting, as we all have heard, an international outcry for support for the woman.
In January 2013, protests happened because 11 journalists were arrested and accused of co-operating with foreign media organizations in a targeted clampdown against the BBC and Voice of America.
Mr. Chair, time is short, but I have so much more to talk about. The violations continue. They include deprivation of the freedoms of religion, expression, assembly and democratic participation. As well there is the political imprisonment of not just journalists, but activists. We know there are also members of parliament who have seen their positions forcibly taken away from them.
I just want to also mention that in July 2014, Parliament dismissed Mr. Reza Faraji-Dana, a pro forma science minister, for supporting students and lecturers who were involved in the 2009-10 protests. It just goes to show that it is not just the average citizen of Iran but all levels who are being persecuted, prosecuted and imprisoned. As a country as great as Canada, we need to do everything we can to stand up and be the voice for the voiceless and continue to fight for human rights in that country.