Mr. Chair, I am thankful to the parliamentary secretary for her mention of a dissertation. I am hopeful that some day I will have the opportunity to do my PhD and do a real dissertation. However, today I am just standing up as a citizen of Canada who is privileged to speak in this House and provide my voice as one of the voices in this country to stand up for defending human rights in Iran.
Perhaps I will continue with what the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights mentioned on the situation in Iran. He issued two reports last year that:
...found an “apparent increase in the degree of seriousness of human rights violations” and expressed alarm at the “rate of executions in the country, especially for crimes that do not meet serious crimes standards.”... “no sign of improvement” on rights issues previously raised by UN monitoring mechanisms.
It just goes to show what the world knows at this point, and we need to ensure that we have the mechanisms in place and that we are doing everything we can to ensure that it is not just words in us saying that Canada stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of Iran in fighting for freedom and democracy, but that we are actually making sure our actions show that as well.