Written by: Yves Engler

Intimidating a diaspora organization for presenting to the foreign interference inquiry should be widely condemned. But the victims of intimidation contradict the dominant narrative, so it won’t be.

In Summer 2024, the Iranian Canadian Congress (ICC) presented to the Foreign Interference Commission’s Public Consultation Process and Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue. Seven members of the Iranian community detailed pressure they’ve faced from supporters of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), Tehran and Israel. The Foreign Interference Commission’s official summary of their presentation explains:

“Certain attendees spoke about being targeted online and facing harassment due to their advocacy for peace and against sanctions and war with Iran, explaining that those who voice such views are falsely labelled by some political groups within the Iranian Canadian community as disloyal to Canada, and subject to intimidation and harassment. Attendees described the chilling effect this has on a portion of the Iranian Canadian community, explaining that it silences people. Several attendees indicated that they have restricted or ceased their advocacy work, and that the ICC had lost volunteers, due to such harassment. Certain attendees described the negative impacts that the closing of the Iranian embassy in Canada had on members of the Iranian Canadian diaspora, including the expense and difficulties encountered in accessing consular services readily available to non-Iranian Canadians.”

In response to their presentation, the ICC has faced a new wave of harassment and threats from elements of the Iranian community threatened by a narrative that contradicts the notion the community supports North American aggression against Iran. The ICC’s President, Saideh Khadir, has been targeted with abuse online and in person. At a cultural event on December 21, 2024, the head of the most representative Iranian organization in the country was harassed by Pejman Asgari Gohar. In response to Gohar’s persistent threats, Khadir filed a complaint with the police.

Iranians Canadians who oppose war against Iran and want to restart diplomatic relations between the two countries are often threatened by proponents of the former king. Some Iranians outside the country want to return the eldest son of the last Shah, who has received CIA assistance and has largely lived in the US since the mid 1970s. (After playing a small part in the 1953 US/UK coup that returned the Shah to power Ottawa backed the king until he was ousted by popular protest in 1979.)

In early 2023, the “Crown Prince of Iran”, Reza Pahlavi, spoke at an event in Toronto that drew Pierre Poilievre, Deputy Conservative leader Melissa Lantsman and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Rob Oliphant.

Supporters of the MEK cult, which Canada previously listed as a terrorist organization, also target the ICC. An organization backed by Israel and Saudi Arabia, the MEK has recently been promoted by former interim Conservative party leader Candice Bergen and Senator Michael L. MacDonald. In recent years Stephen Harper, John Baird, Tony Clement, Judy Sgro and other Canadian political figures have attended MEK conferences.

It’s unlikely that Khadir or others associated with the ICC who’ve faced harassment will receive much support from the political or media establishment. Those attacking the ICC benefit from a remarkably anti-Iranian political and media climate.

Three months ago, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre called for Israel to pre-emptively bomb Iranian nuclear energy facilities, saying it would be “a gift by the Jewish state to humanity.” While slightly less bombastic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also justified violence against Iran and its 90 million people. For their part the NDP has participated in the Zionist/US empire campaign against Iran. Last month, NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson posted:

“Great news – Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi has been freed! Working with Iranian Justice Collective, I secured a unanimous consent motion in Parliament to impose targeted sanctions on officials from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court. Women Life Freedom.”

The top item on the Iranian Justice Collective’s X account when this author looked was a column in the Jerusalem Post calling for regime change in Iran from Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay, wife of former Conservative minister Peter MacKay. A half dozen posts below the article in the Israeli paper is a post from a senior fellow at the hard right Canadian-government connected Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Kaveh Shahrooz, stating “The ICC is a fifth column organization operating in Canada.”

On January 8, 2025, the five-year anniversary of the downing of flight PS752 from Tehran to Kyiv, Poilievre posted a statement ignoring the context in which Iranian forces shot down the plane. Five days earlier the US assassinated top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and nine others in Iraq in flagrant violation of international law. In response Iranian forces struck US bases in Iraq that day and were on high alert for a possible US counterattack. That context was ignored by the Conservative leader who noted, “five years ago today, 176 people, including 55 Canadians and 30 more who called Canada home, were murdered by the terrorist IRGC on flight PS752. We honour their memory and pray for the families whose lives were devastated as we fight for justice. The tyrants in Tehran will never prevail. The Iranian people will be free. And Canada will stand with them in that fight for freedom.”

The government statement on National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Air Disasters largely echoed Poilievre. In a sign of the anti-Iranian climate, January 8 was chosen to mark air tragedies even though the event in question happened 10,000 km from Canada with the flight on route to another country 10,000 km away.

(The first death in a flying accident in Canada took place over a century ago and there have been multiple crashes in, or on flights to or from Canada, that have left more dead.)

National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Air Disasters has effectively become National Day to Criticize Iran. In his statement on National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Air Disasters BC Premier David Eby said, “We continue to condemn all acts of terrorism and violence, and we support the federal government’s work to hold the Islamic Republic of Iran accountable for the attack on Flight 752.”

The political and media climate in Canada emboldens harassment and threats against Iranian Canadians who promote peace and diplomatic relations with Iran. A few questions: Whose interests does this serve? Is Iran the worst country in the world for its treatment of women? How about Saudi Arabia? Does Canada have diplomatic relations with that country? Why the double standard?

It would be nice if politicians who claim to be in favour of an independent Canadian foreign policy would think before they reflexively repeat U.S. and Israel foreign policy talking points.

Yves Engler is the author of 13 books. His latest book, available now, is "Canada's Long Fight Against Democracy”.

Editor’s note: The Canada Files is the country's only news outlet focused on Canadian foreign policy. We've provided critical investigations & hard-hitting analysis on Canadian foreign policy since 2019, and need your support.

Please consider setting up a monthly or annual donation through Donorbox.

More Articles

Featured