“Sanctions kill”: Courage Coalition leads campaign telling Canadian lawmakers to end sanctions limiting health supplies sent to Iran
Photo Credit: (National Observer / Google Images)
Written by: Saada Patel
Iran’s crippling economy made it a hotspot for COVID-19, and US sanctions backed by Canada is making it worse.
“People are dying,” said one Twitter user to Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. “Please stop escalating the crisis.”
On May 4, Canadians demanded their country to end sanctions in Iran that limit foreign aid sent to help with the COVID-19 epidemic.
Many tweeted at local and national politicians using the hashtags #EndIranSanctionsCanada and #EndCOVIDSanctions.
Courage, a left-wing coalition in Canada, led the campaign to have people use the hashtags.
Among the Canadians who used the hashtags were Montreal-based musician and journalist Steffan Christoff and vice president of the Iranian Canadian Congress Pouyan Tabasinejad.
Courage said Canada must send foreign aid to Iran, take down sanctions in the country, and override US sanctions to help Iranian health officials amidst the epidemic.
In a country already in a crisis pre-COVID, Iran became a hotspot for coronavirus cases. In March, an Iranian died every ten minutes.
Iran has more than 107 000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 6,640 deaths, said Health Ministry spokesperson Kianush Jahanpur on Iranian state TV this week.
At this rate, an estimated 3.5 million Iranians will die by June, according to VICE.
After Donald Trump backed out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in 2018, he re-imposed strict economic sanctions on Iran. The sanctions cost Iran billions of dollars in oil revenue.
The annual inflation rate quadrupled and the economic slump sparked protests in the country.
Germany, France and the UK delivered medical supplies to Iran using a complex financial system designed to bypass Trump’s sanctions, which they opposed.
The UN also lifted their sanctions in wake of the pandemic.
But many other countries, including Canada, failed to come to Iran’s aid, for fear of being sanctioned by the US themselves.
Last month, the Iranian government lifted some lockdown restrictions and gradually reopened workplaces.
Working-class families in Iran spent their savings in the past two years due to the economic crisis, said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, founder of media company Bourse and Bazaar and frequent writer on Iranian politics.
With no jobs, rising food costs meant daily wage workers couldn’t afford groceries and other essentials.
In an interview with the news channel France 24, Batmanghelidj said this kind of dilemma forced the government to ease social distancing measures.
But one Iranian doctor said they were not ready. Also speaking to France 24, the frontline worker chose to remain anonymous because of his criticism of the government.
He said there was a shortage of masks in the first month of the epidemic.
Shortages in medication led to heart complications and blood vision among patients.
To make matters worse, the numbers shown to the world are a massive understatement.
According to the doctor, the actual death toll is much higher than reported thanks to testing kits that didn’t meet international standards.
He said patients that showed all the COVID-19 symptoms, and even had CT scans confirming they had the illness, were given “false negatives” from the test kits.
He was even forced to write “kidney failure” as the cause of death for one patient, even though it was only the underlying issue.
In a desperate attempt to save the economy, most of Tehran is back at work, but “you can’t put the economy before science”, said the doctor.
But as the cases rise and foreign aid is scarce, some say the Iranian government shares the blame.
Benham Ben Taleblu, a researcher on foreign policy and political issues, said the “poor, irresponsible decisions” of the Iranian government is what lead to the rapid spread of the virus.
Instead of investing in social services, they’re shipping weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen. In April, Iran said they launched a military satellite into orbit.
As for sending foreign aid, “It’s the priority and responsibility of every single government to put the rights and interest and values of their people first”, said Taleblu.
But the fight to end sanctions on Iran already turned global.
MPower Change, a US-based group of Muslims fighting for social change, called the sanctions “a form of war.”
As a result, a massive second wave of cases is expected to hit Iran.
More Articles