Flirting With The Deadly Crocodile

"The responsibility for the current crisis in Iraq can be partly attributed to Iran, whose unqualified support to the Assad regime in Syria, to the al-Maliki government in Iraq -- which alienated the country's Sunni minority -- and to terrorists in the region has led directly to the rise of extremist militant groups such as [ISIL]."
Iran now finds itself in a situation where it is directly threatened by extremist Sunni groups."
"Iran is not a genuine partner, either in Iraq or in the region, and will work to undermine Western interests at every opportunity."
Department of Foreign Affairs note to Canadian government

"Iran has a long history as a bad actor in the Middle East. Iran provides military assistance to the Assad regime in Syria. Iran's supreme leader routinely threatens the destruction of Israel."
Member of Parliament Peter Kent, Conservative foreign affairs critic

"If the purpose is to deter terrorism to protect Canadians ... then the numbers have to be high to achieve this function."
"The phenomenon of terrorism is an extraordinarily damaging thing, so why wouldn't there be extraordinary awards to deter terrorism and those who sponsor it?"
John Laskin, Toronto lawyer

"These awards are absolutely rationally related to what happened to these individuals [victims of terrorism]."
"Maybe if one of the 30,000 people who work for the Ministryof Information and Security [the Iranian intelligence agency], as it's called, had put their mind to this instead of financing terrorism that letter [registering Tehran's objections to the international lawsuit] could have bee sent."
John Adair, lawyer for victims of terrorism

The current Liberal government which won the October general election in Canada is doing everything it can to reverse as many of the previous Conservative-led government's initiatives and accomplishments on various levels. Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper's mandate, the government of Canada recalled its diplomatic staff from Tehran, closing its embassy there, and at the same time invited Iranian diplomatic staff to return to Iran and shutter its embassy in Ottawa.

The Conservative government then listed Iran as a state that supports Islamist terrorism, and took steps to freeze and confiscate Iranian assets in Canada that were not diplomatic holdings. Which has left the way open for 90 terror victims from the U.S. and Canada to appear at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to launch a suit to collect on judgements upwards of $300-million as compensation from Iran for their suffering resulting from being targeted in terrorist attacks.

This is entirely legal, since the 2012 Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act permits claims to sharing Iran's assets in Canada [Iran's confiscated U.S. assets have already been distributed and exhausted] that have been officially confiscated as a result of the Islamic Republic of Iran's acknowledged sponsorship through training, equipping and financing groups such as their proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Syria.

One of the claimants had been kidnapped, held in the trunk of a car blindfolded and chained, then finally released after 755 days as a hostage.

Iran has hired lawyers to defend itself, asserting Tehran's state and diplomatic immunity, arguing that American judgements are unenforcable in Canada, since the amounts granted were excessive. This all comes at an awkward time for the new Liberal government which is prepared, according to statements from Foreign Affairs Minister Stephne Dion, to lift some of the sanctions imposed by the previous government aainst Iran "in a speedy fashion".

A 'speedy fashion', somewhat akin to champing at the bit is what European countries have been taking to, at the long-awaited opportunity to begin operating in Iran now that the nuclear agreement has been finalized. The anxiety to renew trade and investment opportunities by European corporations in the giant oil-and-gas-producing, human-rights-defying, Islamist menace to world stability is evident in news items outlining the scramble to prostrate themselves before visiting President Hassan Rouhani.

Pope Francis and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during their private audience at the Vatican, Tuesday

Even Pope Francis has opened Vatican doors to the Iranian president.

"We'll do it in the proper fashion, and we'll do it [lifting of sanctions by Canada against Iran] in accordance [sic] with our allies", said Mr. Dion, "[retaining some sanctions] to be sure that Iran will not have the capacity to be involved in nuclear military measures. So we'll certainly be very, very responsible." And so, taking an incremental approach, Canada is preparing to restore diplomatic relations with the crocodile-smirking Iran.

Iran has been of the strongest supporters in Iraq fighting ISIL, where Iranian al-Quds Republican Guard Corps officers advise Iraqi forces, where Iranian pilots have flown airstrikes and Shiite militia groups organized by Iran have been fighting the Sunni Islamic State group. An Islamist jihadi terrorist group that is the Sunni equivalent of Hezbollah, totally loyal to its Shiite paymasters.

The very state entity that Canadian intelligence and Foreign affairs officials have pointed out is largely responsible for the appearance of ISIL to begin with.

Whose unrelenting support for the Alawite Shiite Baathist regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad has enabled the tyrant to continue slaughtering Syrian Sunnis who have rebelled against their status as second-class citizens in their country of birth. Their five-year-long attempt to unseat Assad has resulted in the regime strafing, bombing, chemical-assaulting, barrel-bombing, starving out, torturing and blasting Sunni Syrian neighbourhoods to smithereens, with over a quarter of a million Syrian men, women and children perishing in the dread hell that has been imposed upon them.