Sanctioning and Isolating the Islamic Republic of Iran

"We want you to sanction all the oppressors."
"When Iranian women are fighting back the oppressors and oppressive laws, they do not hesitate to raise their voices."
"They risk their lives because they know freedom is not free."
Masih Alinejad, exiled Iranian journalist, author, activist, founder, White Wednesday

"[The worsening situation for women in Iran has intensified along with the] global resurgence of authoritarianism [representing an] unprecedented assault on human rights in Iran amidst a culture of impunity."
"We need to make the question of the massive domestic repression in Iran a justice and foreign policy priority on each of our government agendas as a matter of principle and policy."
"I'm not aware of any reasons that [government acting slowly through bureaucratic/diplomatic/legal "process"] should prevent the imposition of sanctions, unless there are some political or diplomatic considerations."
Irwin Cotler, former federal attorney general, chair, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights

In fact, political/diplomatic considerations do appear to have played a part in this Liberal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's foot-dragging in placing Canada firmly in the sphere of those civilized countries which abhor the theocratic, repressive, oppressive regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its support for Islamist terrorism. A country whose Ayatollahs maintain an iron grip on its population internally, and whose agenda includes using its terrorist affiliates like Hezbollah and Hamas to threaten and mount deadly attacks abroad.

"The Canadian government can play an important role in supporting us" against the "mafia regime" of Iranian theocratic dictatorship, Maryam Shafipour, sentenced to seven years for political activism, urged. The previous government of Canada under the Conservative-led leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper cut diplomatic relations with Iran, closed the Canadian embassy in Tehran recalling the Canadian ambassador and staff, and revoking diplomatic recognition of Iranian embassy staff in recognition of Iran's interference in Canada's internal affairs.

Ms. Shafipour would not be aware that the man she is appealing to for support, intended to restore diplomatic relations with Iran and stated as much when he became prime minister. Justin Trudeau professes progressive liberalism as his mantra alongside devoted feminism. While women in Iran and other repressive Islamist countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt chafe under state pressure to wear the chador, and hijab, progressive liberals champion the headscarf as a religious symbol for women in Canada.

The US has already blacklisted dozens of entities for affiliations with the IRGC [File: Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters]

Mr. Cotler a full decade ago mounted a campaign for Canada to ban the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps when he was still a Member of Parliament. Conservative leader of the Parliamentary Opposition Andrew Scheer has pledged that should he be elected prime minister in the forthcoming October election, he "will immediately act to list Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity, as well as make full use of the Magnitsky law to punish Iran's worst human rights offenders".

President Donald Trump this week announced that the United States has listed Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist entity under American law, a first-time designation for another country's government's military apparatus. Irwin Cotler held a press conference to air in a public venue once again the overdue need to ensure that justice is raised on behalf of Canadian dual citizens who have suffered under the Iranian Republic's Islamist regime.

A group of Iranian women at a vigil on July 19, 2003 in Montreal for Quebec-based photojournalist Zahra azemi, who beaten to death while in detention in Iran.   Marcos Townsend/Postmedia/File

Those Canadian cases include the torture death in Tehran's notorious Evin prison of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi in 2003; anthropologist Homa Hoodfar, imprisoned in 2016; Saeed Malekpour, an engineer from Victoria, B.C. since 2008. "This has become a part of Iranian diplomacy", Richard Ratcliffe, husband of British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe imprisoned for over three years in Iran, observed.

Shaparak Sajarizadeh, sentenced to 20 years in prison for the crime of leading protests for women's rights, granted asylum in Canada with her son, also appeared as a witness to Iran's infamous human rights abuses, at the press conference. There were 19 men whose names and positions listed for sanctioning by the government of Canada in recognition of their important roles in oppressing Iranians and supporting a government that threatens to annihilate neighbouring Israel, and which is determined to develop nuclear weapons.

Under the Magnitsky law brought into Canadian law in 2017 to honour a Russian lawyer who revealed massive corruption on the part of the Russian state colluding with friends and colleagues of Vladimir Putin, the 19 would suffer the ignominy of being listed and restraints placed upon their business interests and investments. They include Iran's ministers of Intelligence; Justice; the Interior; Culture and Islamic Guidance; Information and Communications Technology; and Science, Research and Technology. Included also would be the chief of the Law Enforcement Force, Prosecutor-General of Tehran, head of the feared Basij militia, Chief Justice and various senior officials.

Major General Hossein Salami, left, is appointed head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, on April 22, 2019. The Canadian government is being asked to list the unit as a terror group. Handout/khamenei.ir/AFP/Getty Images

Canada has for years led a delegation that yearly in the United Nations singles Iran out for condemnation in recognition of its many and horrendous human rights abuses. Mr. Cotler, known internationally for his activism on human rights issues, was joined at the Ottawa press conference by Members of Parliament representing all of Canada's major political parties.