Governing Wisely in a Time of Crisis -- or Courting Bought Votes?

"We're now sitting in August. We've had two extensions of CERB [Canada Emergency Response Benefit] with no change in eligibility. So if we're making that argument in April [government claiming its focus in aiding the population was on getting the money out the door as quickly as possible], I think it's a very different dynamic than five months later."                                                                      "There's a whole lot of people who don't need assistance or whose need is much less, who are not only getting assistance, but they're actually being made better off than they were last year."                                                                                       "We have a world class Department of Finance and I just have to believe that they were raising some concerns about the degree to which the approach we were using on so many of these new programs, was actually going to get money to people who needed it."                                                                                              "I don't know the rationale to send money to seniors who have household income of up to $200,000. We're not getting enough money to that single mom or single dad, who is in extraordinarily difficult circumstances. At the same time, we're giving money to people who again, I just think at best, their need is questionable."      Jason Clemens, executive vice-president, Fraser Institute (think tank) 

When the Canada Emergency Response Benefit was rolled out it was ostensibly and for all purposes meant to give badly needed financial assistance to the many Canadian workers who lost their employment as a result of the country shuttering schools, businesses and all commercial enterprises with the exception of pharmacies and grocers, as essential industries for obvious reasons. Questions soon began to arise when word got out that there was no caution and no oversight over the applicability of registrants for the CERB. And those administering the program were specifically told not to look too deeply into the applications to find issues of incompatibility with guidelines.

Infograph, Fraser Institute

In fact, whenever such applications clearly reflected that the applicant did not fall into the category of entitlement to receive the relief payments, instructions were to approve them regardless. Including thousands of applications that had been flagged as ineligible. In service to the greater issue of providing relief funding to people who needed it. That at some future date an investigation into entitlement under the guidelines would be undertaken, and any who had applied inadvertently or with the intention of defrauding the system, would be held to account, the incorrectly received funding to be returned to government coffers.

The newly released study by the Fraser Institute estimates that up to $22.3 billion may have been disbursed to people who would not have qualified for the CERB; those who had no real need of funding in the presence of the novel coronavirus and its unemployment fallout. CERB was one of several programs that the government had issued as an emergency measure to help Canadians cope with the extraordinary new world they found themselves in; laid off from permanent or part-time or temporary work with bankruptcy staring them in the face.

According to the study, $81.6 billion in COVID recession spending has been remitted to students, parents and seniors, along with people who found themselves peremptorily out of work when stores, restaurants and other small businesses closed as a result of the pandemic. CERB to the rescue. A program that seemed to make sense at its introduction, first launched in April when the country was in its second month of shutdown. Then came two extensions, with no change to the program such as revisiting eligibility rules.

Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post

Jason Clemens, coauthor of the Fraser Institute report, used Statistics Canada data in his analysis to determine the number of people who were classified either as dependent children or spouses in families with incomes in excess of $100,000. Had any of the people making application to receive CERB earned at least $5,000 in 2019, then lost income as a result of CERB, they would be seen to qualify for CERB. The study estimated a maximum of $11.8 billion may have gone out to  young people with part-time jobs, who are dependents in families with household incomes over $100,000 annually.

That is with the assumption a part-time income in 2019 was lost or had hours reduced in 2020 and those people applied for CERB. Another $7 billion could have been sent out to spouses in circumstances quite similar, living in families earning over $100,000 annually. Government could have chosen to make relatively simple, common-sense changes to the application form to disqualify people who were dependents where there was no diminished family income.

The top-up payments for seniors who receive the Old Age Security (OAS) pension and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, also went under the microscope in the study. Government, stated Mr. Clemens should have forwarded that funding to GIS (Guaranteed Income Supplement) recipients only [as without the GIS they fall under the poverty line], since the benefit was meant to specifically aid low-income seniors. The reality being that a senior couple can conceivably have a $260,000 annual income and still qualify for OAS.

Fraser Institute

Governing Like An Unquestioned Autocrat

"Justin Trudeau is walking out on Canadians in the middle of a major health and economic crisis, in a disgusting attempt to make Canadians forget about his corruption."                                                                                                               "At a time when Canadians are looking for stability and leadership. Justin Trudeau has given them corruption, chaos, and cover-ups."                                           Conservative leader Andrew Scheer

"Shutting down Parliament in the middle of a pandemic and an economic crisis, with a planned sitting next week and committees working hard to get answers and solutions for Canadians is wrong."                                                              "[Canadians] shouldn't be forced to pay the price for Mr. Trudeau's scandals."          "If the Liberal government continues to focus on helping their close friends instead of helping people, if they continue to be caught up in fighting themselves instead of helping families that are worried about their future, then we'll have to look at all options."                                                                                                                        Leader of the NDP, Jagmeet Singh

"It's time to get some grown-ups in Ottawa. The post-COVID debt hangover is reason enough to clear Trudeau's economically inept crew out of Ottawa as soon as possible. And given Trudeau's alleged WE malfeasance, his government's spending spree must be audited and some of its more erroneous pieces of legislation, which will only serve to sabotage Canada's economy by halting resource development, must be rescinded. Finally, a giant broom must sweep all the green radicals, anti-capitalists and Trudeau fanboys and fangirls out of Ottawa." Diane Francis, journalist, editor-at-large, author, Distinguished Professor, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Toronto 

Canada has a prime minister who believes in a post-national society. He sees himself as a progressive and states so frequently, invested in improving the lives of Canada's middle class, even as he is himself a member of the entitled elite class of Canadians, as was his Minister of Finance with whom the prime minister has just sundered ties. Up until two days ago, Bill Morneau was Justin Trudeau's choice to head the finance ministry. And then came the WE scandal where both men distinguished themselves by failing to recuse when a cabinet vote took place giving WE Charity close to a billion dollars to disburse financial rewards up to $5,000 to university students doing volunteer work.

The charity happens to be one with a close and cozy association with both men and their families, where Justin Trudeau's mother and brother were paid for speaking engagements at WE events, to a total of $300,000, and Mr. Morneau's daughter has contract employment with the charity. A charity whose board of directors had decamped over murky financial transactions, a charity which had laid off hundreds of employees, a charity which habitually honoured wealthy prospective supporters with paid trips abroad to visit at some of their charitable worksites.

Co-founders Craig (left) and Marc Kielburger introduce Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau as they appear at the WE Day celebrations in Ottawa, Tuesday November 10, 2015. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

But this was only the most recent of the scandals enveloping Canada's prime minister who had been found involved in harassment of of women despite his boasting of being a 'feminist', who had indulged in Blackface hijinks, who had initiated an unfounded investigation into Vice-Admiral Norman, second in command of the Canadian military, accusing  him of releasing secret documents to the media, who had accepted a family vacation on the private island resort of the Aga Khan, known to lobby for government support of projects in Canada, who had attempted to suborn the Attorney General's decision for a court trial against SNC Lavalin.

A current investigation into the WE Charity scandal by the Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner represents the third such investigation into Justin Trudeau's ethical lapses, the previous of which he had been found guilty, and the second for Bill Morneau, who had been found guilty of the first. It was, ostensibly, Bill Morneau's family trips to Kenya and Ecuador in 2017, which he only recalled in July of 2020 he owed the charity $41,000 for that embarrassed the prime minister, though he felt his family receiving payment from the charity for services rendered was quite acceptable.

 Justin Trudeau, House finance committee (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

In the end, Morneau announced his resignation as Minister of Finance,  hinting disagreements over fiscal matters caused a rift between himself and the prime minister, which it likely did, but speculation abounds that the real rift was occasioned by the WE Charity all-expenses-paid trips benefiting the Morneau family which just happens to be the wealthiest family ever to have held public office in Canada, that caused Trudeau unease, spurring him to ask for the resignation. The outrageous thing is that if Morneau is guilty of poor ethical judgement, his boss Trudeau is even guiltier, and if Morneau paid for his indiscretion with the loss of political stature, Trudeau most certainly has done so in excess and should leave office.

Chrystia Freeland, sworn in as finance minister by Clerk of the Privy Council at Rideau Hall.  Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Instead Justin Trudeau has appointed Chrystia Freeland, his recently-appointed vice-prime minister to take Mr. Morneau's place as Minister of Finance. A former journalist, Ms. Freeland has no experience in economics. And it was at this juncture that the Prime Minister decided he would prorogue parliament. A parliament that he has already, in essence prorogued, having decided despite the objections of other parliamentarians, to shut down for the past six months, in preference to remote sessions over Zoom.

With the prorogation, all government business comes to an end. Translating to three parliamentary committees, all looking into the perceived and real malfeasance on the part of Justin Trudeau in deciding that WE Charity was the only group capable of administering the $912 million Student Summer Jobs program, of which the charity would have kept $64 million, a project that did not go to tender and was, Mr. Trudeau continued to argue, the choice of the civil service, not himself.

Sincerely Ingenuous

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

"I knew there would be perception issues around this [family ties to a charity his government chose to distribute a $912-million student disbursement for volunteerism to]."

"At the same time, delivering a grant program to students who volunteer across the country has absolutely nothing to do with any work my brother or mother did with WE [WE Charity], and that's why there was no conflict of interest."

"We [Cabinet] pulled the item from the agenda so that we could be doing the right thing, the way."

"I wanted to push back and really make sure that everyone could say without a shadow of a doubt that this was…the way to deliver the program recommended by our outstanding and professional public servants."

"As Mr. Morneau [Finance Minister] himself highlighted, he apologized and he should not have accepted the elements of that, that were gifts."

"The idea that someone on their personal vacation would choose to support a good cause or get involved in helping make the world a better place is not something that we should reject or turn away from."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"Multiple ministers and senior officials have testified at the finance committee."

"Not one of them said that the prime minister pulled the WE proposal from the May 8 cabinet meeting and sent it back for further scrutiny."

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer

The Parliamentary finance committee in conducting their investigation into the highly unusual situation whereby a sole-sourced contract for a proposed Canada Student Service Grant was granted to a charity that happened to be supported and hugely favoured by the prime minister, his family, the minister of finance and his family, had invited quite a few individuals to appear before them in friendly question-and-answer settings (through remote video connection). Among others, a number of senior civil servants. From whom came the information that the connection between the Trudeau family and the WE Charity was widely known among them.

That, in fact, this specific charity and none other, catering to youth, inspiring youth to reach out and give aid to other youth in the international community much less fortunate, as well as speaking out against child labour and investing in educational opportunities for children living in abject poverty in developing countries, would be hugely favoured as a result, to be named the beneficiary of a lucrative contract. This was important because the prime minister insisted repeatedly that it was not he who arranged for the contract to be sole-sourced to WE Charity, but the civil service, and he was completely ignorant of their choice.

Until he no longer was, when he was finally apprised of his most favoured charity for which he had himself attended well publicized, popular and crowd-thick inspirational meetings, speaking to the adoring throngs of youth, taken with the message of dedicated volunteerism. Dedicated volunteerism is what the public witnessed when they listened to an enthusiastic Margaret Trudeau speak on numerous occasions to spellbound WE Charity supporters. As did her son, Alexandre, Justin Trudeau's younger brother.

However, they did so to the tune of remuneration totalling a third of a million dollars, where Margaret Trudeau herself banked $250,000 for her 28 inspiring speeches. The prime minister's wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, was another enthused volunteer and spokesperson for the charity. The finance minister's two daughters were also heavily involved with WE Charity, one a contract employee, the other a speaker. This is a charity that has, besides its charitable purpose, a for-profit arm, a real estate arm, a tourism arm, and an associated contract-signing arm separate from the charity itself, but signing for it.

WE Charity excels in extending invitations to wealthy donors for all-expense-paid trips to some of its overseas ventures. Mr. Morneau and his family accepted two such trips in 2017, one to Ecuador, the other to Kenya. By all accounts quite wonderful trips to see the good work of the charity in action, and to stay at luxury accommodation in a truly unique environment for a feel-good purpose. Mr. Morneau is a multi-millionaire. The trips his family took  were estimated to the value of $93,000. Mr. Morneau suddenly recalled, on the eve he was to appear before the finance committee, that he 'owed' WE Charity $41,000 in connection with those trips, and he speedily wrote a cheque, albeit 3 years after the events.

When he responded to questions at the finance committee investigation, Mr. Trudeau gave what he considered to be perfectly valid, explicable responses; among the most salient that his 'talented' family generously gave of their time, and that the connection between their being paid by this charity and the charity being chosen for a prestigious, high-profile vote-getting program was completely above-board. Nothing to see here, folks move on, because the prime minister insists there was nothing unethical; the cause unassailable, everyone involved well-meaning.

There are other Parliamentary enquiries into this situation in the offing. The Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner has committed to investigating Justin Trudeau and Bill Morneau, both for the third time, for ethics violations. On the two previous occasions, both men were found to have gone afoul of Parliamentary ethics. The entire situation is nothing more, nothing less, than business-as-usual for this Liberal government. A finance minister handling Canada's finances and handing out tens of billions of treasury for Liberal government COVID-19-related support to business and the unemployed and students, who cannot keep abreast of his own personal finances.

A prime minister who feels entitled to believe that anything he decides would be in the best interests of the country should go unquestioned, and to that end manipulated a situation whereby a second-tier opposition party agreed to support a motion to suspend Parliament for the duration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic roiling the world, until such time as a vaccine is discovered and widely available. Setting the stage for this prime minister to govern like a true autocrat whose decisions cannot be questioned. Had Parliament been fully restored, opposition parties would have been able to intervene in this situation.

The fact that the charity was in deep financial trouble would have been noted and questioned. Its real estate holdings, unusual in size and breadth for a charity would have been noted and questioned. Its default on its banking obligations would have been noted and questioned. Its firing of 400 employees would have been noted and questioned; after all, how could such an ambitious program such as the student grants be administered short-handed? Most telling of all, the resignation of the chair of the WE Charity board of directors would have been noted and questioned.

Former WE Charity Board Chair, Michelle Douglas 'testifying'

That most other members of the board chose to leave along with the chair should certainly have been a flapping red flag. Michelle Douglas too appeared before the finance committee to respond to questions put to her. She described feeling uneasy and puzzled that upon request and even after pressing, she and the board were unable to obtain copies of WE Charity finances. She was troubled by the precipitate firing of 400 employees which she felt to be completely inappropriate and unnecessary. When, in a telephone conversation with the Kielburgers she insisted on seeing financial records, the line went dead.

Subsequently she was requested to hand in her resignation. “It was our view that you don’t fire hundreds of people without very strong demonstrable evidence, and even then should explore mitigation measures to save jobs", she explained to the committee. "Instead, the executive team were dismissing employees with great speed and in large numbers."  As for payment to speakers, she and the board had been led to believe that all speakers did so voluntarily. "The WE Charity board always understood that speakers were not paid by the charity or the related organizations to speak at WE Day. The board made direct inquiries on this issue."

Co-founders of WE Craig (left) and Marc Kielburger (right) are seen on stage during WE Day California in Inglewood, California, U.S. April 25, 2019. The brothers spent four hours in front of a committee of MPs today answering questions about their role in the federal government's student grant program. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

Marc and Craig Keilburger, co-founders of WE Charity and all its stunningly complicated arms initiated work on administering the controversial Student Volunteer Grant program well before it had been approved to proceed by Cabinet. They had, they explained, been advised by departmental officials that they could feel free to incur expenses related to the disbursement program prior to to being informed the agreement had been formally awarded to WE Charity. Their haste, they explained, had nothing whatever to do with anticipating the $43-million profit that would come their way; they were assiduous in starting for the simple reason that delay would harm the program.

The idea was to get as many university students unable to find summer jobs during the COVID pandemic involved as soon possible, to enable them to have the financial wherewithal to pay for their forthcoming tuition when the university year commenced. And so, they overlooked the possibility that the agreement would not come through and they stood a chance of forfeiting any expenditures on their part, for the greater good of the country, because this is what they're all about; making the world a better place.

"That was a decision that they took because they knew how important it was to get this program going and they assumed certain risks in going forward and starting to spend on a program that hadn't yet been approved by cabinet and would not be approved for another few weeks", explained Mr. Trudeau, in their defence and his own. Ungenerously, the leader of the opposition, Mr. Scheer, responded "Why was WE so sure that they were going to be approved? Why were they told they could start charging expenses before the program was even approved?"

As for Justin Trudeau's forgiving attitude over Bill Morneau's ill-advised acceptance of an all-expense-paid trip hosted by a charity he and his family have generously supported, it's hardly surprising. Given that Justin Trudeau and his family were pleased to accept just such a trip whose invitation was extended by the Aga Khan for them to enjoy Christmas at his private island in the Bahamas. Justin Trudeau innocently described the trip as a gift from a family friend, and couldn't see what the fuss was all about. That was the first time that the Ethics Commissioner issued a rebuke for trangressing Parliamentary ethics when he was found to have violated sections 5, 11, 12 and 21 of the Conflict of Interest Act.

Minister of Finance Bill Morneau rises in the House of Commons to deliver a fiscal snapshot as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks on, Wednesday, July 8, 2020 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

WE Charity Manipulating Wikipedia to Glorify Its Reputation

 Craig, Marc Kielburger, Trudeaus: Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press

"This is highly unethical. This is doing something bad. This is violating the terms of service of any site that they're interacting with."

"As a veteran in the industry, I frown on all of this."

Robert Burko, CE Digital, digital marketing agency

"Similar to many organizations where much of their audience is reached online, for several years WE Charity has engaged firms to assist with general promotions including Search Engine Optimization (SEO]."

"In light of your message [investigative reporter enquiry], we are seeking further information about their specific practices."

"Although it is not a formal role of any individual and done very infrequently, WE employees have occasionally posted minor updates to Wikipedia pages to ensure factual accuracy."

WE Charity

"Every client that has ever been into the black market of buying traffic, buying reviews or manipulating the data ... has lost their search ranking, gotten called out for it, or had someone like you [newspaper investigative reporter] reach out and broken a news story about them."

"[The practice is both unethical and] unfortunately [common but organizations that use it often get caught]."

Maryan Golabgir, president, Digital Marketing Experts

"Someone needs to take a serious look at this article to give it an advertising screen ... Maybe lock the page afterward since a silly number of edits in the history is cleaning up corporate BS marketing."

"Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a soapbox."

Wikipedia editor, April 2018

Finance Minister Bill Morneau rises during question period in the House of Commons on July 20. Morneau is facing criticism for not recusing himself from cabinet discussions about awarding contracts to the WE organization. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

This would be, of course, the very same WE Charity in whose shenanigans Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau have been involved. Involved in a manner inconsistent with transparency in good government, involved to the extent that it represents a severe breach of ethical behaviour for Parliamentarians. Involved to the extent that the federal ethics commissioner is investigating both the prime minister and the finance minister, and their involvement in voting for a sole-source contract valued at close to a billion dollars which the charity was chosen to administer.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears as a witness via videoconference during a House of Commons finance committee in the Wellington Building on Thursday. (The Canadian Press)

Their profit would have been in the neighbourhood of $43 million or so, enabling them, it would seem, to be able to expand their burgeoning real estate acquisitions, a situation itself far from representative of most charities' activities. Finance Minister will now be put under the ethics microscope not only for failing to recuse himself in view of his personal relations with the charity, but also for the fact that the charity paid $41,000 for two Morneau family trips to WE facilities in Ecuador and Kenya in 2017, which he suddenly recalled, repaying the amount to the charity last week.

Canada's Liberal government had earmarked $912 million to be disbursed as student grants up to $5,000 for each student unable to find a summer job during the COVID lockdown, who would agree to volunteer instead in their community to earn a grant; $1,000 for every 100 hours of volunteering. Since the original announcement by the prime minister that this charity would undertake the administration of the student-volunteer summer program, questions have arisen regarding conflict of interests issues.

Margaret Trudeau speaks on stage at WE Day on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016, in Toronto. (Photo by Arthur Mola/Invision/AP)

That, for example, the prime minister's mother Margaret Trudeau being paid $200,000 for a series of 28 speeches on mental health, his brother another $30,000 for 8 speeches, and Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau accepting honoraria for similar presentation work with WE Charity. While entertainers who agreed to lend their talent and time to the Charity for appearances at special events, some of whom are struggling artists, received not a cent in recompense.

The puzzling issue of Wikipedia entries for WE Charity was the revelation that about 180 workers had been authorized and paid to manipulate Google's search algorithm promoting feel-good stories on WE Charity and its co-founder Craig Kielburger and to see that negative stories were hidden from view. The puzzle is who authorized them and paid them since the charity itself denies any such involvement. Yet who could benefit from such actions other than WE Charity itself?

One Toronto Star article on a $30-million investment by WE to "build a high-tech facility boasting a slate of programs geared toward grooming the fledgling concepts of socially conscious young entrepreneurs" was geared to be diminished in accessibility. Meant to bury negative stories about WE in Google's results was one CANADALAND report connecting WE to at least three companies known for using child and slave labour in their supply chains.

"By doing that, you're hiding it to like 90 percent to 95 percent of people who search for a given term and are not going to go past the first page", explained digital strategy consultant Alexander Thorburn-Windsor, of the anonymous employer who offered to pay some 90 different workers to manipulate Google search results in WE's favour.

Craig Kielburger and Marc Kielburger speak during "We Day" in Toronto on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2014. (Hannah Yoon/The Canadian Press)

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.