Canada ... 'Engaging' With The Islamic Republic of Iran

"Engagement is not endorsement. Having an embassy, having consular services in a country does not mean we endorse the policies of that country."

"There are a series of countries with whom we have not seen eye to eye, to put it mildly, where we do not have representation. Iran, Venezuela [are] two examples. There are others."

"That puts us at a disadvantage, first and foremost, to helping Canadians that are in these countries."

"[In some consular cases Ottawa has leaned on countries that] aren't our natural allies [to help Canadians leave Iran]."

Prime Minister Mark Carney

 

"[The government is looking at alternative options to improve consular services for Canadians in countries like Iran]."

"We've taken no decisions, but we are looking at how best to serve Canadians, not only within this country, but internationally and that will be a process that occurs over the next number of months."

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand 

 

"Nothing about the regime has changed."

"The problem that Canada has with this regime goes much deeper [than geopolitics]."

"This is a regime responsible for flagrant human rights violations, and this is a regime with which normalizing relations may not be possible."

Masoud Zamani, lecturer in international relations, University of British Columbia

 

"[Reopening an embassy in Tehran could be part of a broader restoration of diplomatic relations, which could allow Iran to re-establish an official diplomatic presence in Canada]."

"What they want is a political footprint here in Canada through an embassy. I don’t know if we gain anything by allowing them to do that.  I don’t think that there is a real intention to do that."

"This issue of inconsistency in the positions adopted by the prime minister is itself quite a serious matter."

Kaveh Shahrooz, senior fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Protests erupted in Iran on 28 December 2025. People across the country, outraged at decades of repression, were demanding fundamental change and a political system that respects human rights and dignity. Iranian authorities have responded with an unprecedented deadly crackdown. Security forces have used unlawful force, firearms and other prohibited weapons, against protesters, which resulted in mass killings and serious injuries. Amnesty International

 

 Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper responded to the Islamic Republic's well-known abuse of human rights in Iran, and the regime's role as the foremost sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East by shutting down the Iranian Embassy and Consulate in Toronto, and withdrawing Canadian diplomats from the Canadian embassy in Tehran in 2012. Then-Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird declared the Iranian legation persona-non-grata in no uncertain terms. "Canada is committed to fighting global terrorism and to holding perpetrators of terrorism — and those who provide them support — accountable for their actions. Iran is among the world's worst violators of human rights. It shelters and materially supports terrorist groups."

 

When Mr. Harper left office and PM Justin Trudeau became prime minister, he mused about re-opening relations with Iran, despite that nothing had changed in the Islamic Republic's favour; it remained the stridently repressive government in Tehran, suppressing its public and enforcing strict totalitarian Sharia government, while its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps kept order along with its Basij branch, and its al-Quds arm continued training, funding and arming terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

 

Fast forward to the courage displayed by mostly young Iranians who spontaneously began to mount protests against the regime in December of 2025, demanding that it step down from office. Before long the protests spread from the capital to other areas of the country, with greater participation from the regime-hating population. The initial crowd-control protocols soon gave way to violence in the IRGC and Basij and national police responses, when live firearms were increasingly used to 'restore order'. In the end, an estimated 30,000 Iranian protesters were killed and many thousands arrested and tortured for their insubordination. 

 

Protests were also reported in several other provinces, including Kermanshah - Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Image

 

More latterly, with current prime minister Mark Carney musing publicly that Canada should consider reopening an embassy in the Islamic Republic for the sake of 'engagement' seems a stretch too far, even for him; restoring relations with the largest state sponsor of terrorism in a Canada that has become progressively less wedded to its traditional values of democracy, rule of law, public security, equal support for all its ethnic groups within its great ongoing experiment of multiculturalism and prepared to jettison its respect and support for the Jewish-Canadian community while sanctioning the viral antisemitism, anti-Israel fulminations of the now-more-populous Muslim-Canadian community.

 

The speedy, sudden growth of the latter demographic itself a product of Liberal-progressive permissiveness that has led to societal division, cultural-religious antagonism and public displays of illegal threats by one group against another which politicians and government institutions appear not to notice is fraying the mantle of multiculturalism held so dear by government that groups living in silos opt out of the normal social contract in the belief that cultural-traditional mores of racist invective are perfectly normal in a democratic society

 

Men stand amid rows of corpses in a morgue in Tehran following mass killings of protestors by security forces in this undated image obtained by Iran International

 

The Islamic Republic of Iran stands alone in financing terrorist groups whose oft-stated raison d'etre is the destruction of the State of Israel. This doesn't trouble the Liberal government of Canada, but understandably it does the Jews of Canada. All the more so that they are made victims of this new lashback of anti-Zionism/antisemitism that appears not to trouble mainstream Canada, much less academia and unions in Canada, all complicit with Palestinian student groups inciting hate against other Canadians.

 

Among other minorities, Canada has a substantial number of Iranian-Canadians within the population, many of whom arrived as new immigrants to Canada shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution. To these Canadians of Iranian birth, Canada has become a haven, but it is also more latterly, a country which, although it has placed the IRGC on a terrorist list, permits members of the IRGC and their families to enter Canada at will, to live or vacation there, while supporting the Islamic Republic. Their presence in Canada threatens the well-being of anti-regime Iranian-Canadians. This government is not interested.

 

It has been revealed that more than 700 IRGC members ore operatives are in residence in Canada. How they were able to enter, and how they are entitled to be resident in Canada is the Liberal government's little mystery, not to be shared to the public.  Who might ever have imagined that Canada has anything in common with a country governed by human-rights-abusing, terrorism-enabling, peaceful population protesting slaughterers?  

 

 

"Prime Minister, there’s a fine line between engaging the Iranian regime to further our interests - which you already have the tools to do under Canada’s controlled engagement policy, versus opening a mission, conferring legitimacy on a regime that brutally murdered more than 30,000 people just months ago. And a regime Canada has rightly designated a supporter of terrorism."

"If the clerical military dictatorship wants more structured engagement, it should take demonstrable steps towards earning that. Like actually divesting the uranium it enriched for warheads it continues to produce, ending its terror network also operating in Canada, and ending the repression of its own people."

"Having any Iranian presence in Canada would be a national security threat. Period."

Shuv Majumdar, Conservative Member of Parliament for Calgary Heritage  

 

Canada Going Along to Get Along with Iran in the UN on Human Rights

"From the General Assembly resolution 3379 in 1975, which called Zionism 'a form of racism'; through the 2001 Durban human rights conference; to the 2003 election of a representative of Libya's Col. Qaddafi as chair of the Human Rights Council, the UN's veneer of legitimacy has worn thin."

John Ivison, journalist, National Post 

The Security Council chamber at the United Nations in New York City. Photo by Spencer Platt /Getty Images

 

Once a year the UN's Economic and Social Council's [ECOSOC], 54 members which centrally coordinates the UN's work on economic, social and environmental issues, nominates a list of countries to join the UN Committee for Program and Coordination [CPC], which are generally confirmed. Currently the ECOSOC membership includes the United States, Germany, France, Spain, the United Kingdom and Canada, among many other countries. A week ago nominations for the CPC came up for debate. The Islamic Republic of Iran was one of those nominated. And the United States was the only ECOSOC member to dissent over its nomination, declaring Iran unfit to sit on the CPC.

 

In another month the CPC will take to reviewing United Nations programs that address gender equality, disarmament and terrorism prevention. Certainly, Iran knows a great deal about all three issues. And as a world-leader in abuse of women's rights, and the ultimate resistor-country to disarmament, as well as the globally-acknowledged leader in the promotion of terrorism, it could conceivably act as a poster for all that has gone wrong in human rights under its theistic rule. Other than that, what could it possibly add of any value to those items? 

 

Canada was one of the ECOSOC members, along with Germany, France, Spain, and the U.K. to rubber-stamp the Iranian nomination to the CPC -- and just coincidentally Iran had been elected to the group previously, in 2014, 2017, 2020 and 2023, as astonishingly corrupt as that might appear to any befuddled mind that continues to cling to the belief that the United Nations is a global institution whose mandate is one of promoting human rights and world peace. 

 

United Nations Headquarters   Image courtesy of Nils Huenerfuerst on Unsplash

 

The following Tuesday in the House of Commons, Opposition Conservative MP Michael Chong, foreign affairs critic, questioned Canada's supine agreement for Iran. Foreign Affairs minister Anita Anand informed  him that there was nothing Canada could do: "As the position was uncontested, there was no opportunity for a vote", she explained. But the opportunity was there to object and Canada failed that metric of responsibility. "Canada will continue to work closely with partners to actively counter Iran's candidacies in UN bodies and will do so on all occasions", she emphasized, having just done otherwise. 

 

But then, of course, she was only relying on the outstanding leadership example of the leader of the Liberal party, Prime Minister Mark Carney, to lead the way on sanctimonious cynicism, as when in January his speech in Davos included this humdinger: "There is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along. To accommodate. To avoid trouble. To hope that compliance will buy safety. It won't."

 

According to Canadian lawyer Hillel Neuer of UN Watch in Geneva, Anand's position  was "misleading". Canada could have acted with principle, but failed to. It had the opportunity to force a vote on the nominations, at the very least could have done what the U.S. did, to disassociate from the consensus that rubber-stamped Iran's committee membership, once again. The U.S. ambassador to ECOSOC made that abundantly clear, and included Cuba and Nicaragua. 

"To be clear, Canada joined the consensus in endorsing Iran and others, and it was not obliged to."

"I would say this is typical. Much of what happens at the UN is very cynical. If you want to be principled, you are going to be very busy and it is going to be unpleasant."

"Diplomats believe it is good to get along with as many countries as possible It is much easier to go along to get along."

"[Placing] serial abusers [at the helm of human rights at the UN is] like putting Al Capone in charge of fighting organized crime".

Hillel Neuer, UN Watch 

Iran secures UN role with backing from UK, France, Canada, Australia as US stands alone

 

Forging Trade Ties -- Forgoing Human Rights

"We highly appreciate the proactive stance of the new Canadian government in promoting the improvement and development of bilateral relations."

"Cooperation between the two countries in trade, energy, and cultural exchanges has yielded fruitful results, and has brought tangible benefits to the people of both nations."  

"Looking ahead, China and Canada should translate the important consensus reached by our leaders into concrete actions and work together to steer our relations back to  healthy, stable, and sustainable path." 

Yang Wanming, president, Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign countries 

 

"[While the world is going through] a period of profound global upheaval, an era shaped by shifting geopolitics and economic volatility, within this uncertainty, there is also opportunity."

"This is one of our most consequential trading relations."

"[Canada is committed to working with China] as we look to address trade challenges and advance cooperation to shape a forward-looking economic relationship."

"[We] can help China simultaneously meet its growing energy needs and climate goals."                                                                                                                                     Canadian ambassador to China Jennifer May   

Prime Minister Mark Carney shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the start of a meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Oct. 31. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

As the Canadian Liberal government wrestles with the trade and political relations problems the second iteration of a Donald Trump presidency in Washington has brought to the fore, the search for new international trade partners has seen Canada finding it suddenly expedient to warm relations with the People's Republic of China, after an interval of frosty relations. The reasons for which have been many and compelling. Not the least of which, but the most recent as it were, Beijing's interference in Canadian politics during elections.

 

There have been other recent issues; the arrest and detention and imprisonment of two Canadians in China known as the 'two Michaels' (Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor) in 2018, held for several years in extremely rough conditions as purported spies. This was an illustration of Beijing's 'hostage-diplomacy' in retaliation to the arrest of Huawai's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. warrant, for extradition to the U.S. to stand trial on criminal charges. Other Canadians faced charges related to drugs, leading to death sentences. 

 

Chinese cyber threats in Canada, the regime's threats against Chinese Canadians, its infiltration of academia, along with wholesale thefts of sensitive government and private industry initiatives, the most notorious of which was Nortel where former Chinese national employees lifted sensitive internal documents taken to China enabling groups like Huawai to profit from a successful global enterprise whose operations were repeated in China leading to the collapse of the Canadian firm.

Xiangguo Qiu wears a biocontainment suit while working in the containment lab at the National Microbiology Lab (NML) in Winnipeg. Qiu, her biologist husband Keding Cheng, and her students were escorted out of the NML in July 2019. Qiu and Cheng were fired in January 2021. The RCMP is still investigating a possible 'policy breach' reported by the Public Health Agency of Canada. (CBC)

 

Another operation of industrial espionage took place at the Winnipeg-based National Microbiology Laboratory linked to the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health, when two Chinese nationals employed at the facility, Dr. Xiangguo Oju and Keding Cheng, her husband, illegally sent vials of infectious materials back to China in 2019; they and their Chinese students were escorted out of the lab, on suspicion of stealth of scientific data which ended up at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

 

Relations between Canada and China under Liberal-led governments in Canada have always flourished. Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien led countless trade missions to China, and on his retirement from government working for a prestigious Canadian law firm, became their point man for China through his many high-level government contacts. Under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau relations were on-again, off-again, with his government yearning to restore trade relations despite setbacks.

 

The current leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and now current prime minister, Mark Carney, whose business background with Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. has warm, profitable relations with China has now once again reinstated relations with China. Mr. Carney has accepted an invitation by Beijing to visit China at "a mutually convenient time", for the purpose of strengthening bilateral ties; read that trade issues of immense importance to Canada, although for China these are fungible trade issues.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has committed to tackling ‘irritants’ with Chinese President XI Jinping as the two countries had their first formal leader-to-leader contact since 2017. Carney was also invited by Xi for a state visit.  Still from video/CBC

 

The Canadian embassy in Beijing arranged a reception to mark the 55th anniversary of the founding of diplomatic ties between Canada and China, co-hosted by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, a state-linked organization. At a meeting last month in the Republic of Korea, the two leaders, Prime Minister Carney and President Xi Jinping congenially agreed to reopen warming talks toward improved relations.

 

That meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Economic Leaders' Meeting in Gyeongju marked the first meeting between Canadian and Chinese leaders since 2017. The leaders "agreed that their meeting marked a turning point in the bilateral relationship", with both leaders directing their officials to work toward resolving outstanding trade issues, primarily seafood, canola and electric vehicles. They spoke as well of clean and conventional energy, climate change, manufacturing and international finance.

Even with strained relations, China is Canada's second-largest trading partner after the United States. China is the second-largest source of imports, second-largest export market. A thaw in relations between the two countries will certainly benefit Canada. In the same token, China's human rights record with respect to the Uyghurs...Canada went so far as to pass a motion in the House of Commons condemning the People's Republic of China for 'genocide' against its Uyghur population.

 

China takes advantage of both Canadian products and expertise, including education, financial services and sustainable infrastructure for clean conventional energy. Beijing is also interested in increasing energy resources such as oil and gas, from Canada. For China, it is Canadian raw materials and its abundance of natural mineral resources that draws its interest. For Canada it is finished products that come from China that form the bulk of its imports.  

"Fifty-five years [since former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau opened Canada up to China] is a milestone that invites us to reflect on our history, what we have achieved together, and how we navigated deeply complex and changing times."

"I want to be very clear that we are here to build this relationship and to build it strong."

Jennifer May, Canadian ambassador to China 

China controls the world's largest reserves of rare earth elements, and now it's tightening its grip. China's export restrictions are giving it powerful leverage over the United States and U.S. President Donald Trump is determined to catch up. Images provided by Getty Images, The Canadian Press and Reuters.

 

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories

 

"It is  unacceptable for any official -- independent or not -- to engage in Holocaust distortion."

"This is harmful to Jewish communities and others in Canada and across the globe, which is why there have been condemnations of these statements from multiple countries, elected officials and organizations."

Special Canadian Envoy on Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons

"AS UN Special Rapporteur Albanese visits New York, I want to reiterate the U.S. belief she is unfit for her role."

"The United Nations should not tolerate antisemitism from a UN-affiliated official hired to promote human rights."

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield

 

"Francesca Albanese has a long history of using antisemitic tropes."

"It is absolutely baffling to me that the United Nations condones her behaviour and does not remove her from her position."

Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, Liberal special adviser on antisemitism

 

"The recent remarks by Francesca Albanese are unacceptable and incompatible with her duty of impartiality, probity and good faith as an independent Special Rapporteur."

"Antisemitism has no place anywhere."

Canadian mission in Geneva 

"We are calling on the Canadian government to deny her an entry visa, on account of her record of supporting terrorism and antisemitism."

"Given the repeated violent antisemitic attacks in Canada, Albanese's visit -- certain to fuel more hatred and support for terrorism -- poses a national security threat."

Hillel Neuer, chief, UN Watch

United Nations special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese has withdrawn from a Montreal conference featuring Charlotte Kates, the founder of Samidoun, a designated terror group

 

Francesca Albanese -- 'special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967' -- appointed by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations is recognized as an independent expert whose reports go directly to the administration of the United Nations. In October this independent expert on human rights spoke of Israel as the Third Reich, on a mission of genocide in Palestine, their goal to create a "pure race". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was compared by this human rights expert to Adolf Hitler, in July.

A requisite for any human rights position anywhere, is that the holder be seen and heard to be objectively neutral when approaching situations of controversial upheaval. Her outrageous and clearly antisemitic comments have garnered attention and condemnation from various sources who decry her overt bias which reflects a mind steeped deep in the oldest racism in human history. Canada's envoy in combating antisemitism, in condemning Albanese's Holocaust-comparison statements references the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism.

That IHRA definition is one that many countries of the world have endorsed, including Canada, yet it is obvious that Canada's commitment to the IHRA is on the 'virtue' level, entirely lacking the will or the interest in acting responsibly to reflect the IHRA. Its deliberately obtuse and oblivious reaction to the antisemitic flare-ups on the streets of Canada's cities across the country has failed to use existing laws on the prosecution of hate-mongers who commit to both verbal and physical violence in harassing and threatening the Canadian Jewish community.

And although Canada's officially appointed Liberal representative on antisemitism speaks loudly and clearly in support of condemning antisemitism, particularly in its current iteration of mass anti-Israel, pro-Hamas/terrorist gatherings shouting for Jews to 'go back to Europe' where they were exterminated by the millions during World War II, and condemning Israel for 'occupying' its ancestral geographic patrimony claiming it to be rightfully Arab Palestinian heritage 'from the river to the sea', he lacks the moral fibre to separate himself from the Liberal government which has permitted the volatile anarchy of Muslim rage to permeate society.

Canada's minister of foreign affairs, Melanie Joly, has no interest whatever in responding positively to the overtures of Jewish organizations to use the letter of the law to abolish the current racist-mongering public gatherings' ability to broadcast slander against Israel and the Canadian Jewish population. The UN's rapporteur on Palestine has embarked on a public relations campaign of speaking engagements in North America, her itinerary including appearances at the University of Toronto as well as the University of Montreal.

The controversial opinionated remarks assaulting the character of Jews were not confined to post-UN-appointment comments; long before her appointment, Albanese distinguished herself by emitting statements supporting anti-Israel, antisemitic sentiments. She is not oblivious to the uproar over her messaging addressing her obvious anti-Jew rhetoric, and claims to be misunderstood. Calls for her removal from the post she occupies at the UN have elicited a response from her; she is "deeply disappointed" international leaders "have been misled by spurious, recycled allegations against me. Criticism of Israel's actions and polici'es does not render one antisemitic".

Prior to her 2022 appointment at the UN, she had celebrated when the European Union had removed Hamas from a terror group designation in 2014. "America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust", she remarked in 2014. She joined her voice to the many justifying the October 7 atrocities as the understandable reaction of an oppressed people. "Today's violence must be put in context", she averred.

"The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in reaction to Israel's oppression. France and the international community did nothing to prevent it. My respects to the victims", she wrote in response to French President Emmanuel Macron's statement that the October 7 atrocities represented the "greatest antisemitic massacre of the century". Reports of rape and beheadings were unverified rumours, Albanese wrote, despite that the Hamas charter is explicit in its goal of destroying Israel.

This special rapporteur representing the United Nations' interest in the welfare of Arab Palestinians condemned the Hamas and Hezbollah leaders' deaths, characterizing them as "acts of aggression" -- murder. Yahya Sinwar's death struck her as "quite inhumane".

"We call on the Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Government of Canada to condemn Albanese's behaviour in no uncertain terms."

"Canada  must take a strong stance against any form of antisemitism, particularly when it emanates from individuals in positions of influence such as Albanese."

"Her presence in Canada should not be allowed to pass without a clear response from the government."

"Antisemitism, in all its forms, must be unequivocally condemned, especially when it is cloaked in the guise of human rights advocacy."

Centre for Israel and Public Affairs

Ayelet Levy Shachar, mother of 19-year-old Naama Levy, who was abducted by Hamas during the October 7 attacks, attends a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, on November 4, calling for the immediate release of hostages.   Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Canadians of Academic Distinction

"[The internal investigation ended with the employee being allowed to return to work with] the expectation they would comply with the college's policies and initiatives which support a safe, respectful, and inclusive learning and working environment."

"Further, they were expected to take care to ensure any future remarks could not reasonably be interpreted as celebrating violence against civilians."

"The employee proceeded to engage in activities contrary to the expectations laid out by the college and as a result this employee is no longer an employee of Langara College."

"We are focused on supporting those in our community who are living with immense pain over the continuing violence and tragic loss of life in the Middle East."

Langara College statement 

"She demonstrably failed in her obligation as an instructor to create a safe environment for all students."

"By dismissing Knight, Langara College has acted to ensure the safety of its Jewish and Israeli community and taken a stand against antisemitism and the glorification of terrorism."

Nico Slobinsky, spokesman, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

Natalie Knight, pictured centre holding microphone, faced criticism and calls to be fired from her academic job after a speech she gave at a pro-Palestinian rally in late October. Knight defended her comments as legitimate speech in the face of Israeli actions against Palestinians. (United in Struggle)

Claiming to have been reinstated to her position at a Vancouver college with no disciplinary consequences, openly pro-terror academic Natalie Knight announced to her followers and friends that Langara College in Vancouver placed her back on staff. "It means we won. It means I did nothing wrong. It means none of you are doing anything wrong", she said delightedly during a small rally. 

 

She had been suspended in November from her position as an English instructor and Indigenous curriculum consultant at Langara College. A video had circulated of her praising the Hamas massacre of over 1,200 Israeli civilians on October 7. She had appeared as a speaker in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery at an October 28 rally. There, she characterized the October 7 atrocities in southern Israel that took 1,200 lives and saw over 200 children, women and elderly abducted, as an "amazing, brilliant offensive".

By that time, details of the heinous crimes committed against innocent people living in towns and kibbutzim close to the Gaza border, and the horrendous events at the Nova Music Festival where over 300 young people had been raped, mutilated and slaughtered, had become public knowledge. She knew, as did her co-celebrants, the details of the savagery meted out on that day, and still found it in their moral code to celebrate the sadism perpetrated that day.

The event she spoke at was an All Out for Palestine rally sponsored by the Palestinian Youth Movement and Samidoun, representing two organizations known to openly celebrate the massacres, endorsing Hamas terrorism. Video and photographic evidence had emerged illustrating the inhumanity of the attacks including many images that the terrorists themselves had videoed in celebration of their unbelievable depravity.

Langara, two days later, placed Knight on leave, with the statement that the matter was "under investigation" and her views "do not represent those of the College". When she was temporarily reinstated the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, arguing for her initial suspension stated: "The college ha a choice to make here; to decide whether or not it is a safe school for Jews or not", CIJA spokesman Nico Slobinsky related to the news media.

At an earlier date, two days after the Hamas invasion of Israel, a former director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association herself stated "how beautiful is the spirit to get free that Palestinians literally learned how to fly on hang gliders", in reference to the tactic of some of the terrorists using paragliders to ambush the  Nova music festival. Harsha Walia was relieved of her position with the B.C. Civil Liberties, but went on an acclaimed speaking tour.

Both events reflect Canada's academia with its many apologists for the October 7 terrorism where students, faculty unions and tenured professors haven't  hesitated to justify the atrocities as an act of "resistance" -- "decolonization". Uahikea Maile, a professor of Indigenous politics at the University of Toronto wrote a social media post on October 7 that the ongoing attacks constituted "anticolonial resistance", suggesting similar violence should be visited on the rest of the settled world. He remains on staff as director of Ziibling Lab, the offiical Indigenous Politics Collaboratory at University of Toronto.

A 'law of war' researcher at York University's Osgoode Hall Law School, Heidi Matthews wrote a social media post decrying the "obfuscation going on about what the right of resistance looks like in brutally asymmetrical contexts". That was her comment on October 7. Osgoode Hall later touted her as an expert on the Israel-Hamas conflict. She wrote an op-ed entitled "Canada is hypocritical by not supporting South Africa's genocide case against Israel."

 

Natalie Knight is no longer an employee of Langara College, said the post-secondary institution in a letter to its students, staff, and faculty on Friday. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNG

 

 

Move Over, Ladies, the Trans Community is Entitled

 

"I didn’t quite understand why that was uncomfortable because I didn’t know I was trans at the time. I still thought I was a guy. Finding a ladies' gym was something that seemed really exciting, and now that I’m out, I understand why I was uncomfortable at the other place.”

"[I was just] extremely devastated [by the experience and felt very uncomfortable in the past working out around] a bunch of really buff guys at the university gym."

"I got a call…basically saying, ‘Sorry, we made a mistake, you’re not actually allowed to be here, but you’re more than welcome to use the co-ed facility."

 "I just hung up, because I mean, I was extremely devastated, there’s really no other word for it."

"[A]ll it takes is education. Once you understand trans women are women, trans men are men, non-binary people are who they say they are, it’s as simple as that. If you still feel uncomfortable after that, that’s on you, it’s not on me. I am who I am, it’s as simple as that. I just look different. That’s all."

"It was important to me to be in a place that would be, like, explicitly accepting, like, 'You are a woman, you're allowed to be here'."

"One of the trainers greeted me, and she was extremely kind. She could tell I was trans right away and said I would be welcome there, and explicitly said I would be safe as well, even hugged me."

Transgender woman Brigid Klyne-Simpson 

Brigid Klyne-Simpson

"We already have transgender people here, and all sorts of people, we’re not discriminatory at all."

"We’ve got staff that’s minorities, so, we’re not saying there’s no solutions, we’re looking for a solution and we’re not discriminatory people."

"So now you pick the comfort of the male who identifies as a woman … and anybody can go in there saying, 'OK, I identify as a woman, and I want to be able to go in there.' And so, do we pick the comfort of the transgender person, who may not be as comfortable with the co-ed gym, but at least that's an alternative, or do we pick the comfort of the young girls working out there that might not feel comfortable?"

Dale Nagra, owner, Bodyworks Fitness, Parksville, Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Peculiar events have been occurring throughout Canada of late; a shop teacher at Oakville-Trafalgar High School showing up for classes in outrageously outsize breast prosthetics with protruding nipples, wearing tight, sheer tee-shirts and the controversy that erupted from that episode when the school board and the school principal refused to react to the provocation. High schools can exercise their authority in mandating an 'appropriate' dress code for students, yet doing so for teaching staff seemed just too frightfully interfering, with the threat of being denounced as 'transphobic' should the teacher be admonished at his/her unprofessionalism.

 

In an earlier case, a man identifying as a transwoman appealed to the B.C. Human Rights Commission when an aesthetician refused a Brazil wax job demanded. The Commission ruled against the complainant, stating that a man identifying as a woman who was equipped with male genitals could not expect a cosmetic service that the complainant, Jessica Yanik demanded as a paying client. "... human rights legislation does not require a service provider to wax a type of genitals they are not trained for and have not consented to wax."

Jessica Yaniv filed human rights complaints against a number of B.C. home salons, alleging she was discriminated against when they refused to provide waxing services.

 

In the latest social travesty transwoman Klyne-Simpson is offended that the gym in question has a policy of accepting trans clients, but has rules and regulations that maintain such clients not be permitted entry to sole-female areas of the gym, where privacy for female clients is a matter of discretion respecting their gender, not their chosen identity. Having been rebuffed, in his/her wish to join the born female gym clients, Klyne-Simpson is musing about taking the gym to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

 

It would seem the Tribunal has a reputation of upholding many such complaints, encouraging British Columbians to file complaints where they are "denied services" related to "gender identity or expression". The B.C. Human Rights Code could serve to empower the Tribunal to order the Bodyworks gym to reverse its privacy-for-women policy and provide compensation to the complainant "for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect".

 

"Trans people deserve to feel safe, welcome & affirmed for who they are. Trans women are women -- period", stated B.C. parliamentary secretary for gender equality, Kelli Paddon. Canada is the first jurisdiction in the world to commit to certifying transgender status through casual "self-identifiction".  In 2018, B.C. changed its rules so that residents could request birth certificates, driver's licences and other documents from the province to identify their gender with a nonbinary "X".

 

"Each individual knows their own gender best, and today, I am proud that our government is recognizing this by taking landmark action", Grace Lore, then-parliamentary secretary for gender equity, Grace Lore, announced in 2018. Now, any British Columbian over age 12 can legally change to any gender by simply submitting a three-page form known as the Application for Change of Gender Designation. 

 

Has no one noticed? Dignity and respect for self-identifying male-to-female transgender individuals, while unfortunately dignity and respect for women whose gender at birth was female, see theirs rapidly eroding, with born-males moving into their territory, invading their privacy and competing both for attention and recognition competing against women in the sports field. In asserting the legality of human rights in support of transwomen, the human rights of all women is abrogated.

Canada is home to some of the world’s first jurisdictions to certify transgender status through a lens of “self-identification.” Photo by Getty Images

Got a Problem With TransTeachers?

"Oakville Trafalgar High School has been placed in a lockdown due to a threat made against the school."

"Investigation into the threat is ongoing at this time."

"Parents/students are asked not to attend the school."

Halton Regional Police Service

"We placed several bombs all over your school."

"We will destroy the entire city."

"We will not stand idly by as this woke ideology destroys the entirety of western society."

Part of 207-word message forwarded to ten email addresses

"Our school continues to be the subject of significant attention. The threats received today, yesterday, and in September have been issued by people emailing threats with the intention of creating a feeling of unease and fear,"

"We are also cognizant of the fact that these threats may be the result of copycatting, given the significant media attention. The unfortunate decision by individuals to deliberately harass and intimidate others is abuse and an erosion of personal safety and trust."

School principal Meredith Cammisuli and superintendent of education Jacqueline Newton

Halton Regional Police are investigating threats made against Oakville Trafalgar High School this week. (Jeremy Cohn/CBC)

This is neither the first nor the only threat of a similar nature that has been posted to the school and the school board over the inflammatory issue of an industrial arts teacher at the Oakville Trafalgar High School, north of Toronto, deciding to garb himself in women's clothing and a blonde wig. For a man transitioning to a woman this is not an unusual event now anywhere in the world we live in. What placed this event outside the sphere of most such events was his decision to wear outsize prosthetic breasts with prominent nipples under tight, revealing clothing.

His students were doubtless perplexed by this piece of performance art, and some among them possibly disturbed. With the proliferation of iphones and their excellent video-producing capabilities, videos of the event, along with stills were soon on social media, eliciting not only local, regional and nationwide attention, but reaction internationally as well. 

 

The teacher has received support, despite the outrageous costume, from the school administration and the school board. All of whom are understandably leery of provoking the ire of LGBTQ-2 groups and causing complaints to be lodged with the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

 

An image from a video taken at Ontario’s Oakville Trafalgar High School showing a shop teacher wearing enormous silicone breasts with visible nipples while teaching class. Photo by Twitter

"The HDSB has received significant attention online and in the news over the past few weeks."

"[The board] continues to handle this matter in a way that stays true to our values and commitment to Human Rights, respects the privacy and dignity of our students and staff, and with the safety and well-being of students and staff as our highest priority.

"While we understand the desire for information by the public, we will not and cannot publicly discuss any matter that identifies our staff directly or indirectly."

"We trust the public will understand the parameters that guide us."

Heather Francey, Halton and District School Board spokesperson

The threat, sent to the school administration, the school board, police and media email addresses went through an encrypted email service. It was an angry message from a crank, demanding the teacher be fired, and threatening the lives of school officials, emphasizing its goal to protect students. At a meeting open to the public that took place several weeks earlier chaired by the board, a petition of signatures of outraged individuals was delivered but it remained doubtful that its demands would be met either, given the attitudes of all involved with respect to human rights issues and trans-rights.

Local police acted swiftly in response to this latest threat, officers remaining at the scene, on Wednesday, investigating. The lockdown was lifted when police advised that the school "has been cleared by officers and is deemed safe". Police remained in the area to continue investigating the situation. "No injuries have been reported at this time, not have any explosive devices been found", explained a Halton police spokesperson.

There have been protest rallies, online memes, petitions and furious debates over the behaviour of the 'transitioning' teacher whose choice of costume while teaching students an industrial arts class initiated the brouhaha. A local issue whose bizarre content spread like wildfire to international media and was an embarrassment to the region. Despite the commotion and the indignation and the wishes of parents that the school enforce a dress code for teachers, this transitioning male has continued his unorthodox and baffling appearance in the same outsize prosthetic breasts.

Oakville Trafalgar High School in Oakville, Ont. Photo by Toronto Sun Staff/Postme

The provincial minister of education had requested that the provincial regulating body consider formalizing a dress code for teachers. In the interim the school board itself initiated a report, the results released at a school board meeting. The board concluded a dress code for teachers not be instituted in light of human rights concerns. Evidently the 'human rights' of trans teachers to make others uncomfortable and in the process provoke a dangerous situation, are sacrosanct, the civil/social rights of children in the education system, not so much.

 

Iranian Women Demanding Justice

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

"[Those who foment unrest to] sabotage [the country deserve harsh prosecution and punishment. Young people who] come to the streets after excitement after watching something on the internet should be] disciplined."

"[I was] heartbroken [by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody; a] sad incident."

"This rioting was planned. These riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime, and their employees."

"[I condemn protesters ripping off hijabs, setting fire to mosques, banks and police cars], actions that are not normal, that are unnatural."

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

 

"The regime's brute force [at Sharif University as] an expression of sheer fear at the power of education and freedom [must be condemned]."

"The courage of Iranians is incredible."

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock

The mass demonstrations over Mahsa Amini's death in Iranian police custody could create lasting change, say analysts.

 

A simple young woman from a small village in Iran's Kurdistan region, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini came to Tehran on a visit with her father and brother. She wore her headscarf casually, as was the custom in her village, never imagining it would be seen as a sacrilegious offence against the rules and regulations imposed on women throughout Iran, since in Kurdistan she had never before encountered criticism of her attire. But loose strands of hair became a criminal offence the Tehran morality police found serious enough to arrest her for.

 

Her desperate cries to her father and brother to have her released left them helpless and her in custody in a police van. Later, other women the morality police had arrested, sharing prisoner space in the van with her spoke of the guards beating the young women while she cried out in agony and fear. For some unknown reason her fear seemed to make her a target for their misogynistic rage. She would never see her father and brother again, nor would they see her alive.

 

Her family speak quite plainly of her death by beating in custody. While police authirties claim the young woman died of a heart attack. Iranians the world over are infuriated and join protests to express their anger at the Iranian clerical regime. The theocracy in Iran is facing popular opposition of a kind and volume rarely encountered. Leaving the regime to order the military, the Iranian Republican Guard Corps, the motorcycle brigade called the Basij to control the crowds chanting death to the regime. 

An image from social media which is claimed to show Iranian schoolchildren expressing dissatisfaction towards the country's leadership. Photograph: Twitter

 

Iranian women are vociferously protesting, marching in crowds of enraged people, chanting death to the Ayatollah, waving their headscarves in defiance, cutting off their hair in solidarity with their cause of liberation from the shackles of Khomeinism's Islamist regime. Schoolgirls are defiant, heckling and taunting the Basij, while their mothers and grandmothers clad in black chadors, the anxiety on their faces hidden, as they attempt to herd their daughters back home from school and away from the raging morality police.

 

Iran closed its Sharif Univ4rsity of Technology in Tehran with the announcement that only doctoral students would be permitted on campus following the turmoil of student protests. Police kept hundreds of students on campus, firing rounds of tear gas, while dispersing the protests. Plainclothed police arrested and detained hundreds of students, beating some university staff. "Suppose we beat and arrest, is this the solution?" rhetorically asked a column n a normally hard-line Iranian newspaper, the Jomhouri Eslami: "Is this productive?" 

The protests that began in Kurdistan, have spread throughout the theocratic country. From Tehran to far-flung provinces, with authorities desperate to bring an end to the riotous displays of anger with the regime, disrupting internet access, blocking social media apps. Across the Middle East and Europe, Canada and the United States, people are coming out in drove to protest in support of those doing just that in Iran. 

 

Women have been at the forefront of the protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini  EPA

 

Citizens of Germany, Poland, Italy France, Sweden, the Netherlands and other countries have been detained by Iranian authorities. Mahsa Amini, in her lifetime, would never have been able to imagine how important she has become in her country of birth. At least a hundred people have been killed while protesting her death, many more injured. Thousands have been arrested, leaving the regime frantic with apprehension. The size of the protests have motivated the regime to surreptitiously bring in Arabs to help restrain the protesters; hard-liners from Syria and Iraq, Lebanon and reportedly Palestinians.

Justice: Never Too Late To Start

"It means a lot to me because I have a feeling that justice is happening."

"It's a small step toward the justice we hope will be achieved: accountability for all those who committed violations [of human rights], including the criminals who killed my son."

Mariam Alhallah, Syrian refugee in Germany

 

"It's hard to talk about justice given that hundreds of thousands of people have been tortured and tens of thousands have died as a result."

"International criminal justice, universal jurisdiction always comes too late and it's never enough but… I would say it's an important step forward."

Wolfgang Kaleck, European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights

Syrians stood outside the court in Koblenz clutching photos of victims of the civil war    Getty Images

"For me, this is the first step in a very long way towards justice."   

"[Many stories have not been heard]. Either because they are still detained now - while we're talking, they're suffering torture and horrible situations in the detention centres. Or because they were murdered."   

"[And then], there were those who died as they tried to reach Europe, drowning at sea or freezing on Europe's borders."

Wassim Mukdad, Syrian refugee in Germany

Twenty-four survivors were co-plaintiffs in the case including Wassim Mukdad (L) and Hussein Ghrer (R) Getty Images

 

Anwar Raslan, an ex-intelligence officer for the Syrian Alawite regime of President Bashar al-Assad, -- where a Shiite minority rules over a Sunni majority, and raised a protest movement to a civil war where the regime barrel-bombed and chemical-bombed its Syrian population, killing an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people creating millions of refugees fleeing state-ordered military violence to quell a revolt of mistreated Sunni civilians -- was found guilty of murder, rape and crimes against humanity in a German court on Thursday.

Colonel Anwar Raslan had exited Syria, removing himself from the Syrian military, jointed the opposition, abandoning his country to seek refuge elsewhere, and ended up in Germany after his defection in 2012, being granted asylum in Germany in 2014. An investigation by German authorities of backgrounds of some of the estimated 800,000 Syrian refugees that Germany had welcomed in a mass shift of populations under duress, saw him arrested and stand trial.

It is a trial that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while denying that Syria had committed war crimes against its Sunni population, has watched with curiosity, obviously interested in the outcome. It is the West that was aghast at the criminal violence the Syrian regime inflicted on its people. And although Sunni Arab states in the Middle East were displeased with the violence that left half of Syria's population homeless, none chose to intervene, though President al-Assad was in bad odour with the region's Arab League. 

 

The Arab League now seems prepared to welcome him back into the fold.

Anwar Rasland was found guilty of 27 counts of murder, rape and sexual assault that took place at a Damascus prison operated by a unit of the regime's security services that he happened to be the head of. Germany's universal jurisdiction laws, allowing courts to proceed with prosecutions of crimes against humanity committed anywhere outside Germany led to this prosecution.

The UN International Criminal Court has been hands-off in prosecuting any within the Syrian regime, including Bashar al-Assad, because of the protective intervention of two of the permanent members of the UN Security Council; Russia and China. Making an example of Syria in respect of its horrendous persecution and lethal violence hurled at its dissenting population would headlight similar crimes committed by both China and Russia.

Supported by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, German prosecutors had gathered evidence from close to fifty Syrians since 2015, who had survived torture in Syrian prisons and who now live in Germany. They recounted truly terrible experiences where detainees were beaten, doused in cold water, raped, hung from ceilings for hours. Their fingernails were torn out, and torturers administered electric shocks.

The agonized screams of people being tortured rang out through the prisons constantly. Detainees spoke of their attackers in possession of specialized "tools" of torture, people whose sadistic streaks gave them huge enjoyment in the power of life and death they had over their fellow citizens in a sectarian-opposition conflict of uneven proportions; unarmed citizens languishing under the brutality of 'security' personnel at the orders of the state regime.

Ex-officer jailed for Syrian war crimes after landmark German trial    Reuters

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