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rfmcdonaldThere have been some alarming reports about worsening Iranian-Canadian relations, connected to some rather startling statements by the Iranian cultural counselor in Ottawa about trying to mobilize the Iranian-Canadian community of more than a hundred thousand people as a third column. Foreign Minister John Baird has actually warned the Iranian government.
Going further yet, an Iranian-Canadian human rights activist who happens to be married to the Defense Minister called for the Iranian embassy to be shut down.
The apparent attempts by Iran to mobilize the Iranian diaspora behind its goals, as detailed last month by MacLean's Michel Petrou, is troubling even if--as Petrou thinks--this doesn't mean that the Islamic Republic is trying to recruit Iranian-Canadians as spies. I find the whole thing very alarming, not least since diasporas seen as having compromising connections to their homeland have fared poorly in Canada in the past irregardless of whether these connections actually existed. I suppose the Iranian government doesn't have much of an incentive to not risk disrupting the lives of Iranian-Canadians, but this doesn't lessen the Iranian government's irresponsbilitity.
Speaking out for the first time since news emerged of an alleged mobilization scheme outlined by Iran’s cultural counselor in a Farsi-language interview, Mr. Baird said his department will “watch very closely” and that Ottawa takes the counselor’s statements “tremendously seriously.”
“Iranian-Canadians left Iran for a better life in Canada,” Mr. Baird told reporters on Friday morning. “It is completely inconsistent with any diplomatic mission for the Iranian mission in Ottawa to interfere with the liberties they enjoy in Canada.”
In his interview with an Iran-based website aimed at expatriates here, Hamid Mohammadi urged Iranian-Canadians to “occupy high-level key positions” and “resist being melted into the dominant Canadian culture.”
Mr. Mohammadi, who estimated the Iranian-Canadian population at 500,000, said recent Iranian immigrants have “decisively preserved strong attachments and bonds to their homeland,” while the “younger second generation” is already “working in influential government positions.”
Most ominously, he mapped out how he says his country plans to recruit Iranian-Canadians under the guise of a cultural outreach program: “By 2031, the total immigrant population of Canada will increase by 64%, and the number of Iranians will increase due to birthrate,” he said. “So, therefore, we need to put into effect very concentrated cultural programs in order to enhance and nurture the culture in this fast-growing population. It is obvious that this large Iranian population can only be of service to our beloved Iran through these programs and gatherings.”
[. . .]
A leading Canadian expert on diplomacy told the National Post on Thursday that Mr. Mohammadi’s remarks reveal the embassy is violating the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which explicitly states foreign diplomats have a “duty not to interfere in the internal affairs” of a host state.
“From Canada’s understanding of international law, yes they are [breaching the convention] because they’re seeking to recruit and utilize a population of Canadian citizens in ways that are clearly an interference with Canada’s domestic affairs,” said Michael Byers, the Canada research chair in global politics and international law at the University of British Columbia. “Promoting Iranian nationals to acquire positions of influence in Canadian government smacks of more than cultural outreach … If I were minister of foreign affairs, I’d be calling in the [highest-ranking Iranian diplomat] and asking for a clarification because that kind of intent is illegal and improper.”
Going further yet, an Iranian-Canadian human rights activist who happens to be married to the Defense Minister called for the Iranian embassy to be shut down.
Cripple the Iranian regime in any way possible, outside of military intervention, human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam said Friday.
The Iranian-born activist and wife of Defence Minister Peter MacKay said she's against a military mission in the country, but that Canada should shut down the embassy in Ottawa to send a message to Tehran, the country's capital.
"I'm very much against the idea of military intervention on Iran, so I'm always trying to find ways of crippling this regime in other ways," Afshin-Jam told Robyn Bresnahan, host of CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning.
"And one way would be showing symbolically that they're not welcome. Among other things, I believe shutting down Iranian embassies around the world would send a strong diplomatic message back to Iran. And I truly believe, why should we be giving an embassy for those who imprison, torture, and execute innocent people?"
Afshin-Jam is a prominent human rights activist who founded Stop Child Executions, and met MacKay when she was lobbying the Canadian government to save the life of a young Iranian woman sentenced to death for killing a man who tried to rape her. At the time, MacKay was the foreign affairs minister.
Afshin-Jam says she's told MacKay what she thinks about the Iranian embassy.
"I've shared my views with him but I don't represent the opinion of the government or even my husband. I know there are reasons why they are keeping this [Iranian] embassy open."
The apparent attempts by Iran to mobilize the Iranian diaspora behind its goals, as detailed last month by MacLean's Michel Petrou, is troubling even if--as Petrou thinks--this doesn't mean that the Islamic Republic is trying to recruit Iranian-Canadians as spies. I find the whole thing very alarming, not least since diasporas seen as having compromising connections to their homeland have fared poorly in Canada in the past irregardless of whether these connections actually existed. I suppose the Iranian government doesn't have much of an incentive to not risk disrupting the lives of Iranian-Canadians, but this doesn't lessen the Iranian government's irresponsbilitity.
