[URBAN NOTE] "Iranian-connected house in Toronto at centre of international showdown"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Jacques Gallant reported last month about how a piece of north Toronto real estate now features in a lawsuit regarding Iranian sponsorship of terrorism. As described at the time by MacLean's, this location back in 2010 was briefly the host of a controversial and apparently Iranian-sponsored Centre for Iranian Studies, so there clearly is some kind of Iranian state connection.

It’s rather hard to believe that the empty red-brick backsplit house on Sheppard Ave. W. with the overgrown grass and damaged roof finds itself at the centre of an international showdown.

And yet, a Toronto judge ruled earlier this year that the house, along with a commercial building in Ottawa, is “beneficially owned” by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and can be seized by victims of Iran-sponsored terrorism.

The ruling, which also named as defendants the Iranian Ministry of Information and Security and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, is just one of several cases slowly moving through Canadian and American courts, demanding damages for bombings and kidnappings dating back more than 20 years throughout the Middle East that have been linked to Iran.

Although it did not participate in any of the proceedings leading up to the March 17 ruling by Superior Court Justice David M. Brown, Iran is now fighting back and has retained Toronto lawyer Colin Stevenson.

The Iranian government maintains that the house at 290 Sheppard Ave. W. in north Toronto and the building at 2 Robinson Ave. in Ottawa are legally owned by active corporations, and that there is no evidence they were held in trust for Iran, Stevenson told the Star. He said Iran will argue state immunity. The next court dates are scheduled for December.