At an event commemorating the Iranian regime’s brutal massacre of thousands of political prisoners in the summer of ’88, parliamentarians and human rights activists called on the Canadian government to list the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, in its entirety, as a terrorist organization; to sanction the major Iranian “architects of repression” responsible for the massive assault on women’s rights activists, environmental activists, journalists, and the like; to investigate Iranian government involvement in the funding of hate-inciting events such as al-Quds Day and the Ashura festival; and sustained pressure on the Iranian regime.
Dignitaries who participated at the event, which attracted about 400 people at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts, included former Justice Minister and Attorney-General Irwin Cotler, as well as Senator Linda Frum, Liberal candidates Ali Ehsassi and Michael Levitt, Conservative candidates Hon. Peter Kent and Costas Menegakis, MPP Michael Parsa, B’nai Brith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn and Justice 88 Chair Reza Banai.
Two witnesses to the regime’s crimes also spoke at the event – Roya Boroumand, whose father was assassinated by the regime on the streets of Paris, and Mehdi Aslani, a survivor of the regime’s 1988 massacre.
“The Iranian regime is intensifying its massive repression and criminalization of fundamental freedoms,” Cotler said. “Sanctioning the Iranian architects of repression will combat the culture of impunity and stand in solidarity with the people of Iran.”
“It is absolutely outrageous that hateful and racist attitudes can be peddled on the streets of a multicultural and democratic country,” Banai said. “Hatefests such as al-Quds Day and the Ashura festival should have absolutely no place in Canadian society, and our government must find out who is behind them immediately.”
“Human rights activists have long advocated the listing of the IRGC in its entirety as a terrorist organization,” Mostyn said. “It is absolutely imperative that the next Canadian government act on past promises and immediately implement this overdue classification.”
