OTTAWA, ON (September 28, 2022): Following the brutal murder of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police, Iranians have taken to the streets to denounce the regime of the Ayatollahs. Before Amini’s killing and especially in the wake of it, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s experts have worked tirelessly to inform Canadians and the world about the Iranian people’s fight against despotism.
In the last week alone, MLI Senior Fellows Mariam Memarsadeghi and Kaveh Shahrooz have taken the lead in speaking out, appearing in national, international, and Iranian diaspora media outlets well over a hundred times. Outlets featuring their contributions have included the Canadian Press, CBC, the Hill, i24, Fox News, Global News, the National Post, and many more.
According to Memarsadeghi, Western attempts at “engagement” have been nothing short of appeasement, “which is a failure not just of our morality but of our national interest.”
Memarsadeghi and Shahrooz have also hosted panels, participated in podcasts, contributed to rallies, written multiple op-eds, and advanced ideas that have arguably pressured Ottawa to take a more serious line on Iran. Collectively, their message has reached an audience that is comfortably in the millions.
“The idea of an evolution in the Islamic Republic no longer has any currency,” says Shahrooz. He has made the case that people-led regime change is the only viable solution for Iran, and that Canada must show solidarity with the Iranian people.
“It is in the interests of Canadians for the government to back the region’s forces of modernity and stability, not recklessly pander to a clerical military regime that poses the greatest threat to peace and security,” notes MLI Foreign Policy Director, Shuvaloy Majumdar. “The Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions, terror adventures and brutal oppression are now being confronted by the women of Iran – who rightly demand that their allies take serious measures to help them replace tyranny with democracy.”
The many recommendations from MLI’s experts and authors have included:
- Listing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, as Ottawa has promised to do;
- Supporting efforts to bring human rights abusers and officials responsible for atrocity crimes to justice;
- Strengthening mechanisms to combat foreign interference, disinformation, and intimidation from the regime;
- Pursuing justice assertively for the victims of flight PS752, including by referring Iran’s actions to International Civil Aviation Organization and, if necessary, to the International Court of Justice at the Hague; and
- Abandoning long-discredited efforts at “reform” and instead opposing the regime while supporting the Iranian people, who are Tehran’s principal victims.
With experts like Memarsadeghi, Shahrooz, Majumdar and others leading the charge, MLI will continue to remain a clear and effective voice on these issues.
For more information or for comment on this important issue, media are invited to contact:
Skander Belouizdad
Communications Officer
613-482-8327 x111
skander.belouizdad@macdonaldlaurier.ca
