National Post

A POLITICAL GADFLY’S LATEST GAMBIT

FORMER GREEN PARTY LEADERSHIP CANDIDATE TURNS HIS ATTENTION TO … THE IRANIAN- CANADIAN CONGRESS?

- TERRY GLAVIN

It might seem an odd twist in the political career of eco- socialist gadfly, “anti- Zionist” activist and former Wall Street securities lawyer Dimitri Lascaris, but the recently failed federal Green party leadership contender has now signed up as a member of the troubled Iranian- Canadian Congress in a bid to shore up the “regime- friendly” ICC leadership against a slate of reform- minded opposition candidates.

Lascaris is urging all his allies to join, too, because, after all, there’s nothing in the ICC bylaws that stipulates that you have to be an actual Iranian- Canadian. “Any adult resident of Canada is eligible to join the ICC,” Lascaris noted in a controvers­ial Nov. 6 email he circulated to his friends and supporters. The point of his interventi­on, he said, is to help the ICC leadership stave off what he calls an opposition slate supported by “pro-sanctions and pro- regime- change elements on the right” that’s standing for election to the ICC board next month.

As you might imagine, this has ignited a furor among quite a few Iranian- Canadians. But Lascaris’ recruitmen­t drive has been taken up by quite a few people in the circles in which he moves: his Nov. 6 circular has been endorsed and redistribu­ted by such groupuscul­es as the Hugo Chavez Front, including one especially shrill Chavismo enthusiast who thanked Lascaris for standing up to the “zionazi Israel.”

Understand­ing how Venezuela and Israel figure into Lascaris’ interventi­on will require a bit of triangular explanatio­n.

Raul Burbano, a director of Common Frontiers, a group that devotes itself to “building internatio­nal solidarity in support of human and labour rights and democracy across the Americas,” circulated Lascaris’ appeal to his networks, approvingl­y: “You all understand well the importance of Iran’s support for Venezuela to break the blockade. If the Iranian Congress is taken over by rightwing factions, it would be disastrous. Please consider joining and voting.”

The opposition slate is not a “right- wing faction.” Its nine candidates range from the liberal centre to the left. Among the nine are the multicultu­ralism activist Farid Rohani, a prominent Iranian- born Baha’i personalit­y and an honorary lieutenant-colonel in the British Columbia Regiment, and Soushiant Zanganehpo­ur, a “social entreprene­ur” and business whiz kid who serves on the Harvard Business Review’s advisory council.

The upcoming ICC board election is fiercely contested. The ICC administra­tion was subjected to a strict and detailed Ontario Superior Court order on Sept. 14 to faithfully provide the ICC membership with financial statements, and sets out clear rules about how the Dec. 13 board elections are to be carried out.

It appears to have been Zanganehpo­ur who first noticed quite a few non-iranian names showing up on the ICC voters’ list, which the court order stipulates must be updated and provided regularly to candidates. It was awkward, Zanganehpo­ur told his supporters in a recent video, because it would be wrong to discourage spouses or children or maybe even close friends of the Iranian community from joining the ICC. But what was going on? “It may be a form of interferen­ce,” he said. “It’s concerning.”

When Lascaris’ email came to light, the mystery was solved, and a lot of Iranian- Canadians were not pleased. On Tuesday, Montreal visual artist and designer Aboozar Beheshti posted a petition calling on newly elected Green Party Leader Annamie Paul to “respond to this immoral attempt to influence a community to interfere in the election and compel Mr. Lascaris to retract his slanderous comments.” By Wednesday morning the petition had garnered 170 signatures.

Lascaris did not return calls from this writer by deadline.

The “slanderous comments” mentioned in the petition refers to an allegation in Lascaris’ recruitmen­t email that the ICC leadership’s opposition includes members of the Mujahedin-e-khalq, a fringe anti-khomeinist resistance group that was struck from American, European and Canadian terrorist lists eight years ago. “This is a crazy idea. And it’s a dangerous thing to say. It endangers the lives of these people and the lives of their families in Iran,” Arsalan Kahnemuyip­our, a lead organizer of the opposition slate, told me. “It is a reckless accusation. People get executed for associatio­n with the MEK. I was shocked to see this.”

Lascaris also claims the ICC leadership’s opponents include “individual­s who collaborat­e with B’nai Brith,” as well. Said Kahnemuyip­our, an associate professor at the University of Toronto Mississaug­a: “We don’t even know what this means.”

Lascaris, whose political career is pockmarked by strident anti-israel eruptions of various kinds, is currently suing B’nai Brith over what he calls an unfounded and libellous allegation that he is a supporter of Palestinia­n terrorism. B’nai Brith is a hard- headed Jewish community- service organizati­on that mobilizes fiercely around the pathology of anti-semitism in Canada.

And that’s how this latest venture into Iranian- Canadian politics is not an odd twist in Lascaris’ political career, after all. Khomeinist Iran is Israel’s sworn enemy. The ICC is widely known among Iranian- Canadians for adopting policies that are “hamsuyan,” a Persian term meaning aligned with, or at least simpatico with, the Khomeinist regime. A substantia­l body of opinion in the community wants the ICC leadership dislodged.

The Israeli- Palestinia­n conflict is what might be charitably described as a theme of Lascaris’ activist preoccupat­ions, and his eruptions have been interprete­d as anti- Semitic on more than one occasion.

Two years ago, Lascaris was roundly condemned by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, then- Conservati­ve leader Andrew Scheer and New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh for accusing Liberal MPS Anthony Housefathe­r and Michael Levitt of harbouring a loyalty to Israel that superseded their Canadian allegiance. Two years before that, Lascaris organized a motion adopted by the Green party membership in support of a “boycott, divestment and sanctions” strategy against Israel. The resolution was later overturned, but not before longtime Green leader Elizabeth May said the uproar was enough to make her consider leaving the party.

The just concluded Green party leadership race, which was narrowly won by Paul, a Black Jewish woman, was marred by outbursts of anti- Semitism. “Most of the attacks, most of the online hate that I’ve received has really been targeted at my Jewish identity,” Paul told Global News’ David Akin. Her closest challenger was Dimitri Lascaris.

The Green party leadership race was an unpleasant affair, and now that he’s recruiting his friends to intrude upon the Iranian- Canadian community’s affairs, the ICC election is shaping up to be every bit as nasty.

THE OPPOSITE SLATE IS NOT A ‘RIGHT-WING FACTION.’ ITS NINE CANDIDATES RANGE THE GAMUT.

 ?? Craig Glo ver / postmedia news files ?? Former Wall Street securities lawyer Dimitri Lascaris, a failed candidate for the federal Green party leadership,
has signed up as a member of the troubled Iranian- Canadian Congress.
Craig Glo ver / postmedia news files Former Wall Street securities lawyer Dimitri Lascaris, a failed candidate for the federal Green party leadership, has signed up as a member of the troubled Iranian- Canadian Congress.
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