Liberals support Tory motion condemning Iran
OTTAWA • Surprising the opposition, Liberals in the Commons passed a stronglyworded Conservative motion condemning the Iranian regime on Tuesday.
The move saw Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and much of his caucus rise to agree to “strongly condemn the current regime in Iran,” to call on the government to “abandon its current plan and immediately cease any and all negotiations or discussions” to restore diplomatic relations, and to immediately list a branch of Iran’s military as a terrorist entity under Canada’s Criminal Code — an action that not even the U.S. has taken.
Conservative foreign affairs critic Erin O’Toole admitted to being “a bit surprised” at this. Not least because Omar Alghabra, a parliamentary secretary focused on consular affairs, had stood up Monday to criticize the Tories: “to politicize consular cases for partisan reasons is unbecoming of the official opposition.” The motion had named two Canadians detained in Iran.
The Liberals’ decision to support the Tories in the vote on Tuesday marks a striking change in tone.
Trudeau came into power promising he would work on re-establishing diplomatic ties with Iran that had been severed by the previous government in 2012, a decision then publicly justified by concerns around the safety of diplomatic staff, although it didn’t seem to hinge on any specific provocation. Canada sent diplomats to Iran last year on two occasions, in May and in October.
“You’re right in identifying that it is a little bit different,” a government official said Tuesday afternoon.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the shift in tone has to do with the current detention of Canadian-Iranian citizen Maryam Mombeini, who in March was prevented from leaving the country with her two adult children after her husband’s suspicious death in prison.
Mombeini’s husband, Kavous Seyed-Emami, a professor and environmentalist, had been arrested in January on what his family said were bogus spying charges. In February, Iranian authorities alleged he committed suicide in prison.
“As Minister Freeland has said, including directly to Iran, until Maryam Mombeini is allowed to return home, her freedom will be the only topic of discussion we have with the Iranian government. … Minister Freeland has raised Ms. Mombeini’s case at the highest levels, including with Foreign Minister
YOU’RE RIGHT IN IDENTIFYING THAT IT IS A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT.
Zarif,” said Adam Austen, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.
The branch of the Iranian military that the motion says should be added to Canada’s list of terrorist entities, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is already under economic sanctions by the Canadian government. A faction of that Corps, called the Qods Force, is already on the list of terrorist entities. Last fall, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed economic sanctions on the revolutionary guard, but the U.S. does not list it as a terrorist entity. Neither does the United Kingdom.
“We passed the motion but it’s not like tomorrow they would automatically be listed. There has to still be a whole cabinet discussion and decision-making process,” the official said.