Mother raps PM over vow to rescue kids
Former husband took children to live in Iran
The mother of four Canadian children abducted and taken to Iran wants Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to back up his talk of concern for her children with some action.
Last month, Trudeau told the House of Commons that arranging for the safe return of Alison Azer’s children is a priority for his government.
Azer, however, says she has tried a number of times to convince Trudeau to speak to Iranian officials but without success. “Why hasn’t the Canadian government reached out to Iran directly?” she asked. “Trudeau could pick up the phone to Rouhani but he hasn’t.”
Hassan Rouhani is Iran’s president.
In August, the RCMP issued an arrest warrant for Azer’s former husband, Dr. Saren Azer, after he disappeared with his four children.
Azer, an Iranian-Kurd, at first fled to Iraq with the children. But Postmedia News has confirmed he has since taken the kids to Iranian city of Mahabad.
Azer’s mother, four brothers and four sisters live in the city.
The Canadian government has known about the whereabouts of Azer and the children, 11-year-old Sharvahn; Rojevahn, 9; Dersim, 7; and Meitan, 3, for at least a month.
The Conservative government broke off ties with Iran in September 2012. But Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion said a Liberal government will rebuild relations with Iran and is lifting a broad range of sanctions brought in against that country.
Alison Azer said she has contacted the prime minister’s office several times but her calls have not been returned. The prime minister’s office did not respond to a Postmedia request for comment.
In late March, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair questioned what Trudeau’s government was doing about the Azer kids. “I met with Alison here in Ottawa and she’s asking once again for the Canadian government to intervene and help bring her children home,” Mulcair asked in the Commons.
Trudeau said his government was pursuing the safe return of the kids. “Rest assured, that the safety of those children is a high priority for this government,” Trudeau added.
Azer said she finds it strange that when Trudeau was in opposition last summer he accused then Prime Minister Stephen Harper of showing a lack of leadership for not phoning the Egyptian president to push for the release of an imprisoned Egyptian-Canadian journalist.
“Now that Trudeau is in that position he could be doing the very same thing for four Canadian kids,” explained Azer. “Where is he?
Global Affairs Canada and the prime minister’s office have been flooded with letters from Azer’s supporters demanding the return of the children. Vigils have also been held across the country, with the next one set for Vancouver on May 7.
Azer suggested that the abduction might not be the highly positive story that Trudeau wants to be associated with. “I’m sorry my kids are not pandas,” Azer said in reference to Trudeau’s highprofile publicity event last month in which the prime minister cuddled two new panda cubs at the Toronto Zoo.
Azer said she has now received emails from residents in Mahabad, informing her the children have been seen in public and that her kids are under the care of her exhusband’s mother, Aysheh Pendareh, and two of his sisters, Shahla Mahmudi-Azer and Maheen Mahmudi-Azer.
But Saren Azer’s return to Iran raises new questions about his refugee claim that prompted Canada to award him citizenship. After arriving in Canada in 1994, Azer denounced the Iranian government and claimed his life was in danger if he were ever to return to that country. Azer also claimed to have been tortured by the Iranian government.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service raised concerns with the federal government at the time that Saren was linked to a terrorist organization, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, better known as the PKK.
WHY HASN’T THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT REACHED OUT TO IRAN DIRECTLY?