Hoodfar: ‘Wonderful’ to be home
Canadian-Iranian retired professor doesn’t go into details about detention
CANADIAN PRESS
MONTREAL — A CanadianIranian woman who spent nearly four months in prison in Iran was greeted with hugs and flowers as she landed in Montreal on Thursday and declared it was great to be back in Canada.
“It’s wonderful to be home and reunited with family and friends again,” Homa Hoodfar told a news conferenceatPierreElliottTrudeauAirport, a few days after being released from prison and flown to Oman.
Hoodfar, 65, said she feels frail and tired after her ordeal but that her health is improving.
The retired anthropology professor said she didn’t believe she was actually on the way home until she was aboard the plane out of Iran.
“I didn’t feel I would be released until I was in the jet,” she said. “As they say, in Iran, nothing is possible and everything is possible.”
And Hoodfar made it clear that returning to Iran is not in her plans.
“I think for a while I’m going to stay in Montreal,” she said laughing.
“I love the summer in Montreal and I miss the fact that this summer I didn’t have my geraniums.”
Hoodfar had been detained since June 6 at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison on allegations of “dabbling in feminism” and security matters.
The ex-Concordia University professor, who did not speak specifically about her detention, said the most difficult part of her imprisonment was not being able to speak to friends and family.
“Not knowing what is happening and knowing my family are very worried and not being able to talk to me,” she said, holding the hand of her niece, Amanda Ghahremani.
Hoodfar is known for her research on Muslim women in various regions of the world and there were suggestions Iranian authorities were particularly struck by her research on homosexuality and women’s sexuality in the context of Muslim countries.
She travelled to Iran in February to see family and do academic research but was arrested in March, just as she was set to return to Montreal. She was released on bail and then rearrested in early June.
But although she won’t be heading back to Iran, Hoodfar said she wouldn’t be stopping her work any time soon.
“Not only has (my imprisonment) not stopped me from that, it’s opened me to new avenues I maybe wouldn’t havepursuedinthesamewaybefore,” she said.
Hoodfar even joked about her ordeal, saying she’d previously been media shy and reluctant to speak publicly about her work.
“Now you see what the Iranian government has done,” she said with a laugh, gesturing to the dozens of media assembled around her.
Her family had feared the worst in recent weeks, saying her health was deteriorating while in solitary confinement.
Since Canada has no diplomatic presence in Iran, the governments of Oman, Italy and Switzerland stepped in to help free her.
Canada has not had an embassy in Iran since 2012, when the Stephen Harper-led Conservative government cut diplomatic ties over Tehran’s contested nuclear program and other issues.
PrimeMinisterJustinTrudeausaid in a statement earlier this week the Canadian government had “actively” worked for Hoodfar’s release.
Irandoesnotrecognizedualnationalities, meaning those detained cannot receive consular assistance.
Trudeau also recognized “the cooperation of those Iranian authorities” who helped her cause.
Iran’s state-run news agency, IRNA, reported Monday that Hoodfar had been freed on humanitarian grounds.
Hoodfar’s supporters had pressed diplomats to discuss her case during the recent United Nations General Assembly in New York. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion met with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on the sidelines of the meeting last Wednesday.
On Thursday, Hoodfar thanked the governments of Canada and Oman, as well as the Iranian officials who helped to secure her release.
DAVID PUGLIESE
OTTAWA CITIZEN
OTTAWA — Senior Veterans Affairs bureaucrats were paid, on average, almost $15,000 each in bonuses even as they cut public service jobs, closed offices and faced off with wounded soldiers fed up with poor service from the department.
The 63 executives received, on average, $14,778 in bonuses during the government’s 2014-2015 fiscal year, according to newly released figures provided to the Senate. The maximum bonus awarded was $34,682.
The cash was paid out as “at risk pay,” which means the bureaucrats achieved results in their jobs. Such payments were up slightly from the 2013-2014 fiscal year when 58 executives received at-risk pay, the figures noted. The average award during that period was $14,322.
In addition, in 2014-2015, eight of the top bureaucrats also received their regular bonuses; that cash payout averaged $5,555 each. That type of bonus had also increased since 2013-2014 when only five executives received such payments. Then the average amount was $4,180.
The information provided to the Senate doesn’t include details on who received the cash but it has traditionally been the deputy minister, assistant deputy ministers and other executives. The figures do show that from 2005 to 2015 the maximum amounts being paid for at risk bonuses almost doubled, jumping to $34,682 from $17,430.
The number of non-executives who received performance pay also increased from 25 in 2005 to 53 in the 2014-2015 fiscal year. Their average payout was $5,323.
Liberal senator Percy Downe, whose question to the government resulted in the information being released, said he was surprised and disappointed about the payments.
The past decade has seen numerous complaints from veterans about poor treatment from the department. Those include breaches of their privacy by Veterans Affairs senior bureaucrats and denial of claims.
“It was a time when the department was having significant problems, closing offices, restricting benefits,” Downe said of the period covered by the payments. “The Privy Council Office decided that all these efforts were to be rewarded with bonuses, which would not only be shocking to veterans and their families but to most Canadians.”
Downe said the bonuses also count towards a bureaucrat’s pension, “so they are not only cash in hand, they are cash forever as a percentage of your pension.”
In March, Veterans Ombudsman Guy Parent released a report saying that families of ex-soldiers are kept in the dark about available programs and no one at Veterans Affairs is providing them with information.
Parent pointed out there is a lack of “direct and proactive communication with families” by the department.
Previously Parent raised questions about how Veterans Affairs treated families of former soldiers affected by the spraying of Agent Orange. He described the treatment as “scandalous” after federal bureaucrats denied the financial claims of spouses. Another of his reports pointed out that some of Canada’s most severely injured soldiers were not being told by Veterans Affairs about all of the benefits they were eligible to receive.
During the Conservative government, the senior bureaucrats at Veterans Affairs oversaw the shutdown of nine offices across the country that provided support to former soldiers. That policy sparked outrage among veterans.
The Liberal government is reopening the offices.
Downe said he believes the payouts send the wrong message. There has been a lack of leadership from the department’s senior bureaucrats, who live in Ottawa, while the department headquarters is in Charlottetown, P.E.I., he added.
“There is a disconnect between the leadership the department requires and the leadership they’re getting,” said Downe, who has a home in Charlottetown. “And when you see these bonuses, you wonder what these payments are all about.”
Information is not yet available for the latest round of bonuses.