NO ACCOUNTABILITY FROM IRAN ON FLIGHT PS752
It isn't easy to determine what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne or Transport Minister Marc Garneau mean, exactly, or what they genuinely expect, when they talk about seeking “accountability” from the Khomeinist regime in Iran for the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 and the slaughter of 176 innocents last January.
For his part, Champagne used some uncharacteristically straightforward language on Tuesday in rejecting the Islamic Republic's attribution of “human error” to explain away the missile attack that brought down the plane and ended the lives of 55 Canadians and another 81 permanent residents, students and others with direct ties to Canada.
Asked by the CBC's Vassy Kapelos whether he accepts Iran's explanation, Champagne quite sensibly said that he did not, because there is no reason to do so. “I will question everything they say because I take nothing at face value,” he said, which is the only honest and realistic standpoint it is possible to adopt.
“I have questions, because there's too many examples that we've seen where ... they have not been forthcoming,” which is a rather less than forthright way of saying this: The Iranian government, from the moment Flight PS752 was struck by two missiles and tumbled from the skies above Tehran in a ball of flame, until today, has been lying through its teeth about what happened.
For three full days following the event, the regime's various official mouthpieces insisted that something must have gone wrong with the plane, that they had no idea what had happened, and only admitted to shooting down the plane when it became absolutely impossible to deny. And they've been covering up evidence and withholding evidence ever since. But what should anyone expect in the way of “accountability” from Khomeinist Iran?
Champagne's remarks followed the Tuesday release of former Liberal cabinet minister Ralph Goodale's 76-page report into the federal government's response to the disaster, which finds no room for mere “human error,” but instead points at “indications of incompetence, recklessness and wanton disregard for innocent human life.”
The word “accountability” is in the title of Goodale's report: “Flight PS752: The long road to transparency, accountability and justice.”
The report's main value may be its gripping and thorough account of the round-the-clock efforts dozens of dedicated public servants put into the heartbreaking work of providing services and solace to families of the victims in the immediate aftermath of the horror. And those public servants deserve all the praise Goodale gives them. His report is a tribute they all deserve, from senior diplomats to RCMP investigators to Farsi-speaking civil servants who volunteered their time to assist the bereaved.
Goodale makes several useful recommendations about how Canada can best respond to future air disasters and mass casualty events that involve Canadian fatalities. He also makes quite a few observations with respect to the uselessness of the International Civil Aviation Organization when dealing with rogue states like Iran, especially in “military shoot-down” aviation catastrophes. “The existing system is not well suited” to such events, Goodale observes. This is an understatement of the first order.
The trouble is that the ICAO assigns investigative responsibilities to the countries where the disaster has occurred. This would be fine, if Iran were a normal country. Iran isn't a normal country. It's a theocratic police state that isn't even accountable to its own people, let alone the international community. “The party responsible for the situation is investigating itself, largely in secret,” Goodale's report points out. “That does not inspire confidence or trust.”
No kidding.
Iranian airspace was left open and Iran's skies were alive with civilian flights throughout the time that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was lobbing rockets at U.S. targets in Iraq in retaliation for Washington's drone strike on IRGC major-general Qasem Soleimani, commander of the IRGC's terror-exporting Quds Force.
A recorded conversation between a Canadian victim's relative and the Iranian senior investigator, Hassan Rezaeifar — a conversation that might be best described as a threatening phone call from the regime — contains what can only be understood as Rezaeifar's candid admission that Iranian airspace was deliberately left open to conceal the IRGC's retaliatory missile strikes on American targets. This would place the victims aboard Flight PS752 in the role of human shields. This was no human error. And the IRGC is effectively controlling Iran's investigation into what happened.
“In the case of a military shoot-down, that means the very government involved in causing the disaster (Iran in this case) is in complete control of the safety investigation, obvious conflicts of interest notwithstanding, with few safeguards to ensure independence, impartiality or legitimacy,” Goodale's report found. “This undermines the investigation's credibility and enables a sense of impunity in avoiding essential questions. The ability of the international community to implement effective measures to prevent similar disasters is thus impaired.”
The capacity of the international community and the ability of the victims of the disaster to win any kind of accountability from the regime, it should go without saying, are also rather impaired. “Our Western, democratic approach to human rights, the rule of law, investigative and judicial independence, due process, transparency and accountability is antithetical to Iran's,” Goodale's report states. “Iran is identified in Canadian law as a state supporter of terrorism. The Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and several other surrogates are listed under our Criminal Code as terrorist entities.”
So how should we expect accountability from these monsters?
Ottawa says it is working to force accountability from Iran in co-ordination with Afghanistan, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Sweden — countries whose citizens are among the dead. But what does “accountability” even mean? Goodale's report makes several references to “a thorough and transparent investigation,” which isn't going to happen, and also refers to reparations, and compensation, and “answers to many vital questions,” which are not on offer.
And so all “accountability” is likely to mean, at the end of the day, is reparations and compensation.
Not justice, of course. Not even close.