Donald Trump has deployed a “massive armada” to target Iran. At the same Iranian Canadians who don’t tow the official line are hounded. Still, leftist media berates the small few who refuse to echo a lawless genocidal apartheid state’s bid to weaken, even balkanize, its main regional competitor.
During a recent Power & Politics interview host David Cochrane apologized four times for previously interviewing Iranian Canadian Congress President Mona Ghassemi. In a live January 15 CBC interview with Cochrane, Ghassemi had the temerity to mention that sanctions and foreign intervention contributed to the protests and violence in Iran. In his Mea culpa Cochrane never said the Iranian Canadian Congress’ claims were “false” only that they diverged from the narrative he sought to promote.
As the imperialist public broadcaster debased itself, proponents of intervention harassed an Iranian Canadian professor for challenging their outlook. Activists have instigated a petition to press Concordia university to denounce professor Nassim Noroozi for posting, “This unverified number of ‘30,000 killed’ has been spread everywhere. This is another criminal propaganda whose aim is to downplay the genocide in Gaza, absolve Israel, and at the same time promote a military attack on an independent country, all at once.” For stating an obvious truth Noroozi is facing a campaign to “open a formal investigation” into her university employment.
As critics of the dominant regime change narrative face intimidation, some leftists criticize the principled few who refuse to amplify those beating the war drums. Recently, Canadian Dimension published “Iran and the death of politics. On ‘campism’ and the Western left.” Written by a Montrealer for a publication largely read by Canadians, the article ignores Ottawa’s contribution to the crisis. Canadian critics of ‘campism’ invariably ignore the most politically germane ‘camp’.
At an event I spoke at last week on solidarity with Iranians the author of the article, Pierre Luc Junet, said I support the Iranian government for proposing seven points (initially written up during the June Israeli/US attack on Iran) to re-found bilateral relations:
- Restart diplomatic relations with Tehran. Before winning office, the Liberals promised to reverse Stephen Harper’s policy but when Trudeau’s initial foreign minister, Stephane Dion, sought to renew relations, his plan was scuttled by the Israel lobby working through its allies in the Liberal caucus (Anthony Housefather and Michael Levitt).
- Remove Iran from Canada’s state sponsors of terror list, which Harper created in 2012 to hamstring future governments’ efforts to restart relations. If the US and Israel aren’t on the terror list, why is Iran?
- Remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from Canada’s terrorist list. This eighteen-month-old decision was a direct sop to Israel and should never have been made. If the Israeli military isn’t listed, why is part of Iran’s?
- Repeal a host of sanctions imposed on Iranian individuals and entities.
- Return Iranian assets that have been seized or commandeered in violation of international norms.
- Stop politicizing the flight PS752 tragedy. The Iranians erred gravely in shooting down the flight from Tehran to Kyiv with many Canadians aboard, but it was the US assassination of general Qasem Soleimani that spurred the tragedy.
- Apologize for contributing to the overthrow of Iran’s nascent democracy and initiate a full accounting of Ottawa’s role in the 1953 coup against Prime Minster Mohammad Mossadegh.
According to Junet, one backs the government in Tehran if they don’t support Canada isolating Iran in a unique way. (By contrast Canada won’t even apply its domestic laws towards Israel despite two years of live streamed genocide in Gaza and violence across the region.)
In his article Junet decries “campists” who engage in a “forensic hunt for foreign fingerprints”. But it’s not “forensic” work to read the Israeli media and a former Secretary of State/CIA Director, Mike Pompeo, openly discussing Mossad’s role in stoking violence in Iran. A ‘campist’ investigator needn’t uncover “fingerprints” when video evidence shows Israeli/US hands all over the crime scene. The US/G7/Tel Aviv/Saudi axis are central to a multifaceted plot to weaken Iran’s government. It takes little work to discover their funding of media, imposing sanctions, assisting NGOs and arming separatists.
As is well detailed, Iranian living standards have plummeted due to the “maximum pressure” sanctions imposed by the US in 2018. The Rial’s devaluation has worsened since the 12-day Israeli/US war in June and the sharp currency devaluation in the weeks leading up to the December 28 protests was probably caused by active foreign manipulation. (Due to sanctions, Iran doesn’t benefit from the usual upside of its currency devaluing, which is cheaper exports).
At the recent World Economic Forum US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent boasted that US sanctions caused the recent protests. “President Trump ordered the Treasury and our OFAC division to put maximum pressure on Iran and it worked”, explained the well-known ‘campist’. “In December their economy collapsed. We saw a major bank go under. The central bank has started to print money. There is a dollar shortage. They are not able to get imports and this is why the people took to the street.”
The US and Israel have also funded and armed the opposition. A slew of Iran focused media outlets, such as Iran International, are foreign-funded. There are also innumerable Iran focused civil society and human rights organizations, including those widely cited on recent deaths, that receive National Endowment for Democracy and Western funding.
It’s an open secret that Mossad has long armed and assisted the MEK and Kurdish opposition groups in Iran. Israel’s Channel 14 recently reported on that country providing arms to protesters.
Israel wants to destabilize/fragment a country that checks the Jewish supremacist state’s military domination of the region. Iran’s support for Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations angers Tel Aviv and Iran’s ballistic missiles delt Israel a substantial cost for its belligerence in June. A BBC headline correctly noted, “Israel eyes regime change in Iran – and is counting on Trump to make it happen.”
Canada’s main apartheid and genocide lobby group, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, has an “Action Hub” on its website headlined “Stand with Iranians for Freedom from the Islamic Regime”. For their part, the National Post, Toronto Sun and other Canadian outlets openly applaud overthrowing the Iranian government.
Donald Trump has deployed what he describes as a “massive armada” to intimidate or wage war on Iran. Recent warships and fighter jet deployments is in addition to the 40 000 US troops already in the region.
Leftist Canadians shouldn’t want anything to do with echoing those beating the war drums. We should be doing everything possible to ensure Canada doesn’t once against support escalating the US/Israeli war.
Please sign this petition defending professor Nassim Noroozi from an effort to target her.
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