Canada has violated a commitment for hosting a major international sporting event. But the NDP has stayed mum since it has supported this part of the US/Israeli aggression against Iran.
On Tuesday a delegation from Iran’s football federation was blocked from entering Canada. The head of Iran’s delegation, Mehdi Taj, was supposed to lead the country of 93 million at the FIFA 76 congress in Vancouver. Turned back at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, Iran’s delegation was the only one of 211 member associations blocked from attending a meeting that is part of hosting the World Cup. (Ottawa also blocked one member of the Palestinian delegation from attending.)
The stated claim for violating Canada’s commitment as World Cup host is that Taj was a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) several decades ago. It’s hard to find many details on Taj’s military service, but the news agency that led the charge against him, Iran International, reported that “his early trajectory began shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when he served as an intelligence commander in the IRGC in Isfahan.” Iran has mandatory military service and the IRGC has nearly 200,000 members so there are over a million former IRGC members.
Reportedly Taj has been in senior management positions at two different steel companies over the past few decades and has been at Iran’s football federation for two decades. Since 2019 Taj has been one of five vice presidents of the Asian Football Confederation. While it shouldn’t have any bearing on his ability to participate at a FIFA congress, Taj has reportedly called on Iranian football clubs to establish women’s teams and has promoted the women’s national team.
While the Iranian delegation is blocked, representatives from the US and Israel, which have killed several thousand Iranians in recent weeks, were allowed to travel to Vancouver (Russia also seems to have participated). The president of the Israel Football Association (IFA), Moshe (Shino) Zuares, likely served in the Israeli military and has recently talked about the football federation vising “IDF bases.” Over the past two and a half years the Israeli military has killed 100,000, including many Palestinian footballers.
Allowing US and Israeli officials to participate in the FIFA congress but not the victim of their aggression reflects Canada’s multifaceted support for the illegal war on Iran. On multiple occasions over the past two months Ottawa has criticized Tehran for targeting neighbours or blockading the Strait of Hormuz all the while ignoring the principal aggressor.
Denying Iranian participation in the FIFA Congress has drawn international headlines. It was on the front page of the Globe and Mail and a top item on CBC The National. The Conservatives have been raising the matter for days, yet the NDP has stayed mum. They’ve refused to oppose this Canadian contribution to the US/Israeli war or call on Ottawa to respect its obligations as host of the World Cup.
The reason is that the party’s foreign affairs critic, Heather McPherson has pushed for the policy used to justify the exclusion of Iran. In mid-January McPherson boasted about pushing to list the IRGC noting, “I secured a study at the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on the federal government’s refusal to list the IRGC as a terrorist entity, as well as the connection between people or assets in Canada and the IRGC… For years, I have advocated for stronger sanctions against Iranian leadership.” McPherson made these statements amidst the US military buildup in the region and two years into Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The decision to block Iran from participating in the FIFA Congress is another way Canada is backing the US/Israeli war. It should be denounced.
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